I might be the only person in the state who chose to attend the college that I did based solely on the sports teams. Great academics?  Yeah, yeah, I’m sure they are, but which way to the stadium?  When I first started attending the University of Wyoming, the football team was fantastic with Josh Wallwork throwing to eventual Biletnikoff Award winner Marcus Harris.  The basketball team?  Not so much.  In the few years since the salad days of Dembo and Leckner, the Cowboys were struggling mightily as a basketball program. It was arguable that our best player at the time was more infamous for assaulting his mother than his prowess on the court.  Joby Wright, a disciple of the great Bobby Knight, was in his final season.  His raspy voice rung through a mostly empty Arena Auditorium and while the team produced some memorable wins over highly ranked Rick Majerus and Utah, they were a shell of their former glory.  Then along came Larry Shyatt.

As a volunteer member of the band in Joby’s last season,  the 14 of us saw first hand how apathetic the crowd had gotten after years of disappointment.

Shyatt changed all that.  He went door to door to the fraternities and sororities.  He paid to have free t-shirts printed, he pulled $50 out of his own wallet to give to the student with the best sign.

The 14 stalwart band volunteers had to get to the game two hours early to get our normal spots.  We went from having 14 members to having 14 piccolos.

In one year, the Pokes went from Spider Rico to Clubber Lang.

Crowds returned with excitement, the school colors filled the venue and the “Dome of Doom” was back.

Then Larry left.  As students we were crestfallen.  Not to mention angry.  I bitterly altered my “Shyatt Happens” t-shirt to read “Shyatt Happened” and wore it to several games in protest.

We rallied behind Steve McClain, who despite his coaching shortcomings, inherited a great team and had some luck along the way.  After all, getting your best player to develop from a walk-on in Marcus Bailey is pretty fortunate.

In the years that followed, I came to believe that McClain was riding the coat tails of what Shyatt started in just one season.    Then as an adult with a family, I realized that I would have gladly kept Coach McClain instead of his successor.  If Shyatt is steak and McClain is a burger, then Heath Shroyer was prison meat loaf.

How could we recapture the magic?  It should be simple right?  Just follow the blueprint.

Well, it isn’t easy.  In the 13 years since Larry went back to Clemson I’ve watched that crowd dwindle down to historic lows.

How hard is it?  In the last seven years, here are the loss totals:  13,18,15,18,14,21 and 21.  A whopping 42 losses in two years?  Wyoming’s Kenny Sailors invented the jump shot for crying out loud!  It was tough to keep cheering for the Brown & Gold.

Until this last Friday against New Mexico.

The Cowboys didn’t have a full house, but they had 7,000 interested fans. A full and active student section, fun activities, Sailors’ 91st birthday and oh yeah, a blossoming basketball team.

Because it doesn’t matter how personable you are, if you don’t win enough games, you’ll eventually be looking for another job.
Just ask Joe Glenn.

Wyoming folks are tough,  blue collar and resilient.  All we want is a team that displays those same  values.

With Papa Shyatt back in town, it appears I will be treated to one more run of fun, this time on press row.  Will the team win two conference titles like last time?  I don’t know.  But I do know that I’ll be lucky enough to get to watch them from the floor, just like my seat all those years ago from the band pit.

Except this time I’ll know to enjoy it just a little more.

How lucky can one guy get?

Dahl Erickson (The Dahl E. Llama of Sports) is an award-winning columnist for the Star Valley Independent.  Follow him on Twitter @SVSportsLlama