LARAMIE – Adam Goldberg took the road less traveled during his football career.
 
It made all the difference in his gratitude for being part of the 2024 Wyoming Intercollegiate Hall of Fame class.
 
"It's an amazing honor," Goldberg said on a recent edition of the One Wyoming podcast. "Wyoming athletics has a very storied history, and the fact that they let kind of a faceless offensive lineman grunt in, I'm very appreciative."
 
Goldberg's resume speaks for itself – a two-time team captain and three-time all-Mountain West offensive tackle who started 44 of 45 career games for the Cowboys before playing nine seasons in the NFL.
 
Growing up in Edina, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, the 6-foot-7 Goldberg's first love was basketball. He was the starting center and leading scorer on his high school team, but a coach convinced him football was the sport that could get his college paid for.
 
Bret Bielema, currently the head coach at Illinois, recruited Goldberg when he was a young assistant at Iowa. However, after Hayden Fry retired and was replaced by Kirk Ferentz, the scholarship offer was pulled.
 
"(Bielema) said, 'My buddy Mark Stoops is going to be calling you in like 20 minutes as soon as we hang up. He was my roommate in college at Iowa and he recruits the Midwest for Wyoming and he'd love to have you,'" Goldberg recalled.
 
Stoops, currently the head coach at Kentucky, was on Dana Dimel's staff at UW and made the call as promised.
 
Goldberg redshirted during the Pokes' 8-3 finish in 1998 and made his first career start in the 1999 opener against reigning national champion Tennessee in front of a crowd of 107,597.
 
UW, which was starting three redshirt freshmen on the offensive line against the No. 2 Vols, led 10-7 entering the second quarter but lost 42-17. The Cowboys allowed 13 sacks, and starting quarterback Jay Stoner left the game with a shoulder injury.
 
"I'll never forget the first play. We ran a trick play that didn't work then the next play we ran play action," Goldberg said. "I went out with like a run block look and the guy totally bit that it was a run, which made my block very easy. I was like, 'I've got this guy all game. This is my coming out party, right?'
 
"The very next play: Spin, sack, fumble. It wasn't a pretty start, but it was quite an experience. No stadium felt daunting or loud after that one."
 
The Cowboys won their next three games, including a 10-7 win at No. 24 Air Force. UW lost the Border War to rival Colorado State but defeated Utah and No. 15 BYU that season.
 
"I think the BYU game is probably the most memorable one," Goldberg said. "It was at home, it was a night game, it was really cold, and we were clicking on all cylinders. We went down and scored on like four plays on the first drive and never really slowed down. The defense played complementary football and got a lot of stops and we went wire to wire."
 
For the second consecutive season a loss in the regular-season finale – 1998 at Tulsa and 1999 at San Diego State – prevented UW from receiving a bowl invitation. Dimel left for Houston after posting a 23-12 overall record during his three seasons in Laramie.
 
Vic Koenning, despite inheriting Goldberg and a list of talented players, went 5-29 over the next three seasons.
 
"I remember our recruiting class for a year younger than me was Casey Bramlet, Ryan McGuffey, Malcom Floyd, Jacque Finn. I mean, we had studs coming up behind us," Goldberg said. "Coming out and becoming almost a losing culture was really hard to swallow because Wyoming creates proud kids. You're proud to represent the state. A lot of kids have chips on their shoulders because the bigger schools, the bigger conferences didn't recruit them. I definitely fell into that category.
 
"We were all highly motivated and wanted to win."
 
Despite UW's struggles, Goldberg signed with Minnesota as an undrafted free agent and played three seasons (2003-05) with his hometown Vikings before spending six seasons with the St. Louis Rams (2006-11). He played in 107 NFL games with 64 starts during his professional career.
 
"It was a dream come true," Goldberg said. "It was a little surreal coming back to Minnesota. I was lucky enough growing up my dad shared some season tickets with a few other guys, so we got to go to a game or two a year. I grew up a pretty strong Vikings fan so warming up on that turf the first time in the Metrodome, which doesn't exist anymore … I feel really old because the stadium I played in for the Vikings doesn't exist anymore and the team I played at for six years, the St. Louis Rams, aren't in St. Louis anymore. A lot is changing really fast or I'm getting really old, one or the other, but it was a heck of an experience."
 
Goldberg, who works for a real estate investment and development firm in Denver, follows the Cowboys and attended last year's victory over Texas Tech with a friend who is a Red Raiders fan.
 
"Boy, that was a sweet ride home," Goldberg said. "He was very quiet. That was awesome."
 
College football has changed dramatically in recent years with players allowed to make money off their name, image in likeness and unlimited freedom of movement via the transfer portal.
 
Goldberg is grateful he stuck it out during the hard times at UW instead of looking for an easier path.
 
"It was a real challenge. But even though the last three years of my playing career weren't that successful in the win-loss columns, I am very glad I stayed," Goldberg said. "The Wyoming culture has definitely become a part of who I am, and those years were important."
 
(Editor's note: This is the fourth in a seven-part series profiling the 2024 UW Intercollegiate Hall of Fame class. Tickets to the induction banquet, which begins at 6 p.m. on Sept. 6 in the Gateway Center, are now on sale and can be purchased here: https://one.bidpal.net/wyohalloffame2024/welcome)
 
If you are interested in learning more about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) or would like to support our student-athletes, please visit 1wyo.org. 1WYO was created out of Wyoming's culture of neighbor helping neighbor. The mission is to promote and strengthen local charitable organizations and develop Wyoming student athletes.
 
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.