THROWBACK THURSDAY: Pokes Stun No. 11 Sun Devils, 45-43

LARAMIE -- Embarrassed. Humiliated. Pissed off.

Ed Ricks felt every single one of those emotions walking off the field that September afternoon in Lawrence, Kansas.

Get our free mobile app

The Jayhawks just rolled to an easy 52-14 victory inside Memorial Stadium. It was Wyoming's second consecutive lopsided loss early in the 1972 campaign. To make matters even worse, the 11th-ranked team in the country was rolling into town just seven days later.

It was gut-check time.

"We got killed," said Ricks, who was a senior offensive tackle for the Cowboys. "We had a team meeting after that game on Sunday and just said, 'We're better than this.'"

Surely Wyoming didn't stand a chance against visiting Arizona State and it's high-powered offensive attack led by a pair of future All-Americans in Danny White and Woody Green, right?

"Guys on that team, Ed Ricks and Nick Bebout, we never had that mentality," sophomore weakside linebacker Mike McGraw said. "I never had that mentality in my whole life. Now, it's going to be tough. Up to that point Arizona State was the team to beat in the WAC.

"If we take care of ourselves and we don't make any mistakes, we have a shot."

The guys in the home locker room may have believed in a miracle, but college football experts weren't on board.

Why would they be?

Arizona State was coming off three-straight conference titles and back-to-back Fiesta Bowl victories. Frank Kush's Sun Devils brought a 19-game league winning streak to Laramie.

That was modest.

Between 1969 and '71, ASU won 21 straight games, beginning with a 30-14 triumph over the then No. 15 Cowboys. The next two meetings were routs, the Devils throwing 52 points on the board in each.

Round 4 was sure to be a laugher. Sports Illustrated certainly thought so.

"Wyoming had given up 97 points to Air Force and Kansas, so when Woody Green and his Arizona State teammates arrived in Laramie the predictions were for a massacre, or worse. ASU was after its fourth straight Western Athletic Conference championship and it seemed the Cowboys might as well forfeit and save some hospital bills."

Steve Cockreham had other ideas.

Wyoming's scrappy 169-pound signal caller from Lusk, orchestrated the option attack to perfection that afternoon, rushing for 177 yards on a school-record 37 carries. He found the end zone three times on the ground. He also tossed a perfectly placed 51-yard touchdown pass over a pair of ASU defenders and into the awaiting arms of Scott Freeman on the Cowboys' opening drive.

Wyoming pulled off the 45-43 stunner, holding on for dear life in the second half, in front of 20,000-plus inside War Memorial Stadium. To this day the Cowboys have never beaten a higher-ranked opponent.

"It's one of the highlights of my career," Cockreham said. "The option ran exceptionally well, we were healthy and we were ready to go. That first touchdown set the stage. It lifted our spirits."

How on earth did they pull off this win?

No. 14.

"Cockreham had one hell of a game," McGraw said. "It's one of those games where the offense never let up. They just had so much talent. We caught them off guard in the first half."

That's an understatement.

Cockreham completed just 5-of-13 throws for 103 yards and a score in the upset, but he was named "SI's Back of the Week," among receiving other national and conference honors, for the damage he did on the ground.

Wyoming, unlike any other WAC team in those days (Air Force was an independent that ran a pro-style offense), ran the option.

It was perfected that day as the home team rolled up 575 yards from scrimmage on 98 plays. ASU, equally as impressive, scored 43 points on 48 snaps and only held the ball for 18 minutes all afternoon.

"I think Arizona State was basically overlooking us," Cockreham said. "They saw us struggle and get killed in the last two games and I don't think they were ready. We always knew they had potential, obviously. They were just loaded. It was just a matter of time. We could not let up and had to keep scoring -- and luckily we did. A lot of that, they never could figure it out. They overplayed us on the option and we could go the other way. They would run out of people.

"I kept thinking, they are going to figure this out. Thank goodness they didn't."

After the opening strike to Freeman, Wyoming would score on three of its next five drives, aided by an interception by Melvin Meadows that led to a 39-yard field goal off the right foot of Randy Hudman. Cockreham scored on a 4-yard keeper to begin the second quarter and fullback Stephen Brown capitalized on another ASU three-and-out with another 4-yard plunge into the end zone.

The Cowboys led 23-7 at the half.

"We just started clicking," Ricks said. "Cockreham had just an outstanding game. Steve wasn't a great passer, but he was really quick and very smart."

Wyoming proved this was no fluke early in the third quarter when Brown again scored from three yards out. The lead was swelled to 27 after just one offensive possession.

That quick strike also woke up the visitors.

On the very next snap, Green took a handoff 82 yards to the house. The nation's leading rusher crossed the plane again from nine yards away on the following drive. After Hudman missed a 47-yard field-goal attempt, the bruising 205-pound back again went on a touchdown jaunt. This one was an 80-yarder.

"Honestly, I don't know how we stopped them in the first half, especially with the talent they had and Woody Green," McGraw added, referring to the future first round NFL Draft pick, who rushed for nearly 200 yards and four touchdowns in Laramie. "They must have had one hell of a halftime talk. Frank Kush was old school for old school coaches. That offense got a hell of a talking to. Thank god we had the lead we had. If there was another minute left we might not have won. I think we got tired in the second half chasing Green. Thanks to the offense, we were able to hang on."

This was now a one-possession game.

That is until Cockreham led the Cowboys on a masterful 8-play, 80-yard drive that culminated with yet another 1-yard keeper from the junior quarterback. The only issue? Just 1:37 ticked off the game clock.

Wyoming safety Ed Schmidt snagged an interception off White on the next possession after teammate Allen Duyn hammered ASU tight end Joe Petty over the middle, forcing the ball to ricochet into the arms of the senior.

That had to be the final nail in the coffin, right? Wrong.

Hudman would miss another field goal, this one from 44 yards out, again leaving the door cracked for one of the top offenses in the nation.

It almost worked. Almost.

White connected Petty on a 23-yard scoring strike with 1:12 remaining. An onside kick, which Ricks said bounced up and hit him in the facemask before a Devil came out of the pile with the football, again had the defense on its heels.

"That could've been a nightmare for me," Ricks added.

Imagine how he felt when White threw a 9-yard scoring strike to Morris Owens just three plays later?

ASU again teed up for an onside kick. This time, trailing by two with 51 ticks remaining, Wyoming halfback George Lockyer gobbled up the loose change.

"We kicked their asses -- by two points," Ricks joked, adding Archie Gray and Cockreham both converted 2-point conversions in the win.

The postgame celebration was on. The after party at Bud's Bar, Ricks added, was one for the books, too. In the other locker room, well, let's just say tempers flared a bit.

"We could hear Kush screaming at his players after the game," Ricks recalled. "As the story goes, they flew right back to Tempe and he made them go over to the stadium and scrape gum off the bottom of the seats. That's the game he infamously put on the chalkboard, 'I'll take guts over speed any time.'"

"Just because you have speed," Cockreham added, "doesn't mean you're going to win."

It didn't.

"Give Wyoming credit, they deserved the win," an irate Kush told reporters after the loss. "As coaches, we did a lousy job preparing our guys for this game."

Even 52 years later, McGraw said the memory of that upset is a vivid one.

"We knew how good they were. They were one of the best teams in the country. That ranking was true," he said. "We just came up with the game of our season. I don't want to add hyperbole, but the game of our life. I will never forget it."

"I remember the stands emptying," Ricks said. "It was obviously the highlight of all of our college careers. It was quite a day. Too bad we couldn't follow through, though. We were better than our record indicated."

Wyoming would go on to lose five of its next six games before capping the 4-7 season with a road victory at Arizona. Fritz Shurmur, who was in his second year at the helm in 1972, would coach two more seasons in Laramie, compiling an overall record of 15-29.

Arizona State lost just one more time that year. That was a 39-31 setback at home against Air Force. Still, the Sun Devils were crowned kings of the wacky WAC for the fourth straight season. They would again win the Fiesta Bowl. They repeated those feats again in '73.

White would go on to become a third-round NFL Draft pick and win a Super Bowl in Dallas. Aaron Kyle, a freshman defensive back on that Wyoming team, would also play a major role in the Cowboys' 27-10 victory over the Denver Broncos. So would ASU linebacker Bob Breunig.

Along with Green, White and Breunig, fellow Sun Devils Benny Malone, Brent McClanahan, Steve Holden, Ed Beverly, Dave Grannell and Owens went on to have NFL careers.

Kush would coach in Tempe until 1979.

He capped his career in the desert with a 176–54–1 overall record. His teams claimed seven conference crowns and was named the Walter Camp Coach of the Year in 1975. Kush, who would leave ASU in a state of turmoil and sanctions, would go on to coach the Baltimore Colts. He spent three seasons in the NFL before eventually retiring. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

Cockreham said later in that 1972 season he was invited to speak at a Quarterback Club meeting in western Wyoming. He can't recall if that event took place in Rawlins or Rock Springs, but one thing he does remember is seeing Kush there in attendance.

That victory and the accolades that followed are still cherished today. The compliment he received from Kush, however, is what makes the moment so special all these years later.

"He came up to me and said, 'I've been wanting to get a hold of you since that game,'" Cockreham said with a laugh. "He told me, 'We'll be ready for you when you come to Tempe.' Unfortunately, they were.

"It's all just a really nice memory."

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players