Honoring ‘Harry the Horse’
by George Kay
Last week, I was privileged to enjoy a morning coffee break with Dick Sedar and Bill Hileman, a pair of former Wyoming Cowboy football stalwarts.
Our conversation centered on their former teammate and longtime friend, Harry Geldien, who died over the weekend after the battle of his life with cancer. Geldien was a tailback in the early ’50s and was a part of the Cowboys’ Gator Bowl championship team.
Wyoming completed the 1950 season undefeated in 10 games, culminating with a 20-7 victory over Washington & Lee in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
Geldien was part of a one-two punch, single-wing running tandem along with Eddie Talboom. Harry carried the ball 11 times in the bowl game for 56 yards, while Talboom gained 31 yards on 14 carries.
The statistics don’t tell the real story of Harry Geldien as a Cowboy football standout, who, in my opinion, deserves to be inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame.
He is already in the Hall as a member of that Gator Bowl squad, but he is deserving of an individual honor, as well. Sedar was a close friend of Geldien since those days more than 50 years ago in Laramie.
Sedar calls Harry “the toughest s.o.b. I ever met,” and Bill Hileman echoes those sentiments. They agree that Geldien’s high-knees running style made him especially hard to tackle.
The members of that era in Cowboy football are an amazingly tight-knit group that includes a number of Casper individuals like Ox Zellner, Bill Lucas, Ed Strube, the late Marlin Smith and Art Pierce, to name a few.
Geldien came to Wyoming from West Allis, Wis., and became known as “The Horse” because of his ability to run with the football.
In the wonderful book, “A Million Cheers - 100 Years of Cowboy Football,” Rich Rosenthal details Geldien’s UW football exploits.
The Rosenthal article credits Geldien with leading the 1950 team in rushing, averaging more than five yards per carry. The next season, Harry was well on his way to a 1,000-yard season with four straight 100-yard games, when injuries cut short his progress after six games.
After his Cowboy football career, Harry and his wife, Mary, made Wyoming their home and raised an outstanding family, athletically and in other pursuits.
Football continued to play a big part of the Geldiens’ life as Harry coached the Natrona County High School Mustangs and eventually became the school district athletic director. The stadium at Kelly Walsh High School is named in his honor.
In addition to those duties, Geldien was elected to the Casper City Council and served as Casper’s mayor. Since retiring, Harry and Mary had split time between their home in Casper and their cabin in Star Valley.
“Harry the Horse” enjoyed a rewarding career in his adopted state. His former Cowboy teammates and many other friends and acquaintances mourn his passing, but are proud of their association with a true gentleman.