The Cowboys

Well, Wyoming fans are unique. I mean, if you think about it, this state is unique. We do not have a professional sports team. We do not have another Division I college. We don't even have another four-year school. The University of Wyoming is it.

Fashion that the Wyoming fans have is second to none, and they're special, no doubt about it. It's remarkable to see the commitment and the passion and the purpose that the state of Wyoming and their fans have. It's remarkable to see the drive, the drive, not just figuratively, but literally, the drive they make to support the Pucks.

The idea of being a Cowboy fan or a Cowgirl fan is... It's very tumultuous. You have to drive across the frozen tundra of Wyoming. If you're on the west side of the state, you've got to drive through the wind blowing across the plains. If you're on the east side of the state, you've got to drive through the mountain ranges and try to get over the pass before it closes to come watch the Cowboys and Cowgirls play. The super fans of Wyoming show up in a way that no other fan has.

It's a lot like being a mascot. Being a superfan is a lot like being a mascot. Everybody knows you. Everybody knows Pistol Pete, or everybody knows you, Spider-Man. Everybody knows Sue. Everybody knows if you got the best tailgate in town.

Being a real-life cowboy, you're not ever in front of a crowd of people. You don't think of, you know, cowboys at a Wyoming Cowboy football game on a horse with a flag running down a field. So, the fact that we have brought those together has been really neat.

So, this is war paint. War Paint is eight years old. He is half-pertron, half-quarter horse paint. He started doing this when he was just three years old. He is the second horse that has ran across the field for the Wyoming Cowboys. The second we actually got him to War Memorial, it was kind of his calling.

I think they're celebrities now. They're super fans. They're celebrities. I mean, that horse probably gets more love than most people walking through the cowboy walk or walking through the parking lot and tailgates. Warpaint's probably a super celeb by now. I feel bad for Lane sometimes, because the horse probably gets more love than Lane does. Lane's got to do all the dang work. I guess I'm just the rider. Warpaint's really the star of the show.

We're going on 11 years now, and each year, it seems like the fans enjoy it even more, which is a big enough reason right there to keep doing it forever. That's a commitment to creating a culture that is one of the top entrances in all of college athletics.

Everybody sees the finished product, but what you don't see is the sacrifice that leads to the success of Warpaint running out with the Cowboy football team in front of 27,000 people. That's a lot like when a football player goes out and smashes heads for four quarters.

You've got to get acclimated to it. A lot about this is all about commitment. What are you willing to do? What are you willing to sacrifice to make something an experience that nobody can forget? The biggest compliment that I get from fans is when they come and say, you're the only reason we come to these games. You're the highlight of these games, and that, to me, is a huge, huge feeling.

Wyoming fans are crazy, and their love for football, for the horse, is quite a sight to see. What's up? I'm UW Spider-Man, and I like to go to sports events. I like to go to all different kinds of sports events. My main ones are football, soccer, basketball, and volleyball, and it's just a really fun thing to do. So, I like to think I have a pretty unique outfit. The costume is a chestnut tube biome, and it's painted. Part of the legs, the arms, and the chest.

So, it feels nice to just put it on and feel that Spider-Man vibe whenever I'm with you. That's something you can't just replicate anywhere else. And I also think it's courageous, right? You got to have a little bravery about you to be able to come into a wild setting.

People only know you as UW Spider-Man. They don't know what you're really going through. They don't know who you really are. Well, there's probably more than meets the eye, and so a lot of that sometimes is just, it's a costume that masks a little bit of who you are as a human, so you can be a different version of yourself. Maybe you have self that you'd love to be in person, but maybe it just doesn't fit the mold for just being a regular Wyoming student.

So, before I became Spider-Man, even before I came to college, my dad had left my family when I was 18 because of a pretty not-so-good divorce with my mom. And I'm angry it happened. You know, something that I held so close to me. It was torn apart. And the impact, the financial impact, the emotional impact, I almost couldn't come to college.

My dad was primary income. My mom didn't make any money. And it put me in a worse place than I wanted to be in. So I found more positive ways to get around there. There were just so many things that I wanted to try and use to be more positive in my life, which, though it didn't directly influence me to be the character, it's had impacts within the character.

And I found my way to be positive, and I want to continue doing that. And a positive light that can go into people's lives, and that's something I strive for even more since this happened to our family. What's crazier than driving three hours in a blizzard to go watch the Cowboys play?

Driving four hours to watch Cowboys play. I mean, that's crazier than just driving three hours. Sue Nelson will walk around. Sue will walk around the double A. She'll come down. She'll sit at practice. She doesn't care if I'm nuts.

Concentrate! Concentrate! If I'm sane. Here! Here! Insane. It's not a good voice! A rational guy that day, she sits there, she watches practice, and every time I get done, she's like, oh, I loved practice today. I loved how you guys have so much fun out there. That was such a great practice. I'm like, Sue, you have the greatest outlook on life I've ever seen in my entire life. Everything's positive for Sue, but she'll sit right at the, as you come down the tunnel, she'll sit right over the edge, and she'll hang over the edge.

Like she's a schoolgirl, like she's back in the student section, reaching her hand over the rails to try to get high-fives from the players, and I'm going to make sure I high-five Sue every single time I come down that tunnel.

My name is Sue Nelson, and I've been coming to the game for about 40 years, and I live here in Laramie. Laramie is a special place to live. There's no other like it. I try to come to practice three times a week. I balance out because I go to cowboy football practice, too.

They are kids that people tend to forget about that because they have so much on their plate. We had some players for dinner last Sunday night, football players. We had ribs, we've had spaghetti, lasagna, we've grilled, and that means so much to them.

It's just a big thank you, guys, for everything you do for the University of Wyoming. But like the transfer portal, we've had a lot of kids that the players stay here, and it's up to us as the fans to make them want to stay here, too.

If you're a super fan, you're part of the fabric of the University of Wyoming. Challenge anybody to find another state that will travel as long, as far, and as wide as the Cowboy fans do for the Cowboys of Cowboys.

You won't find it. Rogan is a success and a failure of the University. You're committed to the cause, regardless of the outcome. That's a super fan.