New Book Highlights Overlooked History of Wyoming Football

LARAMIE -- One of the most overlooked periods in the history of Wyoming Cowboy football is the subject of a new book now available for purchase.

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“Poke Pioneers” by former Wyoming sports reporter Patrick Schmiedt brings to life the history of numerous all-but-forgotten Cowboy football players, coaches and moments from the UW football teams prior to World War II.

More than 160 players and coaches are highlighted in the book, which also includes a game-by-game, season-by-season recap of the Cowboy teams from 1894 to 1942.

The book is illustrated with more than 100 pictures of game and practice action, team photos and more.

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Together, the interweaving of biographical sketches and game-by-game action details helps resurrect an era in which Wyoming football was constantly overlooked due to its lack of success on the field. However, as the book illustrates, many players and coaches from the program’s first five decades were more successful both on and off the field than the Cowboys’ record might indicate.

Some of the men highlighted in the book include:

* Milward Simpson: A future Wyoming governor and U.S. senator

* John Corbett: UW’s “Grand Old Man” of athletics

* Neil Burgess: All-star Cowboy quarterback of the 1910s

* Lee Kizzire: NFL player who died in World War II

* Justus Soule: A short-time coach and longtime UW professor

* C.L. “Pete” Irwin: America’s first hero of World War I

* Fred Layman: Rhodes scholar and pro rugby star

* Emory Land: Naval engineer who helped win two world wars
Highlights of the Cowboys’ first 50 years highlighted in the book include several games and seasons that even the most devoted Cowboy fan may have missed. Included are descriptions of UW’s 1899 game with Colorado State, the first of its kind and notable for a controversial ending that divides the colleges to this day; the Cowboys’ 1935 “ironman” upset of Colorado in which 11 Cowboys played both sides of the ball without substituting for all 60 minutes; a 1925 season in which Wyoming had its best record in decades but missed out on a shot at a conference title after a controversial loss to Utah; Wyoming’s first game against a Big 10 opponent in Chicago; and UW’s first night game, on the road in St. Louis.

If any of those people or moments are new to you, then “Poke Pioneers” is a must-read. Every true Wyoming Cowboy football fan can better appreciate the team and its legacy by coming to know the players and the moments that made the program special in its infancy.

The book is 271 pages and is available in paperback. List price is $20. Books can be purchased here or by visiting http://www.pokepioneers.com/.
About the author

Patrick Schmiedt, a native of Midwest, Wyoming, and a two-time graduate of the University of Wyoming, was a sports reporter at the Casper Star-Tribune for four years and also covered the Cowboys in three years with the Branding Iron, UW’s student newspaper. He now teaches journalism at a community college in California. He manages three websites dedicated to high school sports history in Wyoming and wrote “A Century of Fridays” about the history of high school football in the state.