Lloyd Eaton, who led Wyoming to national football prominence in the mid-1960s, and then watched the program implode when he dismissed 14 African-American athletes in 1969, died Wednesday, a week before his 89th birthday.
Under Eaton, Wyoming took the lead in the then-fledgling, Denver-based Western Athletic Conference, which at the time included Arizona and Arizona State. His 1966 team lost one game, to Colorado State, and beat Florida State in the Sun Bowl. The next year, the Pokes went undefeated in the regular season before losing 20-13 to Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl.
He succeeded Bob Devaney in 1962 when Devaney left for Nebraska. One of his best-known players was Jim Kiick, who went on to star for the Miami Dolphins.
Eaton’s legacy, however, was tarnished by the Black 14 events of 1969. When the team’s African-American players showed up for a meeting Oct. 17 wearing black armbands to join growing, conference-wide protests of Brigham Young University and the Mormon Church’s racial policies, the coach revoked their scholarships.
According to records in the University of Wyoming web archives, Eaton uttered several racist statements that would result in the immediate dismissal of any public figure today.
Although an emergency meeting of the governor, school president and board of trustees allowed the protesting athletes to remain in school, none of 14 returned to the team.
The action divided the campus. Wyoming won two more games, then lost 11 of the next 13 until Eaton retired at the conclusion of the 1970 season. Wyoming did not have another winning season until 1976.
Eaton has never been inducted into the school’s hall of fame.
He was born March 23, 1918, in South Dakota and moved to Idaho after retirement.
Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
