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Border War (Colorado State–Wyoming rivalry)

college football rivalry between Colorado State and Wyoming

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ5148960 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Border War is the name of a college rivalry between the athletic teams of the Colorado State University Rams and the University of Wyoming Cowboys/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. Both teams were inaugural members of the Mountain West Conference from 1999 until CSU left in 2026 for the Pac-12 Conference, and were previously both members of the Western Athletic Conference from 1968 to 1999.

Football

The football rivalry between the two schools dates back to Thanksgiving Day, November 30, 1899. In the first ever matchup between the two schools and the first game that Colorado Agricultural (now known as Colorado State) ever played outside of Colorado, a disagreement between officials from the two schools resulted in a controversial ending to the game.

At the time, officials were provided by the schools competing in the game. The game concluded with a Wyoming forfeit being called after Colorado Agricultural official Edward House ruled that Wyoming official E.D. McArthur and the Wyoming team were refusing to abide by the rulebook. After the forfeit was called and the Colorado Agricultural players began leaving the field, official McArthur reportedly exclaimed that he "did not give a damn for the rules" and instructed the Wyoming team to run in a touchdown. This action reportedly set off a brawl between the teams.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Border War (Colorado State–Wyoming rivalry)” as college football rivalry between Colorado State and Wyoming. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1999, 2026, 1968, 1899—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Border, Colorado and State can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as college football rivalry between Colorado State and Wyoming. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5148960. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1999, 2026, 1968 and 1899.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Border War (Colorado State–Wyoming rivalry) primary sources, Border War (Colorado State–Wyoming rivalry) archive and Border research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Border War (Colorado State–Wyoming rivalry)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.