SpecialFeature

The game was everything it was built up to be with even play in the first half. After 12 minutes of play, CU’s team Captian Art Quinlan kicked a 37 yard
field goal to put the Boulderites on the board. The Aggies and their outstanding halfback/kicker Jack Houser countered with a field goal of their own in the
second quarter. Quinlan missed a 33 yard field goal just before halftime and the score was tied at intermission.

The defensive efforts of both teams were brilliant and only the Aggies came close to crossing the goal line in the first half. The two teams fought back and
forth during the third quarter and late in the period Quinlan once again attempted a field goal from the 40 that came up five yards short and recovered by the
Aggies. As the third quarter ended in the same 3-3 tie, it was apparent the last team to score could be the winner.

Midway through the fourth, Aggie Jack Houser dropped back for a 50 yard field goal that reportedly missed by inches. Houser was unquestionably the
greatest kicker/punter of the first 30 years of Aggie football and possibly the best of the Aggie era. This set up an intense ending as both teams fought
desperately.

Late in the fourth quarter Houser punted the ball down to the CU 12 yard line where Quinlan took the ball and ran 63 yards to the Aggie 25 yard line. Houser,
the punter and last Aggie for Quinlan to beat made a sensational tackle grabbing Quinlan by one foot and pulling him down. CU fought their way down to the
Aggie four yard line with less than two minutes left to play.

With the game and championship on the line and CU at the four yard line on fourth and one, Myron Witham decided to have Quinlan kick the field goal to go
ahead. As Quinlan dropped back to his 15 yard line to kick the field goal, Aggie tackle Julius “Hans” Wagner blocked Quinlan’s kick and the CU captain
recovered his own kick. As fate and the rules of 1923 would have it, CU remained in possession of the ball.

After CU’s Fred Hartshorn made a one yard run, Quinlan kicked the field goal on second down from the Aggie 25 yard line to win the game and
championship. CU fans rushed the field as Aggie fans could not believe the luck of their Boulder rivals. This game would seal the deal for the rivalry as both
schools went into a 12 year period of fighting one another for the conference or state championship and made their annual game the biggest game of one
another’s season.

November 22, 1958 – Closing Rivalry?

By 1958, a full 35 years since the two schools had truly become one another’s greatest
rivals; a lot had changed in Colorado Football. The University of Colorado dropped out
of the conference after the 1947 season to join the Big Seven conference as the Aggies
transitioned into Colorado State University in 1957. From 1948 to 1957, the Aggies
and Buffaloes’ records were 3-7 in favor of the Boulder school. CSU was growing as
an educational institution, however its athletic future was declining. Former Colorado
A & M coach Bob Davis was now the athletic director and his former assistant coach
and player from the Raisin Bowl, Don “Tuffy” Mullison was now the head coach. The
Aggies, now called the Rams more and more were still playing in old and run-down
Colorado Field.

After playing the 1957 game at Colorado Field, CU announced they would no longer
schedule football games with CSU due to their “poor level of competition.” The
Buffaloes felt the CSU game was pointless since they were not in the same conference
and they had nothing to gain but everything to lose. After attending the January 1, 1957
Orange Bowl, CU felt they needed to ply a higher level of competition and the Rams
were not it.

On November 22, 1958, Tuffy Mullison and his Rams traveled to Folsom Field to play
what was believed to be the last game the two schools would ever play. The Denver
papers all gave CU the win before they ever stepped onto the field. CU was recognized
nationally as one of the country’s best football teams but CSU was nowhere on the
radar. After all, CU had only lost to powerhouses Missouri and Oklahoma that season
and they were not going to lose to the 4-4 Rams in Boulder.

According to Joe Crider, backup quarterback for the Rams, “the week of the game
Tuffy had the whole team up and ready to beat CU.” Crider went on to say in a recent
interview, “although I was from New Mexico, those kids from Colorado hated CU and
we all wanted to beat them something terrible.” They believed they could do it and
practiced every play in their book to get ready.

As the game ticked on, the Rams were trailing 14-7 with minutes remaining in the game.
Earlier in the day, Ram Wayne Schneider had run a spectacular 84 yard rush for CSU’s
only score of the game. With Freddie Glick, last brother of the great Glick family at
quarterback, Schneider once again scored a Rams’ touchdown with only 4:19
remaining in the game. Glick had engineered an amazing drive that stunned the Buff fans
but still left the Rams trailing 13-14 with the PAT left to make.

Mullison, flustered by the comeback made a risky call that he had practiced during the
week before the CU game. He replaced Glick for his sophomore quarterback Joe
Crider; a top recruit who had earned All-American high school quarterback honors in
1956. A new rule had been instituted in NCAA football in 1958 allowing for a two
point conversion on one play if the ball crossed the goal line on a pass or run. Mullison
banked on the fact CU had not seen any two point plays and Crider called a “sprint out
right option run” play.

As Crider lined up for the conversion play, he spotted CU All-American John Wooten
who had been a high school teammate of his in New Mexico. As soon as Wooten and
Crider made eye contact, Wooten called out to his CU team that it was a “pass, pass,
pass” and he was correct. Crider ran right and passed the ball to Wayne Schneider for
the first two-point conversion in CSU football history to put the Rams ahead with little
time remaining on the clock.

In the final four minutes CU desperately tried to get down the field to score but the
Rams were too tough with momentum and the final game in the first half of the rivalry
ended CSU 15 and CU 14. Ram fans poured onto the CU field to tear down the
goalposts as a keepsake for this momentous game. The series would seemingly end as a
CSU win.

November 25, 1923 – Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day 1923 marked one of the greatest football days in the history of
Colorado up to that moment in time. The undefeated University of Colorado football
team under the leadership of Coach Myron Witham traveled to Fort Collins to take on
the tired and well-traveled Colorado Aggies, themselves undefeated in the conference.
Both teams were tied for first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and the
winner of this game would lay claim to the champions of 1923.

The Aggies had suffered only one defeat that season, a very close 10-0 loss to Big 10
defending champions University of Chicago in Chicago. The “Withamites” of Boulder
had not lost any games that season but also had not played a team nearly as tough as
Chicago. Odds makers gave the game to CU as the Aggies were beaten and tired after
traveling nearly 4,000 miles by train during the season.

The morning of November 25 in Fort Collins began with the largest influx in the cities
history of people for a football game to that time. Hotels were overcrowded and by
11am there was not a restaurant in town that had a seat left. The two-lane highway
from Denver to Fort Collins was packed three cars wide all of the way into Fort Collins
as train loads of fans invaded the Aggie campus. People from as far away as Western
Nebraska, Wyoming, New Mexico and Kansas had come to Fort Collins to see this
match up of conference might.

Anticipating such a massive crowd, Aggie business manager Clark Alford arranged for
temporary bleachers to be added to the east side of Colorado Field. He also arranged for
railroad trestles to be built in the south and north end zones. It was said that 20,000
people crowded their way into Colorado Field for the game; a stadium built to hold just
7,000 on its best day. A nearly equal number of football fans crowded the downtown
district of Fort Collins; unable to get into the game but still place their bets.

September 17, 1983 - Fum’s Quest

CSU athletic director Thurman “Fum” McGraw had done more to rebuild Ram football than
the previous athletic directors had since 1968. In 1983, McGraw forced CU athletic director
Eddie Crowder to renew the great rivalry after 25 years of not playing one another. The Buffs
had commanded college football in Colorado after the University of Denver dropped the sport
in 1961 and CSU had fallen on tough times. McGraw was doing everything he could to rebuild
the program and returning this rivalry to the state of Colorado was just what was needed.

The CU administration reluctantly agreed to play the Rams in 1983 with games scheduled in
1985 and 1986 as well; all at Folsom Field. CU was rebuilding their program under second year
head coach Bill McCartney. Rams coach Leon Fuller was himself in his second season as head
football coach and both schools needed these type of games to bring enthusiasm to rebuilding
programs.

The hype was huge as the Coloradoan wrote story after story getting ready for the big game.
McGraw was on the last team to beat CU in Boulder (1949) and had a special dislike for CU as
any true fan of the green and gold would. The game was nothing exciting for Ram fans as the
Buffs beat them easily. But the rivalry was back and it brought people to the stadium and
created an intense atmosphere not seen in the Rocky Mountain Region for many years.

In 1986 the Rams upset the Buffs at Folsom Field and in 1987 CU played their first game ever
at Hughes Stadium; 19 years after it was constructed. Since the rivalry was reinstated 25 years
ago, there have been 20 games played with CSU coming out the winner in only five of those
games. When the rivalry moved to Denver for the “Rocky Mountain Showdown” in 1998, the
records changed considerably. Since coming to Denver (not counting the two games in
Boulder in 2004 and 2005) the records are an even 4-4.

This historic rivalry is once again the biggest college football game played annually in the state
of Colorado. It is also the oldest rivalry CSU has in number of years since the first game was
played. (1893) A new era in Ram football begins in 2008 with the Rocky Mountain Showdown
and it is always anyone’s ballgame when played in Denver.

GO RAMS!