Leslie Paul “Les” Witte

Hometown: Lincoln, Neb.
Sport: Basketball
Years:1931-34

Wyoming’s first nationally-recognized student-athlete, Les Witte dominated the college basketball world in the early 1930s.  A three-time All-American, he led Wyoming to the Helms Foundation national championship in 1934 and thrust Wyoming into the national spotlight.  Playing for his brother, Coach Willard “Dutch” Witte, Les Witte was Wyoming’s first 1,000-point scorer, first basketball All-American, and first consensus All-American in any sport.  He was a four-time, first-team All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference honoree, and led UW in scoring each of his four years (rewriting the UW record book in the process). The Cowboys were 82-15 during Witte’s playing career and won four RMAC Eastern Division titles and two outright RMAC championships, finishing second the other two times by a total of three points.  The 1932 RMAC title was Wyoming’s first conference championship in a major sport.  Witte graduated from UW with a degree in Geology and went on to a distinguished career with the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation.