From the sports field to the sports columns

“Hello folks, and welcome to another addition of American Sportsman. I’m your host Curt Gowdy, and today we will be fishing the Upper North Platte river with my guest and the new sports writer for the Saratoga Sun, Brian Trautwein.”

Those were the words that started the show for the famous sports announcer and writer Wyoming cherished enough to name a state park after. I’m not saying I’ll ever have a state park named after me, but I would like to continue writing the sports section of our paper in an emotional and exciting way.

I grew up around Wyoming athletics and went to a division 4A school in Cheyenne. I’ll never forget reading the strategies and expectations, of the coaches, in the paper the day before the game. The only thing that was better, was reading the paper the day after the game to see my name printed in the results.

As I grew into my shoe size, I can remember going to all the athletic events at the University of Wyoming. I watched a lot of good eras of Wyoming athletics, and I can also remember rooting for the Cowboys in the not-so-good eras. A fair-weather fan I am not.

I watched as Benny Dees ruled the “Dome of Doom,” otherwise known as the Arena Auditorium, where the Pokes play basketball. I spent a lot of my childhood in that Auditorium and I remember following heroes like Eric Leckner and Fennis Dembo every Thursday and Saturday.

But most of all I’ll never forget the ride home to Cheyenne listening to “Sports Line Live.” Dave Walsh and Kevin McKinney had the game recap but also gave play-by-play when I couldn’t make the game or the Pokes were out of town. You could feel the emotion as you listened. It was like you were there.

My father played football in one of the best eras of Cowboy football ever. The coach was Loyd Eaton, and the team went undefeated in the 1967-1968 season. The Poke football team played in the Sugar Bowl in 1968 against LSU in Louisiana but unfortunately they were out-numbered and playing in an away game. It was Wyoming’s last trip to a bowl game of that stature, and the LSU Tigers won that day.

I can remember another era of football that had Joe Tiller at the helm.

Wyoming went to a Copper Bowl under Tiller in 1993 and I was in high school at the time. All my life I wanted to play at the War Memorial Stadium like my father had. It was an exciting time for me because Wyoming had a great coach, and I was going to play for him.

I ended up playing football for a coach named Dana Dimmel, and if you follow Wyoming athletics at all, you know what kind of era that was. Dimmel never had a winning season at the University of Wyoming. Meanwhile, coach Tiller went on to Perdue and became a coach with 126 wins, 92 losses, one tie and 10 bowl appearances in 12 years. Tiller was winning football games while the fans at Wyoming were throwing whisky bottles at the Cowboy sideline.

As you can imagine, playing football in this era got old quick. The taste in my mouth was horrible, and I was just flat out done with the football program. I had waited all my life for the big disappointment that the Marshall football coaches had brought to Wyoming.

With two years left until graduation, I found another outlet, which became the best sport I have ever played. The university had a club rugby team and I signed up. Rugby became a passion that took me on more travels, and to a higher level of competition than I could have ever imagined. The rugby club was winning matches and, as a matter of fact, was the only team at Wyoming that had a winning record.

My junior year, the rugby club took second in the nation. We had to raise our own traveling funds, but knocked off every team on the way to the NCAA Division 1 Championships in Tampa Bay, Fla.

We squared off against Cal-Berkley and unfortunately couldn’t beat the Golden Bears that year. Cal-Berkley had the United States Rugby coach on their sideline and had won the championships 10 of the last 11 years before we faced them.

This turned out to be a huge game, but the next year was even bigger. We had earned the home field advantage for the playoffs my senior year. We had fraternity mall and sorority row packed with spectators the day Penn State came to play us. We lost that game by two points, but little did I know it was just the beginning and not the end of my sports career. I went to Colorado to play semi-professional rugby for Boulder, Denver and Breckenridge, and my sports adventures continued up until now. Now I have the privilege to write for you, and this community’s sports adventures. Just like Curt Gowdy, Dave Walsh and Kevin McKinney before me, I will report the sports to you with an excitement that makes you feel like you were there. I will try to write in a way that keeps you waiting until Wednesday to pick up the paper for “Hello Folks and welcome to another addition of American Sportsman.”

Thanks for reading, and remember to spay or neuter your pets.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 02/22/2024 16:40