LARAMIE – They did not win a conference championship or receive an invitation to a bowl game.
 
But the 1996 Wyoming football team delivered one of the most exciting and memorable seasons in program history.
 
Three decades after the Cowboys – led by WAC Coach of the Year Joe Tiller, Biletnikoff Award winner Marcus Harris and 4,000-yard passer Josh Wallwork – finished 10-2 overall and No. 22 in the final Associated Press poll, the group will be inducted into the UW Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
A large contingent of the 1996 Pokes will return to Laramie for the sold-out banquet Sept. 11 and will be honored at halftime during UW's home opener against Northern Colorado on Sept. 12 at War Memorial Stadium.
 
"A bunch of us had talked about doing a 30-year reunion and all meeting up and going to a game," said Wallwork, who lives in Hawaii and will be making the journey back to the High Plains. "Then this all came about, and it's pretty awesome. That team was special for sure."
 
A wild start
 
The momentum for the memorable ride began with a three-game winning streak to end the 1995 season. UW opened the 1996 campaign with a wild 40-38 comeback victory over Idaho.
 
Wallwork finished with 485 passing yards and three touchdowns, while Cory Wedel tied the school record with six field goals as the Pokes rallied from a 15-point deficit to vanquish the Vandals.
 
UW's defense surrendered 665 total yards, including 587 through the air, but sniffed out a fake punt to swing the game in the third quarter.
 
"I remember that one," safety Brian Lee recalled. "It was just like trying to do everything we could, but nothing was working. They were throwing it up, they were making completions, but our offense just kept coming back. It was wild to win that one. We had that never-give-up kind of mentality."
 
The mindset traveled with Tiller's talented team to Ames, Iowa, for a Big 12 road test.
 
UW dug another 15-point hole, trailing Iowa State 38-23 in the fourth quarter. Then Jay Jenkins made a spectacular one-handed interception to turn the tide.
 
Wallwork took advantage of the turnover with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Harris, and Greg Kuhn added a 2-point conversion to get the Cowboys within a touchdown.
 
Len Sexton scored on a 3-yard touchdown run in the closing moments of regulation. But after Wedel kicked the extra point to tie the score 38-38, he had to kick to Troy Davis, who led the nation with more than 2,185 yards rushing and 21 touchdowns that season.
 
The Heisman Trophy candidate, who scampered for 155 yards and two touchdowns against UW, nearly delivered a game-winning return until Wedel got in his way.
 
"The Red Sea parted and it's me standing between Troy Davis and a touchdown for the Cyclones," Wedel said. "For some reason, he kept toward the sideline, and I got him out of bounds with a tackle. If he cuts inside, we probably lose that game."
 
The Cyclones won the toss but inexplicably elected to take the first possession in the first overtime game in FBS history. The Cowboys defense forced a missed field goal.
 
Wedel then delivered the 41-38 victory with a 41-yard field goal.
 
"That is one of my most memorable kicks," Wedel said. "I knew from the moment it left my foot, it was in. I didn't even watch it cross the goalposts. I was running toward the sideline before it ever crossed because I knew it."
 
Wallwork finished with 386 passing yards and four touchdowns, while Harris caught 16 passes for 223 yards and two scores against Iowa State.
 
Building momentum
 
Tiller's offensive machine kept rolling, and the defense gained some confidence during a 66-0 demolition of Hawaii the next week.
 
On Sept. 21, 1996, the Cowboys defeated Air Force 22-19 in front of a crowd of 31,009 at War Memorial Stadium. Wedel made a 19-yard field goal with 36 seconds remaining, and Lee Vaughn sealed the victory with an interception of Beau Morgan at the UW 39-yard line.
 
"This team believes in itself," Tiller told reporters after the game. "It believes it can win no matter what the circumstances. It has great resolve."
 
The Pokes won their next five games by double digits, beginning with a 33-21 victory at UNLV. Two months later, the struggling Rebels would play a key role in the story of the season.
 
UW was ranked No. 25 before a 45-22 win at San Jose State, No. 24 before a 42-28 victory over Western Michigan, No. 23 before a 42-21 win over Fresno State and No. 17 before a 59-17 victory over SMU in the home finale.
 
"You start getting a little confidence in what you're doing, and you expect everyone to be doing everything right," Harris said. "We had a great group of seniors and underclassmen who just came to play at the same time for the same things. I think sometimes if you stick it out and you stay on your course, then you get the reward of having a season like that."
 
UW was 9-0 and ranked No. 16 entering a Thursday night game at San Diego State on ESPN.
 
"The morning of the game, the USA Today was (placed) by the doors of our hotel rooms and there was a story about Wyoming being 9-0 and blah, blah, blah," Wallwork said. "Then it kind of hit. I remember thinking, 'Wow, we're doing really good.'
 
"And then we freaking lost that game. We were ahead with like four or five minutes left. We kind of went into a prevent defense, and they just kind of went draw, screen, draw, screen, and scored. We only had 30-something seconds left and got down there and took a shot at the end zone. That was a heartbreaker. We should have won that game."
 
Heartbreak in San Diego
 
Thirty years later, Wallwork's memory of the loss remains vivid.
 
SDSU quarterback Billy Blanton scored on an 11-yard touchdown run with 38 seconds remaining to give the Aztecs a 28-24 lead. UW drove to the SDSU 26-yard line, but Wallwork's final pass was broken up in the end zone.
 
"I think if we had 12 more seconds on the clock, you might be writing a different storyline," Tiller told the Casper Star-Tribune's Ron Gullberg that night.
 
In the Nov. 8, 1996, edition of the Los Angeles Times, legendary columnist Bill Plaschke wrote about UW's 12-game winning streak, then the nation's longest active streak, coming to a painful end:
 
"They were going to win Thursday, defeat Colorado State next week, win the WAC championship against Brigham Young, and play against Colorado in the Cotton Bowl. And once there, what a story it would have been."
 
Fortunately, arguably the greatest chapter in Border War history was about to be written.
 
'The Drive'
 
The Cowboys were 6-1 in conference play as they prepared for a bitter Border War in the bitter cold.
 
The rival Rams, who were also 6-1 in conference, could clinch the Pacific Division and a spot in the inaugural championship game of the expanded 16-team WAC with a victory.
 
CSU entered the game as the two-time reigning WAC champion and 9-0 in November games under head coach Sonny Lubick. The Bronze Boot had also resided in Fort Collins from 1993-95.
 
"You just gave me the goosebumps talking about it, so that should explain it," Wallwork said of playing in such a high-stakes Border War. "I literally just got the goosebumps from head to toe. I mean, they had beat us my junior year in Laramie. There was a lot on the line.
 
"But not only that, we all just hated them, they hated us. There was no love lost, there was a lot of smack talking in that game, there were a lot of cheap shots, there was a lot of stuff going on, and it made it even better to beat them in their house."
 
A snowstorm blanketed Fort Collins in the days leading up to the game. The field was plowed during the pregame, and the temperature was 21 degrees at kickoff, with wind swirling and light snow falling inside Hughes Stadium.
 
The Cowboys led 13-0 at halftime, but the Rams appeared to seize control with 24 unanswered points in the third quarter. Wallwork threw two interceptions and the team lost three fumbles to stymie the offense until crunch time.
 
Vaughn once again came up with a big turnover, recovering a fumble to set up a 2-yard touchdown scamper by Sexton that cut the deficit to 24-19.
 
CSU's next drive stalled near midfield. Instead of going for the dagger, Lubick decided to punt, and a well-executed special teams play pinned the Pokes at their own 4-yard line with 8:05 remaining.
 
"Their quarterback was struggling, so we elected to punt," Lubick said in the Border War book. "If we make a first down at midfield and go down and score, the game is probably over. You know how that goes. But we downed the ball on the 4-yard line. They had 96 yards to go march down field to beat us."
 
What happened next is known simply as "The Drive."
 
The unflappable Wallwork, who briefly hobbled out of the game for a few plays with a knee injury, was back in the huddle to lead the iconic series.
 
"He was a free spirit," Tiller said of Wallwork, who passed for 6,453 yards with 54 touchdowns over the 1995 and 1996 seasons. "That's about the best way I could put it."
 
Wallwork went 6-for-8 for 68 yards on UW's methodical march. He completed passes to four different receivers.
 
"There were some wide eyes in the huddle to start the drive, and then everyone settled in," Harris said. "And, you know, 96 yards later, that drive is still talked about today. Pretty special."
 
Harris set a Hughes Stadium record with 16 catches on the muddy field, but three gutsy running plays behind All-American guard Steve Scifres and UW's bruising offensive line decided the game.
 
"They distributed the Pacific Division championship hats. They had already brought them over to the CSU sideline, and they were handing them out," Scifres said of the sweet comeback that stunned the Rams. "I live in Windsor (Colo.) now and there are lots of CSU fans. I still can't stand CSU as far as a football team. I mean, I have an appreciation for the university, but it stops there."
 
Running back Marques Brigham converted a third-and-1 and a fourth-and-1 on the ground and then burst through a hole for a 6-yard touchdown to give the visitors a 25-24 lead.
 
"I think I can definitely say with that run I found peace in myself," Brigham, one of 25 Cowboy players from Colorado on the team, said after the game. "I knew something good would happen."
 
The 14-play, 96-yard drive chewed 6:17 off the clock, but UW's 2-point conversion attempt failed. That cracked the door open for CSU to steal the victory after getting the ball back with 1:48 remaining.
 
Lee slammed it shut by intercepting Moses Moreno.
 
"I just read my reads, stepped up where I should have been, and I would have thought he would have pulled the ball back," Lee said. "But he threw it, and luckily, I caught it. Being from Colorado, it was an exciting time for my family and myself."
 
The Cowboys recaptured the Bronze Boot but still needed SDSU to lose to clinch a spot in the WAC title game. About an hour after the Border War, previously winless UNLV stunned the Aztecs, 44-42.
 
"We were on our way back home and the whole bus was going crazy," linebacker Brian Brown said.
 
Tiller joked that it wasn't until the fifth or sixth phone call he received about the Rebels' victory that he started to believe it was true.
 
The 20th-ranked Cowboys (10-1, 7-1) were officially the Pacific Division champions and would face No. 6 BYU, the Mountain Division champion, in the WAC championship game in Las Vegas.
 
One more thriller
 
A crowd of 41,238 packed Sam Boyd Stadium for the matchup, which aired nationally on ABC.
 
The Cougars led 13-0 at halftime, but Jenkins returned a fumble 25 yards for a touchdown and Wedel added a 20-yard field goal in the third quarter as the Cowboys stormed back.
 
UW took a 17-13 lead on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Wallwork to David Saraf in the fourth quarter. After a touchdown pass by Steve Sarkisian, Wallwork and Saraf connected again on a 14-yard touchdown that gave the Cowboys a 25-20 lead.
 
"Kind of the typical WAC game. Back and forth, big plays, close plays. It felt like it was tight the whole game and you didn't know who was going to win," Wedel said. "It was nerve-wracking the whole game. It came down to one play here or there and could have gone either way."
 
With the offense pinned at its own goal line, Tiller made the controversial decision to take a safety that allowed BYU to get within 25-22. The ensuing punt did not go well.
 
BYU took advantage of the short field as placekicker Ethan Pochman made a 20-yard field goal to tie the score at the end of regulation. Wedel uncharacteristically missed a field goal in overtime, and Pochman hit the game-winning 32-yard field goal to give the Cougars a dramatic 28-25 overtime victory.
 
The Pokes went from the thrill of the Border War victory to the agony of the WAC championship defeat.
 
"That game is still a hard pill to swallow," Wallwork said. "I was literally crying in the locker room after, sobbing like a little kid. We definitely gave it our all. Our defense, offense, everybody gave it everything they had, and it just wasn't our day."
 
Adding insult to injury for the emotionally drained Cowboys was the Copper Bowl's decision to invite 8-3 Utah to represent the WAC instead of 10-2 UW. The Utes were drubbed 38-10 by Wisconsin.
 
"I can't say on camera what I think about that," linebacker Jim Talich said after the WAC title game. "It's a shame if we don't go to a bowl. We gave BYU everything they could handle."
 
BYU defeated Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl to finish 14-1 and No. 5 in the AP poll. There were no other WAC bowl ties available for the Pokes.
 
"What bothers me is less of that WAC championship game and more what transpired after the game," Harris said. "The game itself was one of the most incredible games that anyone could play in or coach in or be a part of as a fan. It was up and down, and it offered everything. But not getting to go to a bowl game was kind of a slap in the face, in my opinion.
 
"BYU was a great team, so I thought no matter what we were going to be reaping some benefits of what we've accomplished with a bowl game, and it just didn't go down that way."
 
A legacy that endures
 
Tiller, who Scifres described as the "Bobby Fischer" of offensive football coaches, left UW after the season to become the head coach at Purdue. He led the Boilermakers to a Big Ten championship and the Rose Bowl in 2000.
 
In six seasons leading the Cowboys, Tiller posted a 39-30-1 overall record and guided the team to a share of the 1993 WAC championship.
 
"Joe might have gone to Purdue, but he was still a Cowboy at heart," Lee said of Tiller, who lived in Buffalo, Wyo., after retiring in 2008 until his death in 2017. "He was a great mentor, a great mind. I'm very happy that he chose to let me be part of it."
 
Offensive coordinator Larry Korpitz followed Tiller to Purdue but had to return to Laramie after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died in July 1997 at the age of 47.
 
Defensive coordinator Brock Spack held the same position under Tiller with the Boilermakers from 1997 through 2008 before taking the head coaching job at Illinois State. He has compiled a 123-79 record leading the Redbirds and led the program to the FCS championship game last season.
 
UW finished ninth nationally in scoring at 38.7 points per game while allowing only 23.7 points per game.
 
Harris, who led the FBS with 1,650 receiving yards and 13 receiving touchdowns, won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's most outstanding receiver and capped his legendary career as a unanimous All-American. He finished ninth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy and graduated as the NCAA's all-time leader in receiving yards with 4,518.
 
Wallwork led the FBS in completions (286) and passing yards (4,090). He tied Sarkisian for the most touchdown passes (33) in the WAC. By comparison, 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel of Florida passed for 3,625 yards and 39 touchdowns.
 
Talich led the Pokes with 138 tackles, which ranks seventh in school history for a single season. Lee set the program single-season record with eight interceptions.
 
Harris (2004), Lee (2008), Scifres (2008) and Wedel (2018) are UW Athletics Hall of Fame members. Harris, Scifres and Vaughn were selected in the 1997 NFL Draft.
 
The 1996 Cowboys were eight points away from a perfect season and a Hollywood ending.
 
"You look back and I mean, gosh, I can't believe it has been as many years as it has. But you remember those 6 a.m. workouts in the spring, you remember pushing the truck up the War Memorial Stadium ramps," Lee said. "You kind of remember all that stuff more than anything on the field. It's just crazy. It's something that's definitely missed, that camaraderie."
 
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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