From Sparti and his Spear to Pete and his Pistol
By rallying the fans to root, toot, and holler for the Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls, Pistol Pete became a beloved staple at the University of Wyoming sporting events. Yet today, few people know Pete’s origin story.
The Aftermath of the Black 14
In the wake of “The Black 14” incident that occurred prior to Wyoming’s home football game against Brigham Young University (BYU) on October 18, 1969, it was a challenging time across the state and for the Western Athletic Conference. Could the Cowboys recover after 14 players were removed from the team by Head Coach Lloyd Eaton? Would there even be a game after Eaton dismissed the 14 Black players when they informed him days leading up to the game that they wanted to wear black armbands to protest the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which they considered to be racist? At the time, the Mormon Church, which operates BYU, barred Black men from holding priesthood. BYU, meanwhile, didn’t recruit its first Black football player until 1970 following pressure from The Black 14 event. Wyoming was scheduled to face San Jose State; however, the Spartans, like other teams on Wyoming’s remaining schedule, considered boycotting the game in response to the Black 14 incident.
Eventually, San Jose players voted to travel to Laramie to face the Cowboys. In a statement from the team, the players also voted to wear armbands: “As a visible symbolic gesture…all members of the team will wear multi-colored armbands, expressing our concern for all racial minorities, not just on the football field, but within the greater society.”1 Fortunately for Wyoming, they were facing a team with a dismal 1–4 record. San Jose had been outscored by a combined 96 points. The powerhouse Cowboys were heavy favorites. Ranked 16th in the nation, UW was 5–0 and had outscored opponents by a combined 115 points.
The Match Between the Spartans and the Cowboys
The Spartans came ready to play and had reinforcements to help. San Jose brought along some of its cheer squad, including Sparti, its spear-carrying Spartan mascot.2 With its small budget, the cheer squad’s travel was limited, but they received enough funding from the alumni association to send three cheerleaders.3 The cheer squad then approached the athletic administration to secure additional funding to bring along Sparti, which they agreed to do but only by removing one cheerleader to limit the total number to three.4 Like the football team, the Spartan cheer squad also discussed the game situation and agreed their role was to support the team. Head cheerleader Warren Benjamin said, “This is where the cheerleaders will be this Saturday in Laramie. Standing behind our players representing San Jose State.”5
After arriving at War Memorial Stadium, Sparti was quick to stir up excitement before the game started. He first ran toward Wyoming’s mascot—a Shetland pony named Cowboy Joe. He then proceeded toward the middle of the field, faced the UW student section, and threw his spear into the turf. He quickly realized that was a poor decision when the student section began clearing the bleachers and running toward him. The race for safety was on.
Sparti’s college roommate and fellow cheerleader, George Henderson—one of the three cheerleaders on the trip—described the momentary chaos:
[Sparti] plants [the spear], and is looking across the sideline…and there are like 400 people running from that side of the field toward him, and he turned around and ran back, ran up into the stands where all the Spartans were…we didn’t have many people; we probably had about 100 there…he ran into the center there where we were and I think he had to stay there almost the whole game because they wanted to kill him.6
Cheering from a safe space, Sparti and the rest of the squad helped to keep their team in the game. Wyoming prevailed, though a sportswriter described the game as one where, “Wyoming fans settled back for a surprisingly hard-fought football game… The Cowboys squeaked by with a 16–7 win over the supposedly weak Spartans.”7 The Cowboys only scored one touchdown and relied on field goals to clinch the victory. It was their last win of the season.
Sparti Becomes a Cowboy
Other than the close call with the angry fans, Sparti liked his time in Laramie and was impressed with the community. It was Homecoming, and, perhaps surprisingly, Sparti even was invited to ride in a convertible in the parade.8
The man behind the Spartan mascot was Donald Bogdan. He was in his senior year majoring in industrial arts education at San Jose State and was considering continuing his education. Henderson said the late October trip to Laramie left a positive impression on Bogdan. “He fell in love with the atmosphere.”9 Bogdan submitted his application to UW. He was accepted and began his master’s program in fall 1970.
One year after the Spartan cheered on San Jose State, Bogdan now found himself cheering for the Wyoming Cowboys. The first game he attended as a Wyoming student was somber. One week before the season opener, Wyoming quarterback Ed Synakowski drowned in Lake Hattie, west of Laramie, when his boat capsized during a sudden windstorm. Though dampened by the tragic death of Synakowski, the September 19, 1970, season opener had fans thrilled to enter the stadium with its new upper west deck and press box. All 25,500 seats were taken that Saturday afternoon in War Memorial Stadium.
When Bogdan began attending games, he noticed Cowboy Joe, and he was familiar with the Pistol Pete logo that UW had been using since the early 1950s, but there was no Pistol Pete in the cheer squad.
Shocked that Wyoming did not have a human Cowboy mascot to complement the Shetland pony Cowboy Joe, he approached the cheer squad to inquire. At the urging of head pepster Susan Kamm and cheerleader Tom Lintz, Bogdan decided to take on the role of Pistol Pete.10 He then got busy putting together his cowboy outfit consisting of chaps, a vest, cowboy hat, large stick-on mustache, and a pistol that when fired shot out a “BANG” flag. The former Longhorn Saddlery in Laramie donated the chaps, vest, and hat.11 He also was outfitted with a bugle and drum. When game time came, he began running up and down the stands playing his bugle or banging his drum and shouting out a cowboy whoop and other cheers. He continued in his mascot role during the basketball season, entertaining fans in War Memorial Field House.
Bogdan was recognized as the “loudest and most obvious Cowboy fan at University of Wyoming sports events.”12 On October 24, 1971, almost exactly two years to the day after he was in War Memorial Stadium dressed in his Spartan outfit, he received the prestigious Admiral Emory S. Land Award for his tremendous enthusiasm as Pistol Pete.13 The annual award is presented to an outstanding student-athlete and to a dedicated student worker. The Admiral Land Awards program began in 1953 at UW and is presented during Homecoming festivities. The award was established in honor of distinguished 1898 UW graduate Admiral Emory S. Land who had a long military career, including leading the U.S. Maritime Commission during World War II. At UW, he was a member of the first football team.
The Man Behind the Stick-on Mustache
As a graduate student, Don Bogdan also was active off the field. He was a member of the UW Industrial Arts Club, was elected to the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming as a representative from the College of Education, and was on the Crane Hall Council. Crane Hall was a convenient home for Bogdan, as it was the closet residence hall to the athletic complex where he spent considerable time.
Donald Valejo Bogdan, born on October 5, 1945, grew up in the Bay Area of California. He graduated from San Rafael High School then attended San Jose State University. At UW, he received his master’s degree from the Department of Vocational and Business Education in June 1972. He then returned to California where he taught industrial arts at San Jose State. Later he became a contractor and operated a tractor business in Santa Cruz, California. In 1987, he once again joined his long-time friend and cheering partner, George Henderson, and opened a restaurant they named Krazy’s. It was one of the early sports bars and grills of the region—complete with big-screen televisions connected to satellite.
Krazy George and the Wave
George Henderson went on to become a professional cheerleader. “Krazy George,” as he is fondly known, credits Bogdan with his becoming a cheerleader. “My whole life would have never changed without Don Bogdan. He put me on a whole other track that I never knew.”14 Henderson described how the two became cheerleaders:
Don said ‘Hey, let’s go to a football game.’ I said ‘great…’ I had a couple of friends, and we all showed up at the game. Don brings a drum and bugle, and he brought a quart of vodka with him. I couldn’t play the bugle—that takes talent. So, he handed me the drum. I would hit it once in a while and sip on a little vodka. Don would play ‘charge,’ and I would beat the drum.
The next week, Don said, ‘Let’s go to the game again,’ so we went. I was drinking a lot and hardly remembered what happened in the second half, but I remember having fun in the first half. So, I said, ‘Maybe we should stop drinking.’ At the second game, we had a whole section following us. By the third game, we had three [student] sections following us… On the last game of the season, me and Don are sitting in the stands, and the head cheerleader walks up to us and says: ‘Why don’t you guys go out for cheerleader.’15
Though Don Bogdan left cheering for a career in industrial arts and construction, Krazy George Henderson continued to pursue cheering and soon became the nation’s best-known professional cheerleader. When asked why he spells Krazy with a K, he said, “I liked to joke with people that I thought it was spelled that way because I am the world’s worst speller. I knew it was spelled with a C, but I would tell people that’s the way I thought it was spelled.”16 So, he started signing autographs that way.
Krazy George is credited with inventing the stadium “Wave” that became popular in the 1980s. Henderson began a modified version of the wave in the student section at San Jose State in 1968. Like Bogdan, Henderson also found himself in the Rocky Mountain region in 1975 when he was hired by the Colorado Rockies National Hockey League franchise. Before Denver’s baseball team, there was a hockey team with the same name. The Rockies lasted only six seasons in Colorado before moving in 1982 and becoming the New Jersey Devils. As the cheerleader for the Rockies at McNichols Arena in Denver, Henderson began doing a wave by running from one section to the next and yelling “Go – Rockies.” However, “Because the Colorado Rockies attendance was dismal at best, the opportunities to do that cheer were far and few between. Most of the time there were not enough people in the stands to keep the visual effect going and give that ‘Wave’ feeling.”17 In the early 1980s, when Henderson was hired as a cheerleader by the Oakland Athletics baseball franchise and performed in Oakland Coliseum, the Wave took hold.
Pistol Pete Sails Away
Another kind of wave took hold as Bogdan developed a passion for sailing. Later in life, he built a 50-foot trimaran sailboat. Upon completion, Bogdan and his wife Deborah and their daughter Darci set sail and spent approximately 12 years on the boat. “It was a glorious time in our lives,” Deborah said of their adventure.18 Darci followed in her father’s footsteps and became an avid sailor herself. That led to a career as a sailor in Santa Cruz.
Don and Deborah traveled to Laramie in 2010, where he was able to revisit some great memories of his time as a student at UW and as Pistol Pete 40 years earlier. Sadly, he was diagnosed with cancer soon after and died on October 8, 2014.
The story of Wyoming’s first Pistol Pete is full of twists and turns. The San Jose State game against Wyoming in 1969 was on the verge of being cancelled. Were it not for that trip, Don Bogdan likely would not have attended UW, further delaying Pistol Pete’s first appearance with the cheer squad. His friend Krazy George had no interest in cheering until Bogdan convinced him to become a cheerleader, so UW’s first Pistol Pete can take some credit for the Wave, which became a stadium crowd favorite across the nation.
Since Bogdan became Pistol Pete in 1970, the one major change to occur was the addition of a full cowboy outfit complete with a pullover head in the early 1980s. With Pistol Pete’s face being covered up, his identity has been obscured since. There have been approximately 25 other UW students who have suited up and carried on the tradition of entertaining fans. And for more than 55 years, Pistol Pete has joined fans to cheer on the Pokes.
UW alumni and fans across the state and far beyond have embraced Pistol Pete as the face of the Wyoming Cowboys.
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, whose support helped make the publication of this article possible.
Primary Sources
- Allbaugh, R.R., ed. “Admiral Land Awards Given.” Laramie, Wyoming: The Laramie Sunday Boomerang, October 24, 1971, p. 1. https://www.wyomingnewspapers.org/.
- Benjamin, Warren. “Team Supported.” San Jose, California: Letter to the editor, Spartan Daily, October 24, 1969, p. 2, https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/4301/.
- Broady, Jim, ed. “Team Unanimously Votes: Spartans Will Play Wyoming.” San Jose, California: Spartan Daily, October 23, 1969, p. 1, https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/4300/.
- Henderson, George. Interview by John Waggener with former San José State University cheerleader George Henderson about Donald V. Bogdan, University of Wyoming’s first Pistol Pete. Donald Bogdan Pistol Pete Papers, 1971–2023, Collection 300070, Laramie, Wyoming: University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, September 19, 2023, digital audio.
- Henderson, Krazy George, and Patricia Timberg. Krazy George: Still Krazy After All These Cheers!. Perryville, Maryland: Krazy George Entertainment, August 4, 2014.
- Missett, William J., ed. “Cowboy Homecoming Has Pro-Eaton Air.” Casper, Wyoming: Casper Star-Tribune, October 26, 1969, p. 1, https://www.wyomingnewspapers.org/.
- Stafford, Ann. “‘Pistol Pete’ Generates New Cowboy Fan Spirit.” Laramie, Wyoming: Ann on Athletics (column), Branding Iron, February 12, 1971, p. 17, https://www.wyomingnewspapers.org/.
Endnotes
1. Jim Broady, ed. “Team Unanimously Votes: Spartans Will Play Wyoming.” San Jose, California: Spartan Daily, October 23, 1969, p. 1.
2. Sparti, sometimes spelled Sparty, later became known as Sammy Spartan.
3. George Henderson. Interview by John Waggener with former San José State University cheerleader George Henderson about Donald V. Bogdan, University of Wyoming’s first Pistol Pete. Donald Bogdan Pistol Pete Papers, 1971–2023, Collection 300070, Laramie, Wyoming: University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, September 19, 2023, digital audio.
4. Ibid.
5. Warren Benjamin. “Team Supported.” San Jose, California: Letter to the editor, Spartan Daily, October 24, 1969, p. 2.
6. George Henderson. Interview by John Waggener with former San José State University cheerleader George Henderson about Donald V. Bogdan, University of Wyoming’s first Pistol Pete. Donald Bogdan Pistol Pete Papers, 1971–2023, Collection 300070, Laramie, Wyoming: University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, September 19, 2023, digital audio.
7. William J. Missett, ed., “Cowboy Homecoming Has Pro-Eaton Air.” Casper, Wyoming: Casper Star-Tribune, October 26, 1969, p. 1.
8. George Henderson. Interview by John Waggener with former San José State University cheerleader George Henderson about Donald V. Bogdan, University of Wyoming’s first Pistol Pete. Donald Bogdan Pistol Pete Papers, 1971–2023, Collection 300070, Laramie, Wyoming: University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, September 19, 2023, digital audio.
9. Ibid.
10. Ann Stafford. “‘Pistol Pete’ Generates New Cowboy Fan Spirit.” Laramie, Wyoming: Ann on Athletics (column), Branding Iron, February 12, 1971, p. 17.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. R.R. Allbaugh, ed. “Admiral Land Awards Given.” Laramie, Wyoming: The Laramie Sunday Boomerang, October 24, 1971, p. 1.
14. George Henderson. Interview by John Waggener with former San José State University cheerleader George Henderson about Donald V. Bogdan, University of Wyoming’s first Pistol Pete. Donald Bogdan Pistol Pete Papers, 1971–2023, Collection 300070, Laramie, Wyoming: University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, September 19, 2023, digital audio.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Krazy George Henderson and Patricia Timberg. Krazy George: Still Krazy After All These Cheers!. Perryville, Maryland: Krazy George Entertainment, August 4, 2014, p. 25.
18. Deborah Carter, email message to John Waggener, November 17, 2023.