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11 15 24 CSU Historian John Hirn talks about the Rams vs Wyoming Cowboys Border War
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I asked Stewart from accounting about his weekend, even though I don't care. I updated my operating system without having to call tech support. Get your free daily bonus at Chumbakcoccino.com now. Live the Chumba Life. DDW Group. No purchase necessary. We're prohibited by law. In terms of conditions. 18 plus. Oh, you're standing for this now? Standing for this. Yeah. There you go. See that? Wow. Let that wash over you. It's one of the oldest rivalries, west of the Mississippi. 115 years, Colorado State and Wyoming have played football in what is known as the border war and the winner gets one of the best rivalry trophies in the game and all of sports, the bronze boots. I think you wrote that, right? I did. Yeah, that's pretty good. Joining us now on the KOA comment spirit health hotline to talk more about it is Colorado State University's official sports historian. It's John Hearn. John, thank you so much for your time as always. You bet. Thank you. As Marty mentioned and he loves to talk about it and he's wearing a CSU gear right now talking about it. Walk us through the history of how the border war game came to be. Well, you know, it started in 1899 with a forfeited game that never got finished because the Wyoming fans and players were a little too ruthless on the field and they just pretty much quit the game, which started the pace for this whole rivalry from the very beginning. And then the next year, Wyoming players were actually tackling our players and throwing rocks at them and broke our coaches collarbone back when coaches could actually play football games. So these two schools have hated doing another since the very beginning. You know, it really did not become quote, unquote, the border war until after World War II. That's when the competition in both schools really started playing against one another hard fought games, games that really meant a lot to their schedules. Yeah, the 66 bounce pass at CSU beat them when they were number 10 in the country. So you've got these rivalry that, I mean, what are we, 60 miles apart for one another? What do they call familiarity breeds contempt, John? That's in many ways. Why? It's like an inter sort of semi inter dysfunctional family squabble between the two teams. I love the whole sense of the rivalry. Obviously, I don't have to tell you that, but one of the things I find most significant when we talk about trophies and prizes is the bronze boot. And I say this, it is one of the best, if not the best rivalry pieces of hardware available. Talk about the history and importance and significance of the bronze boot. Yeah, the bronze boot. What happened in the 66 would be them 67 baby us and that somebody said, okay, the two ROTC programs, both schools are land grant colleges. They have ROTC programs and they said, we need to put together some sort of a traveling trophy because this rivalry has become so big. So what came up was, Vic Fernandez came up with the idea that they would bronze a boot that had been recently worn in Vietnam. And that was Dan Romero's boot. Dan Romero had just gotten off the tour duty in Vietnam. He was an assistant professor at CSU in the ROTC program. They bronze his boot in '68 literally fresh out of Vietnam and made it into a trophy. And it really didn't catch on for a big trophy, you know, important trophy until he got into the 1970s when the rivalry started heating up and soccer playing at CSU saying how much he hated Wyoming and Wyoming playing for the bronze boot and now they're playing for rival for the conference championships and whatnot. So it has just grown and grown and grown through the years. And now it is very much a prized trophy at this point. And John, you say a traveling trophy, a traveling trophy to say the least because the annual bronze boot run is also taking place, took place yesterday. Can you tell us a little bit more about the tradition of that as well? Yeah, that's a really cool tradition. You've got the ROTC units from each school, one leaves with the game ball from the previous site of the previous year's game and they carry that game ball up to the border. And if you've ever been to this event at the border, you literally have, you know, the Wyoming staff handing it over to the CSU staff who's handing it over to the CSU ROTC. And then the CSU ROTC units, they run it into four columns. And then that game ball is right literally brought to the game tonight when, right before kickoff. John, I want to broaden this out a little bit because one of the pieces of news about this is Colorado State and Wyoming going to continue to play this rivalry even though CSU is moving into a new iteration of the Pac-12 and on the broader sense. Because of a lot of the conference shifting and I touched on this earlier, we see a lot of these great rivalries going away, it must hearten you and it definitely heartens me that we're going to continue to play Wyoming even though we're going to be in different conferences. Yeah, this is a real testament to both John Weber, the athletic director at CSU and Tom Berman over at Wyoming. Both of them are graduates of their respective schools. Both of them get it. Both of them are here to keep a rivalry going. It doesn't have a lot to do with money, it doesn't have to do with television. This is what college football is all about and these two get it. And this is what makes this continuing the rivalry till 2035, I think I'll be retiring that year. That's what's going to make it really worth a while. We're not in the same conference and that, you know, granted we're not going to be in the same conference, but we understand that this is something that has gone on and on and on for, it'll be well over 140 years by the time we get to the point of these games stopped. Do you have a favorite part of any part of this rivalry? I mean, I go back to my days actually playing and I remember we won my freshman year, but I don't think we won the subsequent years after that I have to think about that. But even as an alum and former player, the famous fog game at Hughes Stadium was something to behold as well, playing against a very good one. This is when both programs were really, really good and kind of at the apex of the conference. Do you have a favorite memory of the rivalry? You know, my freshman year was 1990, that was the fall of '90 and that was when we were Earl Bruce was winning every home game and we were talking about being able to go to the Freedom Bowl. Wyoming was ranked I think 19 in the country or something like that. We came in, we beat them at Hughes Stadium and I was hanging off of the South Gold Post before I knew it. We're carrying down the Gold Post and celebrating and on our way to the Freedom Bowl. So that's probably my favorite memory, at least, you know, of games that I've been to. Does CSU know that or did you just call yourself out now and they're going to come at you? I've told people we have pieces of that Gold Post in our Hall of Fame and in Hall of Fame because they say I tore down a piece of this Gold Post. Am I right? I'm proud. Is that the famous, and God, because my memory now, that's a famous interception by my teammate Eric Tech, but Tipaconic, right, that was the game that they won, I do, I'd graduated them but I do remember seeing that and then some of those guys are going to be up there this weekend as well, which is going to be great. John, I always love catching up with you, you know, I could talk CSU with you for hours and forever. So thanks for coming on with us. Hey, you bet, and it's going to be a great game tonight and go Rams. Go Rams. John Hearn, he is Colorado State University's official sports historian. It is Colorado's Morning News. Colorado there's only one member FDIC. Head over to NFLShop.com today for the largest collection of officially licensed gear from all your favorite brands. NFLShop is your ultimate destination for the official NFL sideline collection worn by players and coaches on game day. Explore the same sideline and on-fuel gear worn by your favorite players and coaches at NFLShop. For ShopNow, go to NFLShop.com. Hey, it is Ryan Seacrest. There's something so thrilling about playing Chumba Casino. Maybe it's the simple reminder that with a little luck, anything is possible. ChumbaCocino.com has hundreds of social casino style games to choose from with new game releases each week. 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