Former Wyoming Coach Eaton Dead at 88
Lloyd Eaton, who coached Wyoming’s football team to three straight conference titles in the 1960s, has died. He was 88.
He died Wednesday in Idaho, the school said.
Eaton coached the Cowboys from 1962 through 1970, compiling a record of 57-33-2. His Western Athletic Conference teams went to the Sun Bowl in 1966 and to the Sugar Bowl in 1967.
“He was a tremendous football coach, a tremendous leader,” school spokesman Kevin McKinney said. “In that day and time, he was a disciplinarian, like all coaches were. He was a great defensive mind, that was his background.”
Eaton was coach during the 1969 “Black 14″ episode in which 14 players were kicked off the team for planning to wear black armbands during a game against BYU. The players were protesting the racial policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Paul Roach served six years as offensive coordinator under Eaton and was head coach at Wyoming from 1987-1990.
“He was a very detailed, disciplined type of coach,” Roach said Thursday.
He said Eaton was instrumental in introducing new techniques that helped smaller defensive linemen.
“They became very popular as a result,” Roach said. “I think this became somewhat of a springboard for him to be elevated as a head football coach, and he certainly had an outstanding career as a head football coach.”
Roach recalled Eaton as a tough coach but one who could be sympathetic and able to inspire his players.
“He had all the qualities necessary,” he said.
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