The Wyoming Cowboys and Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors will open Mountain West Conference play when they kick off at 8:15 p.m.,M.T., Saturday at Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium.  The two teams will be playing for the 23rd time in the series and will be competing for the Paniolo Trophy for the 22nd time.  Saturday's game will celebrate Military Appreciation Day and Ag Day.  The War Memorial on the northeast corner of War Memorial Stadium will be rededicated on Saturday at 10 a.m.  The War Memorial honors all Wyoming residents who have served in the military.

Cowboys and Rainbow Warriors Open Conference Play

Saturday's game will be the Mountain West Conference opener for both teams in 2017.  The 2017 season marks the 19th season of the Mountain West Conference.  Wyoming is 9-9 (.500) in Mountain West openers.  UW is 6-5 (.545) when opening MW play at home, and is 3-4 (.429) when opening on the road.

This week's MW opener will mark the first time in the 19 seasons of the MW that the Cowboys have opened Mountain West Conference play against Hawai'i.  The Rainbow Warriors joined the Mountain West for the 2012 season, and are entering their sixth year as MW members.

Tickets Still Available to Wyoming Home Games, Three-Game Mini-Plans go on Sale Sept. 20

Fans may still purchase tickets in advance to Wyoming's home games in 2017 by going online at GoWyo.com/tickets, by calling 307-766-7220 or by stopping by the Athletics Ticket Office on the west side of the Arena-Auditorium.  In addition to Saturday's game vs. Hawai'i (Sept. 23), Wyoming will also host Texas State (Sept. 30), New Mexico (Oct. 28), Colorado State (Nov. 4) and Fresno State (Nov. 18) this season.

Three-game mini-plans will go on sale beginning Wednesday, Sept. 20.  Fans may pick three remaining home games for their mini-plans at prices that provide savings over purchasing single-game tickets.

Renewal of a Rivalry That Dates Back Four Decades, Battle for the Paniolo Trophy

Wyoming and Hawai'i will renew a rivalry that dates back to 1978.  Since the 1979 season, the two schools have played for the Paniolo Trophy.  Paniolo is the Hawaiian word for Cowboy.

In the second year of the series, a group of Hawaiian residents, with roots in Wyoming, donated a statuette of a Cowboy preparing to toss a lariat.  At the time the traveling trophy was introduced to the rivalry both schools were members of the Western Athletic Conference, as Hawai'i joined the WAC in 1979.  Wyoming leads the Paniolo Trophy series with 13 wins to Hawai'i's eight victories.  The overall series is led by Wyoming 13-9, when including Hawai'i's win in the inaugural 1978 game.  

For the next 19 years, from 1979 to 1997, the two teams competed for the Paniolo Trophy.  After Wyoming's 35-6 win in the 1997 meeting in Honolulu, the series between the two schools ended.  Due to the rotating schedule of the then 16-team WAC, Wyoming and Hawai'i weren't scheduled to play in 1998.  In 1999, Wyoming joined the Mountain West Conference.  The series was interrupted for 15 years.   

The series was renewed in 2013, when Hawai'i joined the Mountain West as a football playing member.  Wyoming recorded a 59-56 overtime victory in Laramie in 2013.  Hawai'i won in 2014 in Honolulu by a score of 38-28.

When Hawai'i was invited to join the Mountain West Conference, the two schools began discussion of a renewal of the Paniolo Trophy competition.  But over the 15-year timespan that the series was interrupted the Paniolo Trophy was lost, which became a story in itself.  Each school searched for it, but it was not to be found.

Enter a new group of Hawai'i fans to continue the tradition.  The Paniolo Preservation Society, a 12-year old group dedicated to preserving Hawai'i's rich Cowboy heritage proposed a new trophy.  Led by the Society's President, Mrs. Patricia C. Bergin, a bronze maquette, featuring Hawaiian native Ikua Purdy roping a wild stag bull, was donated to the two schools in 2013 to mark renewal of the series.  Purdy became the first Hawaiian inducted into the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1999.  The bronze is a reproduction of a larger work by noted western sculptor Fred Fellows.  The reproduction measures approximately 20" long and 12" high.

Wingard Continues to Rank Among Nation's Best Defenders  

Junior strong safety Andrew Wingard has been one of the top defenders in college football from his freshman season through his junior season.  He has been named to numerous national award watch lists and ranks among the nation's top active career defenders.  

He has led the Cowboys in tackles in each of the last three seasons.  

Wingard has started every game for the Cowboys since the second game of his true freshman season of 2015, which includes the last 28 consecutive games.

He ranks No. 1 among all active college players in the nation in career solo tackles, averaging 5.97 solo tackles per game, and he ranks No. 4 among all active college players in career total tackles, averaging 9.69 tackles per game.

Hawaiian Cowboy

Cowboy senior Tim Kamana is the lone Wyoming Cowboy from the state of Hawai'i.  Kamana played his high school football at Punahou High School in Honolulu.  He attended the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School at West Point in the fall of 2012 following his graduation from high school, and transferred to the University of Wyoming in January 2013 as a mid-year signee.  Kamana has been a valuable contributor for the Cowboy defense, and enters this week with 84 career tackles, two career interceptions and six career pass breakups.  The only other times that Wyoming has played Hawai'i during Kamana's career was in 2013, when Kamana was redshirting, and in 2014 when Kamana started that game at strong safety and recorded five tackles including four solo tackles.

Old Friends

First-year Wyoming defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton and second-year Hawai'i head coach Nick Rolovich will renew a friendship this week that began when they coached together at the University of Nevada back in 2013.  Hazelton served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Nevada in 2013 before moving on to the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.  Rolovich was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Nevada from 2012-15  before becoming the head coach at his alma mater, Hawai'i.

Cowboy "D" Creating Turnovers Again in 2017

For the second consecutive season, the Wyoming defense has been very successful at forcing turnovers.  Wyoming currently ranks No. 7 in the nation in forcing turnovers, leading to the Pokes being one of the top teams in the country in turnover margin, currently ranked No. 17.  A year ago, Wyoming finished the season ranked No. 10 in the NCAA in turnovers forced.

Rico Gafford, Carl Granderson and Kevin Prosser Leading the Cowboys in Forced Turnovers  

There have been many Cowboy defenders involved in helping force opponent turnovers this season.  In fact, there have been eight different Cowboys this season either intercept a pass, force an opponent fumble or recover an opponent fumble.

But the three Cowboys who have been most involved are: senior cornerback Rico Gafford, who has intercepted two passes and forced one fumble; junior defensive end Kevin Prosser, who has recovered two fumbles and forced one; and junior defensive end Carl Granderson, who has forced two opponent fumbles this season.  

Near Capacity Crowd Fills War Memorial Stadium for Oregon Game:  A crowd of 29,139 attended the Wyoming-Oregon game on Sept. 16, 2017, in Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium.  The capacity of War Memorial Stadium is 29,181.

Where You Can Listen and Watch the Game

Saturday's Wyoming-Hawai'i game will be broadcast on radio over the 26 affiliate stations of the Cowboy Sports Network, with Dave Walsh describing the play-by-play action and Kevin McKinney providing color analysis.  The radio broadcast begins with the pregame show one hour prior to kickoff, or 7 p.m., M.T. this coming Saturday.

The game will be televised on ESPN2 with Roy Philpott handling play-by-play, Tom Ramsey adding color.