NDSU’s winning streak reached 39 games. That got us thinking

LARAMIE -- The movie Thor: Ragnarok was No. 1 at the box office the last time North Dakota State lost a football game back in November of 2017.

A gallon of gas would set you back about $2.56.

Post Malone topped the music charts with his hit "Rockstar," featuring 21 Savage.

OK, maybe it doesn't seem like it was all that long ago that the Bison failed to win a game, but in football time, that's an eternity.

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NDSU made its first trip to the loss column Saturday after a stunning 38-14 road setback at Southern Illinois. The three-time defending FCS National Champion Bison also saw a school-record 39-game winning streak fall by the wayside.

That was the third-longest mark in Division-I football history, trailing just Oklahoma (47 wins from 1953-57) and Washington (40 wins from 1908-1914).

It was a truly remarkable run for Craig Bohl's former team. And it got us thinking: What is Wyoming's longest winning streak in school history?

Well, that's a little complicated.

Why?

Because there are winning streaks and streaks without suffering a loss.

Let's start with the latter.

From the 1956 Sun Bowl victory over Texas Tech to Oct. 26, 1957, the Cowboys didn't lose one time during that 16-game span. The run started under Phil Dickens and went through the first five games of the Bob Devaney era in Laramie.

Wyoming cruised to a 10-0 record in '56 led by quarterback Larry Zowada, running back Jim Crawford, and receiver John Watts. The Pokes' defense pitched a pair of shutouts that year and held BYU to just six points in the season finale in Provo.

UW finished 19th in the national polls but wasn't invited to a bowl game.

In Devaney's first season, the Cowboys knocked off Kansas State in the opener and beat Montana State 20-0 in Billings. In Week 3, Utah State came to Laramie and battled the Cowboys to a 19-19 tie. That was the first time the Cowboys hadn't won a game in 14 tries.

Devaney's squad got back in the win column the following week with a 27-13 victory over Border War rival Colorado State inside War Memorial Stadium. The next week brought another nemesis to town -- and another tie:

Wyoming 0
BYU 0

The Cowboys' streak would come to an official end the following Saturday in Salt Lake City. Utah would pull away for the 23-15 win.

The longest win streak without a tie involved came back in 1966 and '67.

Lloyd Eaton's Cowboys would close out the '66 season on a four-game winning streak, including a 28-20 victory over Florida State in the Sun Bowl. The following season saw the Pokes jump out to a 10-0 start and a trip to the Sugar Bowl to face LSU.

That soggy day in New Orleans, Paul Toscano, Gene Huey, Jim Kiick, and Jerry DePoyster came up just short against the mighty Tigers, falling 20-13. Wyoming was ranked as high as No. 6 in the national polls that season after holding opponents to 10 points or less seven times.

If it wasn't for the "bounce pass" in Fort Collins, Wyoming would've carried a 21-game winning streak into The Big Easy that January day.

Wyoming's longest streaks without a loss:
1949-50: 11 games
1955-57: 16 games (two ties)
1966-67: 14 games
1995-96: 12 games

How impressive does that NDSU streak seem now?