Border War (Colorado State–Wyoming rivalry)

The Border War is the name of a college rivalry between the athletic teams of Colorado State University and the University of Wyoming, the Colorado State Rams and Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls.

Background
Colorado State University is a public university in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the University of Wyoming is a public university in Laramie, Wyoming. The two campuses are around 65 miles apart via U.S. Route 287.

Bronze Boot
In 1968, the ROTC detachments of the respective schools initiated the Bronze Boot, a traveling trophy awarded to the winner of the “Border War” each year. The boot was worn in the Vietnam War by Cpt. Dan J. Romero, an Adams State College graduate and Army ROTC instructor at CSU between 1967 and 1969. Each year leading up to the Colorado State–Wyoming game, the game ball is carried in a running shuttle relay by the ROTC detachment of the visiting team along US 287 to the Colorado–Wyoming border, where the home team's ROTC detachment receives it and runs the game ball to the stadium hosting the game. The trophy is guarded by the ROTC unit of the past year's winning school during the game.

Men's basketball
The "Border War" between Colorado State and Wyoming also extends to men's basketball. The ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia considers Colorado State to be Wyoming's "fiercest rival". Wyoming has a 131–92 series lead over Colorado State as of January 7, 2015.

Notable men's basketball games

 * January 27, 1951: Colorado State beat AP #20 ranked Wyoming 62–38.
 * February 14, 1987: Wyoming won 81–78 in triple overtime. Wyoming's Reggie Fox made a tying three pointer to force the second overtime, and Turk Boyd also hit a three to force the third overtime. The ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia considers this the greatest Border War game of all time.
 * January 23, 1988: Colorado State beat #17 Wyoming 54–49.
 * March 11, 1988 (WAC Men's Basketball Tournament semifinal): #14 Wyoming beat Colorado State 60–58 and would eventually become tournament champions. With two seconds left and the game tied at 58, Eric Leckner caught a three-quarter-court-length inbounds pass at the top of the key, turned, and made a 19-foot buzzer-beating jumper falling down, to win the game for Wyoming.
 * March 9, 2000: In both schools' first seasons in the Mountain West Conference, Wyoming beat Colorado State 74–68 in quarterfinal round of the inaugural MWC basketball tournament, held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
 * March 13, 2003: In the quarterfinal round of the MWC Tournament, #6 seed Colorado State beat #3 Wyoming 74–71. Colorado State would go on to win the tournament and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
 * February 6, 2010: Colorado State won at Fort Collins over Wyoming, 80–64. In the days before the game, a Colorado State student's Facebook post proposing a "Cowboys vs. Indians" theme in which Colorado State fans would dress in Native American style. This post attracted backlash and discussion within campus, and the student deleted his post and apologized for it.
 * March 6, 2013: Colorado State won at Laramie, 78–56. However, this game became controversial because Wyoming students chanted "alcoholic" at Colorado State coach Larry Eustachy, a recovering alcoholic. At the game, fliers created by interns at the Wyoming athletics marketing office were distributed and made light of an infamous 2003 photo showing Eustachy, then the head coach at Iowa State, partying with University of Missouri students after the Missouri Tigers beat Iowa State. Wyoming's athletic director apologized for the students' behavior.

Men's basketball results
Rankings are from the AP Poll. Source for results:

Women's basketball
University of Wyoming records list two women's basketball games played against Colorado State University during the 1973-1974 season, prior to Colorado State's inaugural season. According to Colorado State records, the first game played against Wyoming was on January 29, 1975 in Laramie.

Women's basketball results
Source for results: