BOBCAT CALENDAR: Today in 1933, Montana State Earned its Most Recent Gridiron Victory Over Wyoming
10/14/2020 9:00:00 AM | Football
Richard Burns connected with John Steiner on the game's only touchdown
A day-by-day look at Montana State football history...
October 14
SPOTLIGHT: You wouldn't know it today, but for a little more than a decade one of Montana State's most celebrated football rivalries featured the University of Wyoming. The teams met 14 times as Rocky Mountain Conference foes between 1919 and 1936, when the Cowboys and the leagues other larger programs created the Skyline Conference. The Bobcats met Wyoming five times in the ensuing eight decades, and in fact are scheduled to play each other next fall in Laramie, but nothing the teams do today holds the cache as those conference showdowns in the 1920s and '30s.
As a geographic outlier in the RMC, conference games weren't easy to come by for the Bobcats. Utah State was Montana State's primary out-of-state rival during those years, playing the Bobcats 24 times before World War II. The Aggies and Bobcats played 16 conference contests between 1919 and 1937. The other school usually willilng to face Montana State was Wyoming.
For more than a decade, the Wyoming-Montana State series was really cooking. The Bobcats and Cowpunchers, as Wyoming publications frequently called UW, met in every season from 1924 to 1936, and it was a showdown both schools seemed to appreciate.
A pair of struggling programs met in 1933 when the Bobcats traveled to Laramie's Corbett Field. The Cats had lost their first three games on the way to a 2-5 campaign, while Wyoming was 0-1-1 on the way to a 2-5-1 season.
Montana State ultimately benefited from "Wyoming's old homecoming jinx," as The WYO yearbook described it. "The Punchers pushed the Cats all over the field, outgaining them and outplaying them. The victors, however, had one big drive, an they converted int into a score. Wyoming's several attacks failed to get much past midfield."
The game's lone score was set up by a 20-yard pass from Richard Burns to Louis Edwards. Facing a fourth-and-goal from the nine, Burns tossed a pass to Joe Steiner at the three and the Lewistown product lumbered into the end zone for a touchdown. For all of its pushing "the Cats all over the field" Wyoming never snapped the ball inside the Bobcat 15, and Bobcats earned half their season's total of wins on the High Plains of Wyoming that day.
Although the Bobcats and Pokes have played eight times since then, and twice in the last quarter-century, the 1933 victory remains the most recent for Montana State over UW on the gridiron.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2017 - #10 EWU 31, MSU 19
2006 - MSU 21, at Sac St 18
2000 - at Sac St 24, MSU 13
1995 - MSU 18, at Idaho St 14
1989 - Idaho 41, MSU 7 HC
1978 - MSU 23, Idaho St 12 HC
1972 - MSU 9, at Weber St 3
1967 - MSU 24, at Idaho St 7
1961 - MSU 35, at North Dakota State 0
1939 - at UM 6, MSU 0 at Butte
1933 - MSU 7, at Wyoming 0
1916 - MSU 27, Butte Athletic Club 0
October 14
SPOTLIGHT: You wouldn't know it today, but for a little more than a decade one of Montana State's most celebrated football rivalries featured the University of Wyoming. The teams met 14 times as Rocky Mountain Conference foes between 1919 and 1936, when the Cowboys and the leagues other larger programs created the Skyline Conference. The Bobcats met Wyoming five times in the ensuing eight decades, and in fact are scheduled to play each other next fall in Laramie, but nothing the teams do today holds the cache as those conference showdowns in the 1920s and '30s.
As a geographic outlier in the RMC, conference games weren't easy to come by for the Bobcats. Utah State was Montana State's primary out-of-state rival during those years, playing the Bobcats 24 times before World War II. The Aggies and Bobcats played 16 conference contests between 1919 and 1937. The other school usually willilng to face Montana State was Wyoming.
For more than a decade, the Wyoming-Montana State series was really cooking. The Bobcats and Cowpunchers, as Wyoming publications frequently called UW, met in every season from 1924 to 1936, and it was a showdown both schools seemed to appreciate.
A pair of struggling programs met in 1933 when the Bobcats traveled to Laramie's Corbett Field. The Cats had lost their first three games on the way to a 2-5 campaign, while Wyoming was 0-1-1 on the way to a 2-5-1 season.
Montana State ultimately benefited from "Wyoming's old homecoming jinx," as The WYO yearbook described it. "The Punchers pushed the Cats all over the field, outgaining them and outplaying them. The victors, however, had one big drive, an they converted int into a score. Wyoming's several attacks failed to get much past midfield."
The game's lone score was set up by a 20-yard pass from Richard Burns to Louis Edwards. Facing a fourth-and-goal from the nine, Burns tossed a pass to Joe Steiner at the three and the Lewistown product lumbered into the end zone for a touchdown. For all of its pushing "the Cats all over the field" Wyoming never snapped the ball inside the Bobcat 15, and Bobcats earned half their season's total of wins on the High Plains of Wyoming that day.
Although the Bobcats and Pokes have played eight times since then, and twice in the last quarter-century, the 1933 victory remains the most recent for Montana State over UW on the gridiron.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2017 - #10 EWU 31, MSU 19
2006 - MSU 21, at Sac St 18
2000 - at Sac St 24, MSU 13
1995 - MSU 18, at Idaho St 14
1989 - Idaho 41, MSU 7 HC
1978 - MSU 23, Idaho St 12 HC
1972 - MSU 9, at Weber St 3
1967 - MSU 24, at Idaho St 7
1961 - MSU 35, at North Dakota State 0
1939 - at UM 6, MSU 0 at Butte
1933 - MSU 7, at Wyoming 0
1916 - MSU 27, Butte Athletic Club 0
Leon Costello Press Conference: Kennedy-Stark Athletic Center
Thursday, July 31
A Conversation with President Dr. Waded Cruzado | Montana State Athletics
Monday, May 19
Big Cats, Little Trucks - Willie Patterson
Wednesday, May 03
Matt Houk Introductory Press Conference
Wednesday, May 03
