LARAMIE – The Milward Simpson Award has been presented annually to the top high school senior athlete in Wyoming for nearly 50 years.
 
The 1999 boys' finalists were arguably the strongest collective group of them all.
 
Marcus Bailey, Casey Bramlet, Jacque Finn and Ryan McGuffey all went on to have distinguished careers wearing the brown and gold.
 
Cheyenne East's Bailey helped lead the Cowboys to two Mountain West men's basketball championships and an NCAA Tournament appearance. Wheatland's Bramlet finished his prolific career as the Pokes' quarterback with 9,684 passing yards (most in UW history) and 56 passing touchdowns (second in UW history).
 
Natrona County's Finn had eight interceptions for the Cowboys, including a program-record 100-yard pick-six against rival BYU. Riverton's McGuffey had 2,679 yards receiving (sixth in UW history) and 231 catches (fourth in UW history) during his career.
 
It took Sundance Wicks, the 1999 Milward Simpson Award winner from Campbell County, another quarter century to join his prep rivals in realizing his UW dream.
 
"Marcus Bailey, Ryan McGuffey, Casey Bramlet, Jacque Finn … some dudes right there," Wicks said at his formal introductory press conference. "And all four of those dudes played at the University of Wyoming. Those are some real guys. Two of the coolest text messages I got when I got the job were from Casey Bramlet and Marcus Bailey.
 
"What's sick and disgusting is Marcus Bailey still haunts me to this day and he's sitting right over my shoulder on a mural behind me. I come to the office every day motivated to kick ass because Bailey kicked my ass."
 
Not in high school. The Wicks-led Camels typically got the better of the Bailey-led Thunderbirds.
 
During the 1999 Class 4A semifinals, Bailey buried a 30-foot shot in the final seconds, which everyone in the crowd thought had given his team a dramatic 60-58 victory over top-ranked Campbell County. But an official had blown his whistle, which was inaudible due to the din of noise, because the Cheyenne East coach had signaled for a timeout.
 
Wicks, who also played football and ran track at a high level, walked away with another state title to cap a phenomenal prep hoops career.
 
"Right as I'm pulling up our coach calls a timeout, and I sunk it," Bailey recalled. "The crowd went crazy, and I thought we were up by one (point), everyone thought we were up by one, and the refs waved it off. Then on the in-bounds (pass), they put two guys right in front of me, didn't let me touch the ball, and I think one of our other guards threw up a prayer. We ended up losing by two, so it was a battle. Sundance actually knocked me out of state all three years."
 
Larry Shyatt offered Wicks a scholarship during his junior season to play for the Pokes. After Shyatt abruptly left for Clemson, Steve McClain rescinded the offer and eventually filled the spot with Bailey.
 
"In hindsight, they would have been much better off just signing both of us," said Bailey, who didn't know Shyatt had originally targeted his Gillette rival as a primary recruit. "I'm not sure why that wasn't an option. They had two scholarships that year. I think they were under so much pressure just to sign somebody from Wyoming. A lot of fans were kind of upset. They hadn't really had a Wyoming kid on the team in years, and they finally had this group of three basically with me, Wicks and Finn. It was like, you have at least offer one of them.
 
"I feel really lucky that they picked me. They could have picked Sundance. He was an incredible athlete, obviously, and won the Milward Simpson Award."
 
Bailey, who is now Dr. Bailey and working as a radiologist in Casper, was an all-Mountain West selection as a sophomore and junior. His quest for back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and NBA dreams were dashed by a devastating knee injury nine games into his senior season.
 
While McClain's program went 82-42 with three postseason appearances during Bailey's four years, the football program struggled under Vic Koenning (5-29 from 2000-02) and Joe Glenn (4-8 in 2003) while Bramlet, Finn and McGuffey were shining in their roles.
 
"Unfortunately, in Wyoming's history it's rare to get the basketball and the football teams both having success at the same time," Bailey said of what it was like to cut down nets while three of his Milward Simpson Award peers were agonizing at the bottom of the conference. "They had some good individual players, but I don't think they won more than two or three games each year when I was there. I'm not really sure why."
 
Finn was an outstanding basketball player at Natrona. He was offered a football scholarship at UW by Dana Dimel with the understanding that he could also play basketball for McClain.
 
However, after Dimel left for Houston following his redshirt year, Koenning was elevated to head coach and quashed the agreement. Finn, whose first love was hoops, would focus exclusively on Cowboy football.
 
"I just thought it was a damn shame, honestly, that Sundance Wicks, Marcus Bailey and myself couldn't have all played college basketball at the University of Wyoming," said Finn, who is now a financial advisor hired to recent UW basketball graduates. "They waited until the very last second to even offer Marcus Bailey a scholarship. And had he not torn his ACL his senior year he was an NBA first-round prospect."
 
Before fully committing to UW, Finn took a recruiting trip to Northern State University with Wicks. The two had a "heated and deep" rivalry that began fourth grade in AAU when Finn lived in Upton and carried through high school after he moved to Casper.
 
"I picked him up and drove my mom's Ford Aerostar van to Aberdeen (S.D.), and we went on that recruiting trip together," Finn said. "Even though we were very big rivals, and I was close to Casey Bramlet, too, I was closest to Sundance as far as friendship went and respect went as a competitor. Had I not gone to the University of Wyoming to play football, I would have gone to Northern State to play basketball with Sundance."
 
Bramlet also competed in basketball against Bailey, Finn and Wicks at tournaments starting in the fourth grade and earned all-state honors in high school.
 
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Bramlet's true calling was at QB. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, spent time with six NFL teams and was the World Bowl XV most valuable player after leading the Hamburg Sea Devils to an NFL Europe championship.
 
A lot of memories came flooding back for Bramlet when Wicks was hired this spring following three seasons as an assistant under Jeff Linder an orchestrating an incredible turnaround for Green Bay during his first season as a Division I head coach.
 
"It's been fun to kind of see this group of guys just kind of follow their careers and their lives to where they're at now," said Bramlet, who is now a financial advisor in Casper and one of Bailey's neighbors. "It's funny how they kind of all migrated back this way. … I was (recently) golfing with a buddy and I hit a hit a shot into a backyard. I was looking around in the backyard, and suddenly, I hear, 'Hey, get out of my yard.' I looked up and it was Jacque, who was in town visiting his mom, and so we chatted for a little bit. Marcus lives about two blocks away, right around the right around the corner from where we're at. I had lost touch with him for a while when he was done (playing) and ran into him on the streets in Hamburg when he was over there, I think on his mission. I was playing for the Sea Devils, and we ran into each other in Germany of all places. …
 
"Then Ryan works down in Denver's as an estate planning attorney, and we've work together on a few, different things and stay in touch. We probably see each other a couple times a year and try to meet up at a Wyoming game at least once a year."
 
McGuffey led Riverton to three consecutive state football championships and had a brief stint with the St. Louis Rams after leading UW in receiving three seasons.
 
"It was just a neat experience to be able to play against those guys in high school and then have the opportunity to play with (Bramlet and Finn) in college or in Marcus' case to be able to watch him play," McGuffey said. "But I definitely think Sundance was the best athlete out of all. I'm just really excited for him to get this opportunity. It's great that we've got a guy who grew up in Wyoming who now has the opportunity to coach the Pokes."
 
During their UW days, the football players got their basketball fix playing pickup games at Half Acre. The legend of Wicks was still a frequent topic of conversation, even though he was playing thriving at the Division II level at Northern State instead of with the Pokes.
 
"I'm playing basketball with these guys at Half Acre all the time and they're talking about this guy named Sundance that they played against," said former Cowboys and NFL offensive lineman Adam Goldberg, who will be inducted into the UW Athletics Hall of Fame in September. "I'm like, who is this mythical creature? There's not a real guy named Sundance Wicks in Wyoming. Back from where I'm from in Minneapolis this is like a Paul Bunyan wives' tale. …
 
"I'm excited about Coach Wicks and having him affiliated with Wyoming athletics again. Also, those relationships are really what it's all about."
 
Brett Befus, the UW Foundation's associate vice president for development, sent Bramlet and McGuffey a text during Wicks' introductory press conference alerting them to the shout out they had received from the new head coach.
 
"I just jokingly sent a text back saying he's probably bragging about beating us for the Milward Simpson Award 25 years ago," Bramlet said with a laugh.
 
McGuffey said watching Wicks' speech online gave him goosebumps. Finn believes Wicks' late arrival as the new head of the UW basketball family is perfect timing in this new era of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness opportunities for players.
 
"I think Wyoming needs this. Wyoming needs Sundance the leader, but also Sundance the character, the brand," Finn said. "I think it's been a long time coming to have an opportunity for a native to not only coach, but just be part of the Wyoming program to rebuild it."
 
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.