Why Wyoming fans are ready to welcome BYU football back to Laramie

LARAMIE, Wyo. — The most iconic bar in town may surprise you.

It hangs from the ceiling at the Buck Horn, a popular watering hole in downtown Laramie just a half mile away from the University of Wyoming campus, ripped from a football goal post with a simple, framed explanation hanging below:

Nov. 13, 1999. Wyoming 31, BYU 17.

On an unusually warm autumn evening a quarter-century ago, upon toppling the No. 15-ranked Cougars (and preventing them from earning an outright conference championship), a rowdy sea of Cowboy fans spilled onto the field at War Memorial Stadium in hysteria, tearing down a goal post and marching it down Grand Avenue through the heart of Laramie.

“They don’t like it when you do that now,” Wyoming student government representative Rece Robertson said of the impromptu goal post removal. “But there will be a lot of energy and hype around town if Wyoming beats BYU this weekend.”

There’s already a palpable buzz throughout Cowboy country as the Cougars come to visit for the first time since 2009. The Buck Horn’s famous crossbar is just one reminder of how hot the historic rivalry once burned, and those fiery feelings toward BYU have never been forgotten.

“It was always such a dark, good rivalry,” Wyoming alumna Erin Rumsey said. “The whole state felt that BYU was a team we couldn’t beat. Sometimes we did, but usually we didn’t. Winning against BYU is a huge deal.”

The Cougars and Cowboys shared four conferences — the Rocky Mountain, Skyline, WAC and Mountain West — over an 88-year span. They’ve faced off on 79 occasions, with BYU holding a 46-30-3 series advantage along with a current nine-game win streak.

With Saturday’s contest between the two teams being just the third since 2010, I set out to gauge the rivalry’s current temperature around Laramie, mingling with dozens of students, alumni and locals around town to see if any hostility toward BYU still remains.

Long story short: It does.

Many individuals I spoke with declined to be quoted, though their colorful vocabulary would have been impossible to print anyway. While not every conversation was R-rated, the overwhelming consensus suggested widespread contempt for the Cougars even after all these years.

“I could never forget our chants against BYU — they should never be repeated or printed,” said Lee Feather, a ′77 Wyoming grad who traveled from the northern part of the state for Saturday’s game. “I honestly don’t know why we don’t like BYU. It’s just always been that way. … Disliking BYU is just part of being a Cowboys fan, even still today.”

Though Wyoming students still consider Colorado State to be their foremost foe, BYU still and will always register as a rival on campus, where hundreds of alumni are returning from all across the country to catch Saturday’s action. Given the excitement, you would hardly realize the Cowboys are 0-2 thus far on the season.

“I think it will always be a rivalry and the students will always consider it like that, just given the history of these two teams,” said Mason Riding, the sports editor for Wyoming’s campus publication the Branding Iron. “It just makes sense. There’s a lot of passion here when it comes to rivalries, and we get really excited for these games … especially just because it’s been so long since BYU has come to town, and it will probably be a really long time if they even come back again.”

I received a number of explanations for the continued angst against the Cougars. The win-loss record over the years is one thing, but BYU’s perceived arrogance in bolting from the Mountain West more than a decade ago is still a sore subject. Others claimed that LaVell Edwards-led teams played dirty or “held the refs in their pocket.”

“That 1981 game was so much fun,” Feather said of Wyoming’s 33-20 win over the No. 13-ranked Cougars. “Jim McMahon was such a turkey, I really hated him. Wins against BYU just stick with you.”

And then there is religion. “Christians in our community have a hard time with (BYU) for whatever reason,” Rumsey explains.

The Black 14 scandal is still a heavy chapter in school lore. Fraternity houses are currently flying flags with mild digs, and Wyoming’s Western Thunder Marching Band plans to change the lyrics to its famous “Beer Song” to poke light fun at BYU’s stone-cold sober status. “It’s out of love,” a band member insists.

One woman even took issue with BYU’s pregame alumni tailgate sponsoring a food drive to give back to underprivileged individuals in Laramie. “They think they’re so much holier than us, and it’s fake,” she ranted.

“(Wyoming fans) are not shy or afraid of talking trash,” said one male student who wished to remain anonymous. “You’re going to hear a lot of banter from the student section about that (religious) aspect, and there may be chants that are mocking the religion. … I don’t think it’s necessarily hate speech or anything like that, I just think it’s part of the rivalry that people get really into and (religion) is an aspect that plays into it.”

Even with all of the animosity, wherever it may be coming from, the Cougars’ return to War Memorial Stadium feels almost perfectly timed. With the Pac-12′s addition of four Mountain West schools — including Colorado State — Wyoming’s future seems to be in flux. Both its conference and rivalry outlooks are murky, and it would be easy for the Cowboys to be counted out of the new college football landscape.

“We’re definitely a much smaller campus and don’t generally get as many superstars; we’re always kind of (nationally) treated like the bottom of the barrel, which I don’t always think is fair,” Robertson said. “It will be a good feeling for the college and the community to have somebody in town (like BYU) that we’ve played constantly over the years.”

To many, BYU being back in town is an appreciated distraction from Wyoming’s uncertainty ahead, along with a reminder of torn-down goal posts, beating McMahon and other warm memories from the good ol’ days.

Clinging to such memories will be needed in a place like Laramie.

“Wyoming is never in the (realignment) conversation, their name doesn’t ever really get thrown around there,” Riding added. “With BYU coming in, it’s rejuvenating for everyone, especially if Wyoming wins.”