The University of Wyoming’s mascot, Pistol Pete, was an enigma.
He had burst onto the football field with his gun, creating pandemonium and great cheers from the fans. With oversized attitude, hat and mustache, Pistol Pete faced down opposing mascots and encouraged wild support for the UW team.
Where he came from, no one seemed to know until John Waggener started chasing down leads.
“As the university archivist and historian, I am always poking my head into UW history,” Waggener said. “Traditions are a big part of that and Pistol Pete, of course, is a great Wyoming tradition.”
Waggener has been researching several UW traditions, like the popular fight song, but was unable to find out when Pistol Pete the mascot first arrived on campus. What Waggener eventually found, startled him.
Pistol Pete was originally a Spartan from an opposing team.
Rivals Face Off… And Run
Waggener discovered the origin story for the first Pistol Pete on the Wyoming Newspaper Project website and shared the story on wyohistory.org. In the January 14, 1971, edition of the Branding Iron in the “Ann on Athletics” column, the bold headline read, “Pistol Pete” Generates New Cowboy Fan Spirit.”
Waggener had finally found Donald Bogdan, the cheerleader who had created the Pistol Pete mascot.
“Two years ago, Donald Bogdan challenged Cowboy Joe to a duel on the football field before the Wyoming — San Jose State game in Laramie,” Ann wrote. “This year Bogdan is the loudest and most obvious Cowboy fan at University of Wyoming sports events.”
The story recounted by Ann was that before the game between the two schools in 1969, San Jose State student Bogdan, dressed as a Spartan, the team mascot, challenged Cowboy Joe and the UW fans by throwing a spear of war before the game.
“When Don ran out onto the field and threw his spear into the middle of the football field, it ticked off the Wyoming student section,” Waggener said. “They actually came down out of the stands and started chasing him.”
Bogdan ran up into the San Jose State section and hid out for the rest of the game.
This loud, unbridled reaction from the fans caught Bogdan’s attention and imagination.
“Bogdan’s favorable impression of spirit of Wyoming fans prompted him to come to Wyoming,” Ann wrote in the Branding Iron. “Now Bogdan threatens opposing teams’ fans with a gun loaded with a ‘Bang!' flag before Wyoming games.”
In his first year at UW, Bogdan had become the team mascot at the urging of Tom Lintz, Cowboy cheerleader. With the backing of Lintz, head pepster Susan Kamm and the athletic and publicity departments, Bogdan became UW’s Cowboy image, “Pistol Pete,” according to the columnist.
The columnist described “Pistol Pete’s” uniform as gold and brown chaps, UW leather vest and giant Cowboy hat donated by the Longhorn Saddlery.
“It’s about 120 degrees inside those chaps,” Bogdan said at the time.
According to Ann, Bogdan is ready on demand for any sports event or activity requiring “Pistol Pete’s” enthusiasm for UW.
The Man Behind Pistol Pete
Armed with the name of Wyoming’s first Pistol Pete, Waggener soon grew frustrated when he was unable to find Bogdan in any directories. Then the historian struck gold when he found a mention of Bogdan in a San Francisco paper.
It was an interview with professional cheerleader, “Krazy George” Henderson, about his career. Henderson was credited with inventing “The Wave” and mentioned that it was his college roommate, Don Bogdan, who first convinced him to be a cheerleader.
Waggener was able to get in touch with Henderson through his website and was disappointed to learn that Bogdan had passed away a decade before of cancer.
Undaunted, Waggener interviewed Henderson and learned more details about Bogdan and the 1969 game that led the cheerleaders to Laramie.
“Our first Pistol Pete grew up in the California Bay Area and went to San Jose State,” Waggener said. “At some point, Don and George started going to San Jose State games and started to just be unofficial cheerleaders in the stands.”
Their enthusiasm caught the attention of the cheer squad who invited the two students to try out as cheerleaders for the Spartans.
They were both selected and Bogdan became Sparty the Spartan Mascot.
He dressed in the Spartan attire, complete with a spear, shield and helmet. Just before the team traveled to Wyoming to play against the Cowboys, a controversy had broken out, creating what would be known as the Black 14 game.
Fourteen Black football players had wanted to wear armbands in protest of BYU not allowing black players on their team and to be priests.
Instead, the players were removed from the team.
“San Jose State considered not coming to Laramie and boycotting the game,” Waggener said. “If that would have happened, Don Bogdan would not have come to Laramie in a Spartan uniform and that may have delayed any chances of a future Pistol Pete.”
The team voted to play against Wyoming and history was made when Bogdan was chased off the field by Cowboy fans. Rather than deter the Spartan, Bogdan was impressed.
“He actually left Laramie with good vibes,” Waggener said. “He decided to get a master’s degree to be in vocational education and learned that Wyoming, at that time, had a voc ed program.”
In the fall of 1970, Bogdan became a graduate student at UW and went to his first football game.
The stadium had just nearly doubled in size with the addition of a new big upper deck and a nice big fancy press box but was a sad game, according to Waggener.
The star quarterback had drowned the week before the opening season, so the new additions were bittersweet.
“That was Don’s second game,” Waggener said. “The first was in 1969 as a Spartan, and now he’s a Wyoming Cowboy.”
It was at this game that Bogdan learned that Wyoming didn’t have a mascot as part of its cheer squad.
Pistol Pete Emerges
Bogdan put together a cowboy outfit complete with spurs, boots, chaps, vest, and a hat. The finishing touch was a fake pistol that shot out a flag that said “Bang!”
Bogdan then ran around the student section and was once more spotted by the cheer squad who invited him to join.
“I come from a place where you’re lucky to see 1000 people for a basketball game, and 4000 for a football game,” Bogdan told the Branding Iron. “There are about 4000 fans here over semester break for the basketball games, and there weren’t any students on campus.”
Bogdan said people were startled by “Pistol Pete” at first but now are getting accustomed to him. “At least ten alumni came to me after the UTEP game over break and commented that it was the loudest crowd they’d ever heard in the fieldhouse,” Bogdan said. “Pistol Pete” had plans for generating enthusiasm through special cheering clubs according to Ann.
Bogdan envisioned slide-whistles, kazoo clubs and the addition of more drum noise for increased spirit.
“Enthusiasm is the main requirement,” Bogdan said. “Lots of enthusiasm.”
Since then, over the past 55 years, Waggoner estimates there has been about 30 Pistol Pete’s and the enthusiasm for the wild and wooly mascot continues, just like Bogdan had hoped it would.
Saving Wyoming’s Obscure Traditions
Waggener said that many of the UW traditions, such as Pistol Pete, have not been well recorded and he is making it his mission to uncover more origin stories.
“Our traditions have not been well preserved because they aren’t official,” Waggener said. “They often happen slowly and organically and as a result, they’re not recorded.”
Another origin of a UW tradition that Waggener has uncovered is the logo of the original Pistol Pete.
The little bowlegged cowboy with his six-shooter pointing up was the brainchild of a company in Southern California. Around 1951, one of their artists created the character and sent the design to several universities.
“They specialized in collegiate mascot art and worked with the university bookstores,” Waggener said. “The bookstores, not the athletic department, are the ones who, because they sell merchandise, would buy the rights to the logo.”
The earliest that Waggener was able to find the logo being used by the University of Wyoming was from 1952.
The company sold the mascot to several other universities and eventually Wyoming and Oklahoma State got into a big feud about the logo.
“The University of Wyoming and Oklahoma State came up with an agreement,” Waggener said. “The other two universities no longer used the logo.”
Today, the gold and brown mascot, Pistol Pete, brought to life by Bogdan, continues to excite the crowds at games.
“I’ve met some of the greatest people here,” Bogdan said in 1971. “The potential for crowd participation is tremendous.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
