Stephen Meyers

stephenmeyers@coloradoan.com

LARAMIE, Wyo. — We arrive to town on a calm, balmy Wednesday afternoon, hop out of the car to stretch our legs and we receive a gracious Wyoming welcome before we can even shut the Subaru’s doors.

“Ah, a couple of greenies!”

The man, his name’s Gordon, clearly notices our car’s Colorado plates.

“Hey, you know the difference between a Wyoming cowboy and a Colorado cowboy?” Gordon asks before climbing into his small Ford pickup.

“With a Wyoming cowboy, the (manure) is on the outside of his boots."

The Border War rivalry is still alive up here at 7,165 feet.

BORDER WAR MEMORIES: A Hughes goalpost goes to Potts

Exchanging laughs, Gordon and I trade jabs, talk CSU and Wyoming football and share stories of recreating in Colorado’s forests. The glory days were 1960s Colorado, he says, when you could escape to the woods, not see another person and Interstate 70 didn’t need a toll lane.

Wyoming residents proudly brag about living in the nation’s least populated state, a place where dark skies still exist and cattle outnumber people by two to one.

There’s no professional football or baseball here in Wyoming, no other in-state university and no swanky cities.

But there’s the Pokes. And there's the battle for the Bronze Boot.

Third Street is lined with brown and gold University of Wyoming flags. Every window in Jacques 3rd Street Bar is adorned with the Wyoming Cowboys’ logo of the bucking horse and rider. Downtown Wednesday night, about 40 people clad in their brown and gold packed into the private dining area of Altitude Chophouse for Wyoming coach Craig Bohl’s weekly radio show with voice of the Cowboys, Dave Walsh.

“Anytime you get into the rivalry games, you know emotions are going to be high,” Bohl said of the Border War between Wyoming and Colorado State University, a rivalry that dates to 1899.

The rivalry has lost its luster over the years, as each school has (mostly) toiled in mediocrity since what could be considered the height of the rivalry in the 1990s. Back then, CSU and Wyoming were powers in the old Western Athletic Conference and fans packed the house at Hughes Stadium and War Memorial Stadium.

“Things have changed so much. The game is different, the towns are different. There’s still a rivalry, but I think it’s more the fans,” said Wyoming booster John Bard, who was a member of the 1966 Wyoming team that went 10-1. “I’m sure there’s a little bit of trash talking with players, but I think, for the most part, the teams respect each other. It isn’t nasty the way it used to be.”

Bard recalls the 1978 Border War, when CSU coach Sark Arslanian had the Rams enter through the student section on the east side of Hughes Stadium just prior to the opening coin toss, leading to a dramatic brawl at midfield that required about 50 police officers to break up.

“He (Arslanian) was always doing stuff like that,” Bard laughed. “You don’t see that anymore.”

Marilyn Engstrom, a longtime Wyoming fan and former associate director of admissions, said that when she was a student in the early 1970s, Wyoming fans kidnapped CSU's beloved Cam the Ram.

"You can't get away with wearing green and gold in Laramie during Border War week," she said.

About a decade ago, CSU quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt all but declared the Border War dead. University of Colorado was CSU’s rival, not Wyoming, he said. Sure, the game is important — the Cowboys are a conference opponent, after all — but it’s the Buffs who stir the pot.

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Many CSU students feel the same way.

"Oh, yeah, CU is the official rivalry for sure," said CSU senior Andrew Ortiz, a member of CSU's spirit group, Ram Ruckus. "That's the game people get most pumped about. Unfortunately, if we lose that game, people lose interest in the team. Most CSU kids don't even really think much about Wyoming."

Marty English, defensive coordinator for the Rams, said when he was on Wyoming's coaching staff, an administrator would say that even if the team went 1-11, the season would be considered a success as long as the Cowboys beat CSU.

"This is their Super Bowl; this is their everything game," said English, who coached at Wyoming from 2003 to 2011. "Well, it has to be as important to us as it is to them. And so I still see it that way. My approach is still that way."

Former Wyoming offensive lineman Jack Tennant said he understand's CSU's rivalry with CU, but never did he feel there was a lack of respect from the Rams for Wyoming and the Border War.

“I get it. That’s a big deal, but this game, we represent our state and they represent their state. That's a rivalry," Tennant said. "I remember driving to DIA at one point with some buddies. We got caught in bad traffic around Fort Collins and my buddy looked over and said, ‘Hey just another reason to hate Fort Collins.’”

You don’t have to worry about traffic in Laramie or anywhere in Wyoming, which is "all rural," Bard joked.

"You kidding me? Of course the cities are different," Bard said. "Completely different culture."

Wyoming's Albany County has seen little growth the past 45 years, its population rising from 26,431 in 1970 to 37,956 in 2015, Census data show. The state, so concerned with its slow population growth and aging population, last year launched Wyoming Grown, an internet-based recruitment program to bring back young people looking for careers.

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Meanwhile, Fort Collins and Larimer County, which makes about every “best of” list you can name, has ballooned in population growing from 89,900 in 1970 to 333,577 in 2015, shedding its agricultural background it once shared with Laramie in favor of beer, bikes and tech.

"I do know that they still come here for all their fun, their luxuries, all that kind of stuff. It’s just not the same there,” English said. “I know when that happens, it’s like anything, you kind of look around at what everybody else has and you don’t have or those kind of things; there’s some jealousy stuff there. There’s some want. And those harbor tough feelings.”

English said those feelings belong more to the fans of the respective schools, not the players, who only need to worry about the game.

“It’s the Boot. It’s a rivalry game and it’s the Boot,” English said.

Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors, recreation and sports for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or @XploreNoCo.

Border War glory days

1966 CSU 12, Wyoming 10

The “bounce pass” game. No. 10 Wyoming came to town 6-0, but CSU’s coach Mike Lude had a trick play up his sleeves he had been saving for the heavily-favored Cowboys. In the third quarter, Quarterback Ron Wolfe bounced a lateral to Larry Jackson, who reacted as if Wolfe had just thrown an incomplete pass. When Wyoming's defense relaxed, Jackson tossed a 36-yard pass to a wide-open Tom Pack for a touchdown, stunning the Cowboys, who finished the season 11-1.

1978 Wyoming 13, CSU 3

CSU coach Sark Arslanian had the Rams enter through the student section on the east side of Hughes Stadium just prior to the opening coin toss. This ruffled some feathers and an all-out brawl ensued at midfield. The game itself was anticlimactic, with Wyoming winning en route to a Western Athletic Conference title and berth in the Fiesta Bowl.

1990 CSU 17, Wyoming 8

Wyoming entered Hughes 9-0 and ranked in the Top 20, while CSU was 5-3 and desperately trying to impress the Freedom Bowl scouts on hand for the game. The game was a defensive standoff until the fourth quarter, when CSU linebacker Eric Tippeconnic intercepted a Tom Corontzos pass, returning it 33 yards for the clinching score. The Rams went on to finish 9-4, earning a trip to the Freedom Bowl — their first postseason game in 42 years.

1994 CSU 35, Wyoming 24

The goalpost game. With a sellout crowd at Hughes, an ESPN 2 TV audience and an improbable comeback, many consider this the defining game of the Sonny Lubick era. A mediocre (4-5) Wyoming team stunned the crowd of 35,514 by taking a commanding 24-7 lead in the third quarter. But CSU punter Matt McDougal faked a punt and tossed a first-down pass to Andre Strode, igniting a rally for the Rams who’d go on to score 28 unanswered points. Delirious fans rushed the field before the final gun sounded and chaos ensued as the goal posts were torn down and carried down Elizabeth Street to C.B. & Potts.

1996 Wyoming 25, CSU 24

Wyoming fans call this one “The Drive.” The Cowboys, ranked No. 23 in the nation, drove 96 yards and scored on a Marques Brigham run from 6-yards out to escape Hughes with the victory and earn a berth in the WAC Championship Game in Las Vegas.