(Editor's note: UW Athletics release)
LARAMIE, Wyo. - The University of Wyoming and University of California (Berkeley) athletics departments announced on Tuesday a future home-and-home football series. Wyoming will travel to Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 2, 2028. Cal will play in Laramie, Wyo., on Sept. 8, 2029.
The two teams have played only one previous time back in 1990. That meeting came in the 1990 Copper Bowl played in Tucson, Ariz., and featured one of the most exciting finishes of the 1990 bowl season. The 1990 Copper Bowl saw Cal build a 7-3 halftime lead and take a 17-3 lead early in the fourth quarter. But Wyoming fought back with two fourth-quarter touchdowns in the final six minutes of the game. The Cowboys’ first touchdown came on an 11-yard run by running back Jay Daffer with 5:53 left in the game, followed by a missed two-point conversion to narrow Cal’s lead to eight points at 17-9. With only 49 seconds remaining in the game, Wyoming’s outstanding wide receiver and punt returner Robert Rivers returned a punt 70 yards for a TD to pull the Pokes to within two points at 17-15. The Cowboys had a chance to tie the game with a successful two-point conversion, but Cowboy quarterback Tom Corontzos was sacked. After an unsuccessful on-side kick attempt by Wyoming, the Cal Bears would hold on for a 17-15 win. It was the final game coached by Wyoming’s legendary head coach Paul Roach.
The Cowboys will open the 2028 season on the road at Cal on Sept. 2. Two weeks later on Sept. 16, UW is scheduled to travel to Lubbock, Texas, to face the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The 2029 home game versus Cal on Sept. 8 is currently the only non-conference game that has been scheduled for the 2029 season for the Cowboys.
Wyoming is coming off a very successful season in 2019, posting an 8-5 record and capturing the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl with a convincing 38-17 win over Georgia State.