Colorado State, Wyoming rivalry game includes wager between art museums

In 1967, Capt. Dan Romero, a Vietnam veteran and Colorado State professor, proposed a trophy for the annual Border War between CSU and Wyoming: his own bronzed, battle-worn boot. Simply put, it was a work of art.

This year, there’s a new twist — alongside the battle for the Bronze Boot, the winning university’s art museum will receive a piece of artwork on loan from their rival’s collection. Colorado State’s Gregory Allicar Museum and the University of Wyoming Art Museum have each selected a significant piece to wager, according to a report from Colorado State University , bringing the arts into the historic Border War. If CSU wins, the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art will receive Beth Van Hoesen’s Pale Horse (1991) from the University of Wyoming.



If Wyoming wins, the University of Wyoming Art Museum will receive Roxanne Swentzell’s sculpture Mask Maker (1994) from Colorado State University. The winning university will keep the loser's artwork until the end of the academic year in May. Art institutions have placed bets on football games in recent years, mostly involving NFL Super Bowls.

In 2023, when the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles, the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City received Thomas Eakins' Sailing (1875) from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The year before, in 2022, the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) loaned Robert Henri's Patience Serious (1915) to The Huntington in nearby Los Angeles when the Rams beat the Bengals. And a little closer to home, in 2014, the Denver Art Museum placed a bet with the Seattle Art Museum and lost when the Broncos were defeated by the Seahawks.

Frederic Remington's Broncho Buster (1895) was delivered to Seattle . On Monday, Nov. 18, staff from the Gregory Allicar Museum and the University of Wyoming Art Museum will visit each other’s museums, when they will complete the final delivery of the loaned artwork.

The art wager marks yet another facet in a regional rivalry that dates back to 1899, reminding us that the competition between these two institutions—and the pride of their respective states—is about much more than football..