The College World Series in 1956 was the culmination of the rise to national prominence by the Wyoming baseball program. Much of this group had won three straight Skyline Conference Championships, and had participated in the NCAA Regional finals in 1954 and 1955. At the time, the World Series was a much more exclusive championship with only eight teams qualifying at the end of each collegiate season. This Wyoming team went to Omaha with just 16 players in uniform, unique in that the other seven teams traveled 25-man rosters. But this group represented the brown and gold in tremendous fashion. After losing to eventual national champion Minnesota, 4-2, in the opening game, the Cowboys rebounded to defeat New York University. The Pokes then lost to Bradley in their final game. The team boasted of an All-American, outfielder Don Napierkowski, and five All-Regional selections, Napierkowski, first baseman Fritz Heiss, shortstop Gerry Nagle, outfielder Bob Sullivan and pitcher Ralph Vaughn. The success of this team led to the development and completion in 1963 of the baseball complex and Cowboy Field, Wyoming’s baseball home for over 30 years. It is fitting that this team was inducted into the Hall of Fame on the 50th anniversary of its trip to the College World Series.

Learning to ski on the slopes of the Happy Jack and Medicine Bow ski areas above the town of Laramie where she was raised, Stacey Ward Straley became a two-time All-American in alpine skiing for the Cowgirl ski team. She came to the University after being named to the United States Olympic Development Team in 1978. Not only did she receive the Glenn “Red” Jacoby Athletic Scholarship, but was selected as an Admiral Land Award winner as UW’s most outstanding student-athlete. An outstanding leader, Ward Straley earned her first All-American honors as a sophomore. As a freshman she earned Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association All-Conference honors. She won the Elbert Trophy Series Championship in 1979. Outstanding in the giant slalom, she became one of the top point scorers for the Cowgirl team in the alpine events. In 1981 she finished third in the giant slalom in the AIAW National Ski Championships as the Cowgirls won the national alpine title As a junior, she finished sixth in the giant slalom at the 1982 national championships. She earned her degree from Wyoming in accounting with a minor in international studies.

He was Wyoming’s first-ever “big man” in the sport of basketball, and a classy All-American. At six-feet, seven-inches, Milo Komenich was one of the tallest basketball players of his era. With his beautiful pivot shots and strong tip-ins, he and fellow Hall of Famer Kenny Sailors formed an unstoppable inside-outside combination, in leading Wyoming to the 1943 NCAA Championship and mythical “World Champions”. He led the Cowboys in scoring in that world title game against National Invitational Tournament Champion St. John’s. Komenich was named a first-team All-American following that ’43 championship season. He also came up big for the Pokes in the regional championship game against Texas with 17 points. That win sent the Cowboys to the championship against Georgetown in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Wyoming’s “towering center” scored 548 points during his senior season. That total was the most ever scored by a basketball player in the Rocky Mountain region at that time. Along with teammates Kenny Sailors and Jim Weir, Komenich was selected to the all conference team following the 1943 season.

A 14-time Wyoming Sportswriter of the Year, Bob Hammond is one of the most well-known and longest-running sportswriters in Wyoming newspaper history. He began working at the Laramie Boomerang in March of 1964. Excluding four years at the Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, he has been at the Boomerang for 38 years. A 1974 graduate of the University of Wyoming, Hammond has won 31 individual Pacemaker Awards from the Wyoming Press Association for column writing, feature sports writing and news sports writing. While working for the Boomerang, he has personally covered almost 400 Wyoming football games, over 900 Cowboy basketball games, and countless UW women’s basketball games, volleyball matches, baseball games and wrestling matches. He has written for the Boomerang during seven UW athletics directors, eight basketball coaches and 11 football coaches. He has covered six Cowboy bowl games, and five Wyoming appearances in the NCAA basketball tournament. He has been Wyoming’s state representative to the Heisman Trophy for 21 years. He has been a member of the Football Writers Association, and a four-time member of the group’s prestigious All-American Committee. He was awarded the first-ever Wyoming High School Coaches Association “Contribution to High School Athletics” award. He is the only sportswriter to have a rodeo bull named after him (Boomer Bob) by the Burns Rodeo Company of Laramie. He was inducted into the Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame in the summer of 2006, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was an original member of the University of Wyoming Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame Committee.

One of the finest pure-shooting wings in Cowboy basketball history, Stan Dodds led the Western Athletic Conference in field goal percentage for two straight seasons. He was an All-WAC first-team selection in 1970, his senior season, while leading the Pokes in scoring at 20.7 points per game. In his three seasons, he shot .558, .569 and .560 respectively from the field. A tremendously consistent player, his senior field goal percentage was ninth best in the country. His favorite spot was in the deep corners of the War Memorial Fieldhouse floor. For his career, he averaged 16.7 points per game, ranking him eighth on Wyoming’s career list. One can only imagine his total had there been a three-point line. He posted his career-best game against Arizona State on Feb. 28, 1970. when he scored 45 points in the Cowboys 112-94 victory. He made 19 field goals in that game, the second-best total in school history. His 45 points is fifth on the all-time list. In Wyoming’s National Invitational Tournament (NIT) game against Army in 1969, Dodds led the team in scoring and rebounding with 12 and 10 respectively. He was co-winner of the team MVP award for the 1969-70 season with Carl Ashley. He earned the Admiral Land Award as UW’s top student-athlete following his senior year.

Jerry DePoyster became the most decorated kicker in Wyoming football history during a golden age of Cowboy football. During his great career, he did both the punting and place kicking for the Cowboys when they won two Western Athletic Conference championships and earned two bowl bids including their greatest bowl of all time, the 1968 Sugar Bowl. While he was an outstanding punter for the Pokes, DePoyster’s claim to fame was his ability as a place kicker. He was an Associated Press and Sporting News All-American in 1967, his senior season. He held at least six NCAA records including most field goal attempts in a career (93), average field goal attempts per game during a career (3.10), most field goal attempts of 50 yards or more in a single season (17 in 1966) and most in a single game (3 vs. Utah, Oct. 8, 1966). He led the team in scoring all three years of his career, and led the WAC in scoring in 1966 and 1967. During his junior season of 1966, he led the nation in kick scoring with 71 points. In Wyoming’s 1966 game against Utah, he made field goals of 54 (2), 52, and 21. In that game, his 54 yarder was the first made field goal of 50 yards or more in school history. His 55-yarder against CSU was a school and Western Athletic Conference record at the time. During the Sugar Bowl season of 1967, he accounted for three victories with his leg. He kicked two field goals in the Sugar Bowl. DePoyster also was an outstanding punter for the Cowboys. He punted 62 times in his career for a 41.7 average. He was 12th in the nation in punting during his senior season of 1967. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1968 NFL draft. He played professionally for Detroit and the Oakland Raiders.

Ryan Christopherson excelled on and off the football field. An Academic All-American, he became the most prolific running back in Wyoming history. Christopherson finished his illustrious Wyoming career as the school’s all-time rushing leader with 2,906 yards. He also is the single-season rushing leader with 1,455 yards, which he gained as a senior in 1994. His 244 yards gained against UTEP in 1994 is the second best single-game effort in history. He owns the career record for total carries, 585, and for carries in a game, 37 vs. Northeast Louisiana in 1994. He is only the second running back in Cowboy history to gain over 1,000 yards twice during his career. Christopherson was an All-Western Athletic Conference first-team selection as a senior. He was a four-time WAC Scholar Athlete as well as a four-time Academic All-WAC first-team selection. He was a first-team Academic All-American as a senior, and a second-teamer as a junior. He was a team captain as a senior. He played in the NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Arizona Cardinals and Denver Broncos.

It was a dream season for the Wyoming ski team. Coached by John Cress, the 1968 Cowboys became the second team in Wyoming history to capture an NCAA Championship–along with the 1943 basketball team–by winning it all at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. When the Cowboys lost the national title the year before by less than one point to perennial power Denver University, at Kingfield, Maine, there was a feeling that the `68 team had a great opportunity to win the title. After finishing third in three meets that season, the Cowboys won the NCAA Regionals at Winter Park, and entered the national meet as one of the favorites. The Cowboys fared very well in the first three events of the meet, slalom, alpine combined (downhill and slalom) and nordic combined (cross country and jumping), and were just four points out of first place heading into the final day, with their strongest event, jumping, coming up. The Pokes rode the flying skis of Peter Robes, Tim Denisson, and Bruce and Dave Jennings to overtake Colorado, Denver and Ft. Lewis College to earn the National Championship. Robes, a freshman, won the jumping event with 221.1 points followed by Denisson who scored 221. Bruce Jennings was fourth and his brother Dave was tenth. Junior Mike Uberauga placed fifth in the slalom and senior Ron Sargent was fifth in the alpine combined. In the nordic combined Dave Jennings was fourth. With the victory Wyoming dethroned Denver which had won seven straight NCAA ski titles and 11 of the previous 14. Junior Erik Piene won the meet’s Skimeister Award for the best performance among skiers competing in all four events.

Randy Welniak became one of the most decorated quarterbacks in Wyoming history. Told he might never play quarterback again after shoulder surgery, Welniak earned Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors in 1988. As a co-captain that season he directed the Cowboys to an 11-2 record, most wins in school history, a WAC title, and a trip to the Holiday Bowl. In Wyoming’s biggest victory that season and one of its most amazing ever–a 48-45 win at Air Force–Welniak rallied the Cowboys from a 21-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to outscore the Falcons 31-7. He finished with a school-record 467 yards of total offense. In that game he became only the third quarterback in NCAA history to gain 300 yards passing (359) and 100 yards rushing (108) in a single game. The “Wizard of Ord” was selected as an All-American in `88. He still ranks among Wyoming’s Top Ten in career passing yards (3,819) and career rushing touchdowns (17). A two-time Academic All-WAC first-team selection, he was awarded NCAA, Stan Bates (WAC Commissioner) and Patrick Smyth Post-Graduate Scholarships. He was the Admiral Land Award winner as UW’s top student-athlete in 1989. Welniak earned his bachelors of science in finance from Wyoming in 1988, and a masters of business administration from UW in 1989. Welniak returned to his alma mater in the mid-1990’s as an administrator, first with the Cowboy Joe Club, and then as an Associate Athletics Director.

One of the greatest athletes ever produced by Cheyenne–he was the city’s Athlete of the Decade for the 1960’s–Dick Sherman was one of Wyoming’s best shooting-rebounding combinations in school history. This All-Western Athletic Conference performer teamed with fellow-Hall of Famer Flynn Robinson to become one of the Cowboys’ most prolific one-two scoring tandems ever. The team captain in 1966, Sherman led the Cowboys in field-goal percentage for three seasons, and led the WAC in field-goal percentage during his junior season of 1964-65. His name is still listed among Wyoming’s Top Ten in scoring average and rebounding average for a season. During his senior season of 1965-66, he averaged 21.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. His 44 points against Rhode Island on December 27, 1965, remains the sixth-best single-game scoring effort in school history. During the 1966 season Sherman and Robinson led the Pokes to a team average of 91 points per game, Wyoming’s single-season record for scoring average. A 1966 graduate of UW, Sherman not only was selected as the Most Outstanding Education Major, but was honored as the Most Distinguished Military Graduate for the school’s ROTC program. A helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Sherman earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism. He produced a distinguished 31-year career in the Army.