Hawk thinks he's special. 

He knows he's number one, and is spoiled rotten.

But raise your hand if you think it's easy sitting on his back and streaking across Jonah Field at a full gallop with the Wyoming football team running right behind you.

"I think it was a little bit of a challenge to start with," says Lane Romsa who is the rider while Hawk races to the War Memorial Stadium's south end zone in one of the most unique, and exciting pre-game entrances in all of collegiate football.

"But it's now an adrenalin rush for sure," Romsa continues, "Pure adrenalin."

This is the fourth year that Hawk and a member of the Romsa family have provided Wyoming's pre-game thrill.  It's certainly been a family affair. 

A horse and rider leading the football team onto the field was the brainchild of Athletics Director Tom Burman.  "I just felt the presentation of our football team's entrance to the field needed more energy," Burman says.  "I've always been impressed with schools who incorporated their brand into the team's entrance like Colorado and Florida State, for instance."

"I wasn't sure who to go to, so I started with J.D. Hamaker, who said I should touch base with Larry Romsa," Burman continues.  "I have known Larry for years. He is a great Wyoming fan, and I knew he kept office hours at Cowgirl basketball practice every day.  He wasn't hard to find."

Larry is Lane's grand dad, and a long-time Wyoming fan.  Larry and his son, J.D., were happy to get involved.  The first year, Lane's older brother, Quade and younger brother, Blare, rode Hawk.  Lane took over in year two, and he's been the horse's steady War Memorial Stadium rider ever since.

"Hawk has the perfect personality for this," says Lane. "He's a teddy bear.  He likes being around people, especially little kids. He's an all-around great horse.  But he's flashy, his markings are unique, and he loves to feed off the crowd.  He knows he's the star, he truly does."

There's only one thing that bothers Hawk, and that's the noise of the band.  For some reason he's okay with crowd noise, but when the band plays he freaks. "We stuff cotton in his ears when we get into the stadium because the band really bothers him.  That has been a big help, Lane says."

As with any new venture, refining the entrance was a process.  "At first Hawk wouldn't run over the bucking horse and rider in the middle of the field," Romsa says.  "I think he thought it was water and he tried to avoid it.  Then we had to change his shoes.  We were afraid his regular shoes would damage the field so we had special rubber shoes made for him. He goes through a lot of those."

"Make no mistake, though, he loves running across the field."

Another challenge for the entrance to run smoothly was the size and weight of the huge yellow flag with the brown bucking horse and rider which Romsa carries with him.  "When we started the flag was on a steel pole," Lane says.  "It was too heavy and too hard to handle.  So we got a straight piece of aluminum and put the flag on that.  It's much, much easier."

The Romsas have been Wyoming Cowboys--the real thing--for generations, and they all are huge Cowboy fans.  The whole family is at the stadium on game day to lend a hand to Hawk and Lane.  The family runs horses on a small spread by the Laramie River west of town.

Hawk is a parade horse by trade.  In fact the Romsa family provides driving horses--including Hawk--for parades around the area.  Their horses pull carriages in the Cheyenne Frontier Days parades for example.

"We bought him from a family whose daughter rode him as Miss Rodeo Wyoming," Lane says.  "We got him when I was a kid, and we have been together ever since.  I calf roped with him and we won our first rodeo when I was in junior high school.  He's the flashiest, but calmest, horse we have. So he was perfect for this job."

It might surprise folks that Hawk and Lane are the same age, 20. Hawk is pretty active for an old man, wouldn't you say?  I know his partner is too.

On game day, the Romsa family brings Hawk to the stadium three hours prior to kickoff.  For the first time in their four years, Lane and Hawk are now part of the football team's 'Cowboy Walk' leading the team, with pinto mascot Cowboy Joe, from the hotel to the stadium.  "He really likes that," Lane says of Hawk.  "He loves to be seen."

Officially, Hawk is a Dark Tobiano Paint, and amazingly has nearly the same markings as Cowboy Joe.  They are very good friends, by the way.

"When the Cowboys went to the Poinsettia Bowl last year, we wanted to go," Lane says.  "So the athletic department agreed to allow us to go.  We said we'd be happy to take Cowboy Joe with us.  We loaded both of them up and drove to San Diego.  It took us 19 hours, and during that trip those two horses really bonded.  They are great friends.  We stayed at the Del Mar racetrack in San Diego, and everyone there really took care of us.  We even went to a 'dog beach' near there, and the two of them had a great time together in the sand."

Lane doesn't rodeo anymore, and his real job makes total sense. He sells life insurance which is the height of irony given his trip across the field.  "They always say that rodeoing will make you a millionaire, but that's only if you were a billionaire to begin with," he laughs, so I got out of it."

As calm as Hawk is in everyday life, he really gets fired up to begin his now-famous run.  "He really gets into it," says Romsa. "I have to start shutting him down three-quarters of the way to the end zone or I think he'd run out of the stadium."

I'm certain that Hawk is the fastest runner on Jonah Field each week. I'm also certain that he and Lane are becoming part of the Wyoming football game-day experience.