With UCLA losing to Wyoming in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec.
23, our inbox has been flooded with e-mails from proud Cowboy fans.
Many of them took exception to Gilbert Quiñonez’s column
“Wyoming match-up raises the question: Why?” As of last
count, we are nearing 2,700 responses from Wyoming fans across the
country. Here’s a sample of what they’ve had to
say.
Leave the spotlight on the game
As someone who has made a living in the newspaper business for
35 years, and covered major league baseball the last 29, I must say
I was disappointed in Quiñonez’s column about the Vegas
Bowl.
A rather hackneyed, trite and ignorant approach to writing is to
belittle places so you can gain attention. It is sad to see a young
journalist who tries to create a column so that he can become part
of the story.
We don’t have several million people in Wyoming. Truth be
told, we don’t want several million people in Wyoming. We
kind of like being a remote, hick area where you deal with people
on a first-name basis, showing them respect and getting respect in
return. We like living in a place where you can afford to live. We
like open space, blue skies, fresh air and a state government that
responds to the citizens. It’s not for everybody. Thank God.
If too many people liked it, then we wouldn’t have the things
we enjoy.
Oh, I didn’t go to college at a young age, like
Quiñonez. I made it to where I am in the business by trying to
be honest and fair, attributes I learned growing up in Wyoming.
In closing, I’d like to say I hope Quiñonez outgrows
the smart-aleck approach to writing. The business needs
hard-working, sincere writers who are more concerned about getting
a story told accurately than creating a situation in which they
become part of the story.
Tracy Ringolsby Baseball writer, Rocky Mountain
News
Have California all to yourselves
My dear Californians,
It bothers me that you make fun of our football team (the
University of Wyoming Cowboys) and great state, considering the
state of affairs in California ““ a broken, mismanaged state
with high crime, so much smog that you can’t breathe, so much
traffic that you can’t get anywhere, a political system that
is dysfunctional, and now, sports writers who couldn’t find
their ass with both hands in the dark. If Wyoming only has two
national parks to speak of, it is two national parks more than
California because the only thing that California has more than
Wyoming is people ““ stupid people who think they know
football.
Next time, tell your team to show up.
Chuck Gams Cowley, Wyoming
Show some good sportsmanship
I believe that in supporting our own team, we should not sink so
low as to attack the individual person or state. People should be
able to have the decency to accept the fact that one team was voted
above another.
There are many more important things that we should be concerned
with. Our country already has enough conflict in Iraq. Why stir up
even more among the people?
I do not know the reaction of people in UCLA, because although
you give one opinion, you do not discuss the reaction of everyone.
In Wyoming, many people were excited to be attending a Bowl game. I
never heard anyone attacking your state at all. In your article,
you not only attack the team, but you also attack the state of
Wyoming itself. You state that we only have national parks going
for us and we are nothing but “open space.”
However, because we have a lower population than Alaska, we also
have a lot less pollution in our state.
We should all calm ourselves down and practice good
sportsmanship. We are the United States after all, why don’t
we show others that we truly are united and a little thing such as
a football game will not set one state against another.
Michelle Hoehn Laramie, Wyoming
Column had no reason to be printed
This “story” did raise the question: Why? As in why
was it written? Why would any paper, even one from UCLA, print this
insulting, bigoted piece of trash?
I’m really sorry that UCLA felt insulted by having to play
a game against Wyoming. It’s a good thing no one printed a
piece about how much Wyoming sucks, they might make themselves and
the paper that printed it look like major asses. (Oh, I forgot, you
did print a story like that, didn’t you?)
And as I told Quiñonez, I do know how to use a computer,
probably better than most people at your paper.
So, in closing, please, don’t ever come to Wyoming. And
your paper can also remove its proverbial foot from its bigoted,
insulting mouth.
Stu Miller Rock Springs, Wyoming
Wyoming has UCLA’s number
After reading this column, I was confused. Why would
Quiñonez belittle the Bruins, and then turn around and make
the statement that the Bruins were the team that got shafted the
most after the recent BCS bowl selections? Anybody who has actually
worn a jock strap and participated in a Division I football game
knows that Auburn and Cal have the most to complain about.
Is the smog affecting you Quiñonez? Maybe a trip to Wyoming
is exactly what you need. Fresh air, wildlife, down to earth people
and views as far as the eyes can see.
I for one do appreciate you sharing what the “real”
world is like. I’m just surprised that your telegram reached
us so quickly. The Pony Express does tend to be rather slow from
time to time, especially when they reach “the middle of
nowhere”!
I was taught to think before I opened my mouth. Maybe you should
thank the Vegas Bowl Committee for allowing the Bruins to go to a
bowl game. Maybe you should have played Notre Dame; it would have
been the match-up of the most storied 6-5 teams in the nation.
UCLA’s athletic tradition is second to none. I believe
some of the finest athletes in the world have attended UCLA. Reggie
Miller, Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Walton, Evelyn
Ashford, Corey Pavin and John Godina, just to name a few. Wait a
minute, John Godina? He is one of the world’s best in the
shot put. Could he really have found his way to UCLA all the way
from Wyoming?
Good luck, Bruins, I wish you well. Remember March 14, 1987,
Quiñonez? It was the last time UCLA was heavily favored over a
Wyoming team. Those country bumpkins showed the “big city
folk” that you should never take Wyoming lightly! 78-68
Pokes.
Cory Talich Former Wyoming football player