LARAMIE – To celebrate 100 years of Wyoming basketball, fans voted on the program's "All-Century Team."
 
Curt Jimerson was not selected as one of the top 10 players in program history, but the pioneering Poke attended the 2005 event feting the fabulous group.
 
Jimerson was the star of the reunion in the eyes of the greatest Cowboy stars.
 
Hardwood icons from different eras – Flynn Robinson, Charles Bradley, Fennis Dembo, Reginald Slater – approached Jimerson to shake his hand and thank him for "opening the door."
 
Twenty years after the memorable assembly of basketball talent and 62 years after his final season competing in a brown and gold uniform, Jimerson will join the list of all-time Cowboys in the UW Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Jimerson – the first Black men's basketball player to earn a scholarship and all-conference honors at UW – will be inducted on Sept. 6.
 
"He was my hero," said Kevin McKinney, UW's longtime director of sports information and associate athletic director. "As a kid, I would listen to the Cowboys on the radio in my bed listening to (Larry) Birleffi and I had no idea that he was Black, had no idea what he looked like. No kidding. I just loved the name Curt Jimerson."
 
Jimerson had the game to go with the name.
 
During the 1960-61 season, Jimerson led the Cowboys in field-goal percentage (.421) and was second in scoring (11.6 ppg) and free-throw percentage (.807) while earning honorable mention All-Skyline Conference honors.
 
During the 1961-62 season, Jimerson led the team in scoring (17.5 ppg) and free-throw percentage (.794) to earn All-Skyline first team status as a senior.
 
After playing much of his career with a blurred view of the rim, Jimerson tried wearing glasses and finished with 34 points and 16 made field goals to lead the Pokes to a 71-70 victory over Nebraska on Dec. 20, 1961.
 
The popular big man on campus participated in a variety of activities at UW, including helping run the "chain gang" during home football games. He recalls getting an earful from Bob Devaney while holding the first down marker on the sideline in a tense moment at War Memorial Stadium.
 
"Devaney ran over and said, 'I need a foot!" Jimerson said with a laugh. "He yanked the pole out of my hand, and I almost fell over. He got his first down."
 
UW's three-year scholarship offer, despite Jimerson only having two years of eligibility remaining following an All-American career at CSU Pueblo (formerly Pueblo Junior College), is the reason he ended up in Laramie.
 
"It's tough to get a degree in four years playing that much basketball," Jimerson said. "When they gave me that third year free, I took off for Wyoming. I had no idea where I was going or anything."
 
Jimerson's journey to realizing his hoop dreams and his life after graduating from UW with a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1963 would make for an extraordinary Hollywood script.
 
Growing up in El Paso, Texas, with his stepfather, mother and nine siblings, Jimerson was one of eight Black students to integrate Austin High School in 1955.
 
"It made me a better person," Jimerson said of breaking color barriers and overcoming adversity during the Civil Rights Movement. "They used to preach all the time, separate but equal. And I always thought it was separate but equal. But I just couldn't believe what the white school that I went to had that we did not have in my first nine years of education. That really set me back. I didn't mind going to school with all Black kids, but I thought we all had the same materials to work with and everything."
 
On the court, Jimerson was a high school All-American. His primary rival, Bowie High standout Nolan Richardson, went on to coach Arkansas to three Final Four appearances and the 1994 NCAA championship.
 
After graduating from high school, Jimerson thrived while playing for Harry Simmons at CSU Pueblo. On Jan. 2, 1960, he scored 41 points against Casper College.
 
The plan was to play his final three seasons in the Big Eight for Colorado. Then one day while studying in Simmons' office Jimerson saw an opened letter on the desk written by Russell "Sox" Walseth, the subject of which was the head coach's plan for him in Boulder.
 
"This is right when I was getting ready to transfer up there and, in this letter, Sox says to my coach, 'I'm excited about having Jimerson come up here. However, the boosters do not want two Negroes in the starting lineup, so my plan is to leave Jimerson on the bench for the first three minutes of the game. Then I insert him into the game, he plays the rest of the game and everybody's happy,'" Jimerson recalled. "I turned everything down, so I was I was kind of stuck. My junior college coach wanted to know why I didn't want to go there. I couldn't tell him I'd read this letter, so I told him that it was just too big of a school. I wanted to go to a smaller school than that."
 
Jimerson was going to play alongside Richardson at Texas Western (now known as UTEP) under legendary head coach Don Haskins, who was building the program into a powerhouse. The Miners would win the 1966 national title over Kentucky with an all-Black starting lineup; a historical breakthrough season featured in the movie "Glory Road."
 
The local newspaper ran a splashy story about Jimerson and Richardson, two of the best prep players to come out of El Paso, joining forces in college.
 
But there was one catch: Jimerson's hometown team wanted him to move back into his crowded childhood home instead of the dorms.
 
"I called the coach and told him I needed to be in the dorm because I don't have a place to study at home. And he told me, to go to the library," Jimerson said. "So, they were out."
 
UW head coach Bill Strannigan benefited from having Jimerson on the court for two seasons and serving as a student assistant while finishing his degree.
 
Jimerson and Ron Bostick, a forward from Saratoga Springs, N.Y. who left after the 1960-61 season, are likely the second and third Blacks to play basketball for the Cowboys. Taft Harris, a reserve on the 1932-33 team, is believed to be the first.
 
Following his UW days, Jimerson became the first Black recruit for the FBI in the El Paso office. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1964, completing his military duty as a Sargeant, E-5, specializing in counterintelligence.
 
Jimerson was honorably discharged in May 1967 following his service in Vietnam combat zones. He received eight decorations.
 
In 1968, Jimerson graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., and was elevated to the status of agent. He was the only Black in his class of 20. During his decorated career he specialized fighting organized crime and was also part of several infamous investigations, including the Patty Hearst kidnapping (1974) and the Jonestown mass suicide in Guyana (1978).
 
Jimerson, who retired from the FBI in 1995 and then worked as both a security representative for the NBA and as head of security for the Golden State Warriors, still lives in the Bay Area. He is easy to spot in the crowd every season when the Cowboys play at San Jose State.
 
"It was not easy for him, but I know he is so proud of his time at Wyoming and so proud of Wyoming," McKinney said. "Every game he's got his brown Wyoming sweater on; he's always got something brown or gold. I absolutely think the world of him and I'm so proud that he got in. I wish it would have been sooner, but he deserves to be in there if anybody does."
 
Jimerson will be joined in the 2025 class by Josh Allen (football, 2015-17), Casey Bramlet (football, 2000-2003), Hugh Lowham (wrestling, 1962-64), Mike Mulvaney (baseball, 1985-88), Lori Kline Waddell (women's basketball, 1979, 1981-83), and John Wendling (football, 2003-06).
 
(Editor's note: This is the third in a seven-part series profiling the 2025 UW Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame class. Tickets to the induction banquet on Sept. 6 in the Gateway Center can be purchased here: https://one.bidpal.net/wyohalloffame2025/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. 
 
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