Last week on the radio I talked about the University of Wyoming campus and about a large, grassy area on campus known as "Prexy's Pasture". I thought the origin of the name was funny and very representative of the state of Wyoming. "Prexy" is short for "president", and "Prexy's Pasture" was an area designated more than a hundred years ago as a place where the university president could graze his cattle. I mentioned that the current University of Wyoming president, Bob Sternberg, does not graze cattle on campus or anywhere else.
If I were telling the same story today, I wouldn't mention Bob Sternberg at all. And that's because he's no longer the president of the University of Wyoming. He resigned day before yesterday.
It's not uncommon for college presidents to resign. They do it all the time. Sometimes they move on to another job. Sometimes they retire. And occasionally they resign because things have gone haywire. Unfortunately, that last reason seems to be the case with Bob Sternberg. He had only been the president of the university since July 1st. So he had the job for a total of 137 days.
I haven't found a lot of details in the news about Sternberg's resignation. Apparently, there were a lot of people who simply didn't like his management style. And since taking the job in July, Sternberg had already accepted the resignations of five administrators and three deans. Each of those people said they were quitting because they either didn't like the way Sternberg was running things or they felt that their goals and his goals for the school didn't match. I didn't find a single news story, however, that described Sternberg's management style or his goals. Suffice to say, though, the University of Wyoming is going through just a bit of turmoil.
The Wyoming football team is going through some, too. They're 4 and 5 and haven't won since October 12th. That's after starting the season 3 and 1, with a close three-point loss to Nebraska in the opening game.
The history of Wyoming football has had its ups and downs over the years, and they've had some interesting coaches, too. Bob Devaney coached at Wyoming before ending up at Nebraska. He won back-to-back national championships in 1970 and 1971 with the Cornhuskers and coached Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers.
If you're a fan of the Texas Longhorns, you might remember Fred Akers. Fred coached at Wyoming in the mid seventies, then took over at Texas for ten years. He coached Earl Campbell to a Heisman, won two Southwest Conference titles and twice would have had undefeated national championship seasons had the Longhorns not lost both years in the Cotton Bowl. In fact, Fred was ousted at Texas for two reasons: his 1986 team finished with a losing record at 5 and 6, and his overall record in bowl games was just two wins against eight losses.
Pat Dye and Dennis Erickson each coached just one year at Wyoming. Dye moved on to Auburn, where he won four conference titles in the SEC. Erickson had been the head coach at the University of Idaho, where he was undefeated in four games against Boise State. He eventually served as head coach for Washington State, Oregon State, Arizona State, the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers, and he won two national championships at the University of Miami. He also spent one more year at Idaho in 2006 and finally lost a game to Boise State. That was the year the Broncos went 13 and 0 and beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
Wyoming has placed a number of football players in the NFL over the years. The most notable are runningback Jim Kiick, who won two Super Bowls with the Miami Dolphins in the early seventies, and tight end Jay Novacek, who won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys in the early nineties.
But my favorite Wyoming Cowboy of all time has to be wide receiver Malcom Floyd, who has played ten seasons with the San Diego Chargers and is currently on injured reserve. I like Malcom Floyd because of how he was named. He was born in 1981, and his parents, for some reason, decided to leave the naming of the new baby up to his eight-year-old brother. The brother chose the name Malcom, and the parents went along with it. They didn't even object to the fact that the eight-year-old brother, Malcolm Floyd, named the baby after himself.
