LARAMIE – The way Bills fans in Buffalo, N.Y., feel about Josh Allen is the way people in Buffalo, Wyo., feel about Chris Prosinski.
 
Following a decorated three-sport career at Buffalo High School, Prosinski developed into a two-time All-Mountain West selection at Wyoming, which led to an eight-year NFL career.
 
Twenty years after leading the Bison to back-to-back state football titles and winning the Milward Simson Award, Prosinski will be inducted into the UW Collegiate Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 11 in the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center.
 
"In my case, this has been something that's been in my blood for 39 years now," Prosinski said. "I grew up watching the Pokes, and not just football. I still remember the years of the Marcus Baileys and Josh Davis's, and some of those basketball runs growing up, going to football games. It was always a dream of mine to play at the University and play for the Pokes.
 
"I had that opportunity, and the (committee) who votes on this felt good enough about my career being Hall of Fame worthy, so really it just kind of puts the cherry on top of a football career that led me a lot of great places and allowed me to play at the school that I grew up rooting for and for the Wyoming people that I've always been a part of."
 
Prosinski committed to UW shortly after impressing head coach Joe Glenn and defensive coordinator Mike Breske during his performance at the program's junior day. There had been recruiting letters coming in the mail and conversations with other coaches, but that proved to be a waste of stamps and breath.
 
"I really didn't even have much of a recruiting experience, just because my mind was probably made up since day one," Prosinski said. "If I ever had the opportunity, it was going to be Wyoming."
 
During the 2006 season, Prosinski was able to redshirt and learn from John Wendling, the star safety from Rock Springs who also went on to have a notable NFL career and was inducted into the UW Athletics Hall of Fame last year.
 
The Cowboys finished a disappointing 5-7 in 2007 and 4-8 in 2008 but also notched memorable wins over Virginia, TCU and Tennessee.
 
"For me the early years with Coach Glenn, it was a pretty big transition coming from a small Wyoming school where I was playing both sides of the ball," Prosinski said. "I finally had the chance to focus on the safety position, and just I was really fortunate to be able to redshirt and learn from John Wendling. …  Honestly, having John there my freshman year was huge. And then I owe a lot of my success to Coach Glenn, and even more so, Coach Breske. I'm sure he was a little more patient with me than probably some guys coming in, which I needed."
 
Even though Prosinski felt the Pokes were solid on defense and "not far off" from winning, a coaching change was made entering his junior season with Dave Christensen replacing Glenn and bringing in a modern spread offense.
 
During the 2009 campaign, Prosinski had 17 tackles against No. 2 Texas, 16 tackles against No. 25 BYU and 13 tackles and a 98-yard fumble return for a touchdown against No. 4 TCU.
 
"I'm not sure if that's necessarily what you want, but I always loved playing in those type of games," Prosinski said of leading the team in tackles at free safety in 2009 (140) and 2010 (108). "Those games were benchmarks to see individually and as a team where you stood. We had some of those bigger games. Some of them we did play well and had a little bit of success, and some not so much. But having the opportunity to go to those places and play at Texas, at Tennessee, at Virginia, playing some of those bigger schools were certainly memorable experiences."
 
UW, which was 5-6 entering the season finale at Colorado State, lost to four ranked teams and another Power 4 team during Christensen's first season.
 
However, the dramatic 17-16 Border War victory in Fort Collins made the Cowboys bowl eligible. Freshman quarterback Austin Carta-Samuels had a 49-yard touchdown scamper, Ian Watts made a clutch 33-yard field goal to give the visitors the lead with 1:27 remaining and linebacker Ghaali Muhammad sealed the game with an interception.
 
After securing the Bronze Boot, UW stunned Fresno State with a legendary goal-line stand to win the New Mexico Bowl 35-28 in double overtime.
 
"I recall Austin Carta-Samuels had the infamous stiff arm on the sideline. Whatever was at stake when you're playing CSU, whether there was much or nothing at all on the line, it was always a big game, so that was certainly a memory winning there," Prosinski said. "Then the New Mexico Bowl, our team's first bowl experience, we were playing a really good Fresno State team with Ryan Matthews, one of the top running backs in the country. I actually linked up with Ryan for a brief stint when I was playing in Philadelphia. We were together for a little bit.

"But to face them and then have the goal-line stand, four plays within a yard or two, to be able to hold them out of the end zone and win the game was pretty memorable."
 
During his senior season in 2010, Prosinski had 12-tackle games against No. 3 Boise State and No. 10 Utah and 11-tackle performances against No. 4 Texas and New Mexico.
 
UW finished 3-9 but on senior day at War Memorial Stadium, Prosinski grabbed the Bronze Boot after a 44-0 victory over CSU, the most lopsided win for the Cowboys in the storied history of the rivalry.
 
"It was a tough season, it was challenging," Prosinski said. "But it was just a good way to cap off my career and the season, although it was a rough season, to just kind of put an exclamation mark on everything with a win like that."
 
Prosinski's football journey was far from over after starting 37 consecutive games for the Cowboys and finishing his UW career ranked fourth in career tackles with 373. He entered the NFL Draft hoping to hear his name called in the later rounds, but the Jacksonville Jaguars selected him in the fourth round with the 121^st overall pick.
 
"It was a surreal experience," Prosinski said. "A lot of kids growing up say they want to be a professional basketball player, football player. For me, that never really crossed my mind. It was always kind of dreaming to play varsity football, and then you have the opportunity to do that. Then you dream of playing at the next level in college.
 
"I really didn't even start thinking about the NFL and playing professionally until probably my junior year in college, but once I had the opportunity, I just wanted to obviously make the most of it."
 
The kid from Buffalo, the idyllic town of about 4,600 nestled in the shadow of the Big Horns, played for the Jaguars (2-11-14), Philadelphia Eagles (2014) and Chicago Bears (2015-17).
 
Prosinski's highlights included intercepting Tom Brady and receiving a game ball after helping the Bears beat Aaron Rodgers' Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. He finished his NFL career with 164 tackles in 88 games.
 
"I think if you would have told me after my first season in the NFL that I'd be able to play that long, I would have taken that for sure," Prosinski said. "It's a cutthroat business. They're always looking for younger guys that cost less. I was able to carve out a position on the special teams side of things, and kind of found a niche there. I was a solid backup, and I think that's what coaches wanted is for you to be able to contribute on special teams and then be reliable if I needed to go into the game at some point.
 
"There's luck involved with that to be able to stay healthy, and I didn't have any severe injuries in my career. I felt very fortunate within those seven, eight years to only play for three teams. There's a lot of turnover, so I was very blessed, very fortunate that it all played out like it did."
 
Prosinski, a three-time all-MW academic team selection and team captain at UW who was nominated for the William V. Campbell Trophy, commonly referred to as the "Academic Heisman," has returned to his home state and is a financial advisor and partner at Eliason Financial in Sheridan.
 
While the Buffalo, Wyo., native still pulls for the Jaguars, Eagles and Bears, Prosinski also roots for the 2025 UW Athletics Hall of Fame inductee who wears No. 17 in Buffalo, N.Y.
 
"I would love to see Josh Allen get one," Prosinski said. "I'm pretty much just like the rest of Wyoming – a Bills fan."
 
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.
 
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