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Cleveland Daily Banner—Sunday, January 3, 2016—23
College football bowls galore, but not in Lovell, Wyo.
“There are many reasons why I hate college football. The four-hour games drone on
longer than Steve Lyons during the
American League playoffs. The everexpanding season threatens to creep into
early July. Boise, Idaho, hosts a bowl
game. And it’s played on blue artificial
turf.”
— Stephen Rodrick
American journalist
The New York Times Magazine
———
As I am told, it has finally happened.
Every city in America now hosts its own
college football bowl game.
Not one to believe everything I hear
and certainly not all that I read, I remain
wary of the report. I figure the story to be
an embellishment at most, or a misunderstanding at least.
Here’s why.
I know, without debate, Lovell,
Wyoming, has no bowl of its own.
Nestled among the open ranches bordering the Cowboy State’s northern edge
and Montana’s southern boundary,
Lovell’s population is about 2,360, based
on U.S. Census data from 2010.
Assuming at least one woman has given
birth since, the sleepy little villa could
now hold 2,361 Lovellites ... and probably more.
I love the term Lovellite almost as
much as Lilliputian.
My facts on Lovell come straight from
the voice of one who knows — a grown
niece on my wife’s side who now calls
southern Montana her home, along with
her husband, Eddie.
Living among the prairie dogs, brown
bears and tumbleweed of the open
plains, yet not so far from the nearest
mountain range, the pair’s closest known
civilization is Lovell, about a 45-minute
drive south if you follow a winding road
that was carved from an old cattle and
Indian trail.
Planted in Big Horn County, Lovell
was named for Henry Lovell, a local
rancher. The Big West hamlet is best
known for its EJZ Bridge over the
Shoshone River. Built in 1925, the aging
breezeway is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places