Pokes Football: Best of Colorado – No. 12
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. 12 - Marques Brigham
Running back, 1995-98, Denver, Colorado
Résumé in Laramie
The running back from Denver is the sixth-leading rusher in school history with 2,605 yards. Marques Brigham's 25 rushing touchdowns is still good enough for seventh all time. In 1998, the lone year Brigham earned All-Western Athletic Conference honors, he scampered for 1,114 yards. He sits 10th overall in that category. Brigham is likely remembered most for a pair of singular plays in his Wyoming career. One, a fumble that aided in a Colorado comeback in Boulder in 1997. The other, a game-winning jaunt into the snow-covered end zone a year prior to give the Cowboys not only a Border War victory in Fort Collins, but a berth in the inaugural WAC title game in Las Vegas. Oh, and 16th-ranked CU ended up vacating that win anyway. Something about using an ineligible player on special teams.
About Denver
The state capital and most-populous city in Colorado, the Denver Metro Area is home to nearly 3 million residents. The city itself is estimated at around 715,000. Sitting in the shadows of the nearby Rocky Mountains, the Mile High City is the 17th most-populous area in the United States and the fifth largest capital city.
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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