Pokes Football: Best of Colorado – No. 10
LARAMIE -- No other state has been more of a recruiting hotbed for the University of Wyoming than Colorado.
This list will prove that.
Numerous UW Hall of Famers, NFL stars and program record holders began their football journey in that square to the south. The Cowboys' top rival, Colorado State, overlooked plenty of these guys. So did CU. Air Force even whiffed a time or two.
Some just flat out picked Laramie over Fort Collins, Boulder and Colorado Springs.
This summer, with the help of some longtime Wyoming football followers, we will count down the Top 25 Colorado products in program history. As always, what these guys did in professional football doesn't matter. This is all about production in Laramie.
No. 10 - Joe Ramunno
Offensive tackle, 1981-84, Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Résumé in Laramie
Twice Wyoming offensive lineman Joe Ramunno was named an honorable mention All-American. He also started 47 consecutive games for the Cowboys, anchoring a front five that opened holes for running backs like Walter Goffigan and Dave Evans. His quarterback Phil Davis reaped the benefits, too, rushing for 575 yards during Ramunno's true freshman season. Per his 2015 UW Hall of Fame plaque, the Steamboat Springs, Colo., native paved the way for those stable of runners to average 3,073 yards on the ground per season. During his final two years on campus, Ramunno was named to the All-Western Athletic Conference First Team. He was also voted a team captain in 1984 and earned the Admiral Emory S. Land Award as the top senior athlete at UW. Ramunno, though on injured reserve throughout the season, was a member of the vaunted 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears.
About Steamboat Springs
No other town in North America has produced more Olympic athletes than the ski town Steamboat Springs. Home to more than 13,000 residents, this winter wonderland in the Rocky Mountains is just 124 miles from Laramie. Legendary sportscaster Verne Lundquist once called this mountain town home. So did South Park co-creator Trey Parker and a whole host of, you guessed it, US Olympians.
Pokes Football: Best of Colorado series:
Pokes Football: Best of Wyoming series
(Cody Tucker and Jared Newland both work for Townsquare Media, which owns 7220sports.com. Kevin McKinney has been a color commentator of Cowboy football for five decades. Ryan Thorburn now works for the University of Wyoming in a sports information role after spending decades in the newspaper industry, most recently at the Casper Star-Tribune. Sally Ann Shurmur, the daughter of former UW football coach Fritz Shurmur, is also a veteran of the newspaper industry, working as a journalist, columnist at the CST for 43 years. She currently writes for Cowboy State Daily.)
University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
Gallery Credit: 7220Sports.com
- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
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