Firing Stirs Wyoming Memories : Basketball: Some wonder why Brandenburg left. Others wonder why the magic touch left Brandenburg.

Word of Jim Brandenburg’s firing arrived in the Wyoming athletic offices about mid-morning Tuesday, a few hours before San Diego State conducted a late afternoon news conference and a full day before the arrival of the Aztec basketball team, which pulled into Laramie Wednesday afternoon.

The talk carried past the framed pictures of Wyoming basketball glory (circa 1980-1987) that line portions of the walls in the basketball offices, past several player-of-the-game trophies earned by Fennis Dembo (one of the key players when Brandenburg guided the Cowboys to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament in 1987) and out into the hallways.

These are the same hallways Brandenburg used to roam during days of NCAA tournaments and Western Athletic Conference coach of the year awards, the hallways that once were home to some of the greatest dreams any coach could have.

“Everybody’s talking about it, just because the man meant so much to our program,” said Kevin McKinney, who has been Wyoming’s sports information director since 1975--including all nine seasons in which Brandenburg was here. “Everybody feels badly about it.

“He had such confidence. He had done so well here you would just naturally assume he would do well wherever he went.”

There isn’t much shock here because, with a 2-19 record, people figured it was coming. But, in the middle of the season?

“I think the writing was on the wall,” said Paul Roach, Wyoming athletic director. “It was just a matter of when. It’s part of the sports world.

“I was a little surprised at the timing, but reflecting on it, I think the motive was to deter any further transferring or players leaving the team.

“They must have felt this was the best time to do it.”

Roach was in his first year as athletic director when the Cowboys made national news in the NCAA tournament and were on the verge of losing one of their greatest coaches.

A day after returning from a 92-78 loss to Nevada Las Vegas in the Sweet 16, Brandenburg accepted an offer from SDSU Athletic Director Fred Miller to coach the Aztecs. Roach said he delivered a counter-offer but was turned down.

“I think it was on a Monday night that I presented him with an offer to remain, and he felt it was a good offer,” Roach said. “I think he had his mind made up that he was going to go.”

There were some harsh feelings when Brandenburg left. After that NCAA tournament performance, folks in Wyoming were planning on a Final Four appearance the following season. After all, starters Dembo, Eric Leckner and Sean Dent were all back, weren’t they?

“I don’t think anybody understood why he left,” said Joe Vitale, executive director of the Cowboy Joe Club, the Wyoming booster organization. “He had a troop of seniors and all kinds of expectations. You would think a coach (in that position) would stay. He could have had the Final Four--any coach’s dream.”

Said Dick Lien, a current Wyoming assistant who worked in that capacity during Brandenburg’s last season in Wyoming: “A lot of people were upset . . . They were already thinking about the Final Four, which was unrealistic, but that’s how things mushroomed.

“All of a sudden, it’s Day 2 (after the tournament) and the coach is gone. A lot of people were like, ‘Coach, how could you forsake us for San Diego State?’ They would have understood if it was for a place like Indiana, or Iowa, or UCLA.”

Brandenburg’s firing sparked a flood of memories.

“He left here as something of a legend,” McKinney said. “He would have to go down as one of the two or three greatest coaches here of all-time.”

Lien dropped Brandenburg a note Tuesday. Dale Parker, who played under Brandenburg for two years and then was Brandenburg’s assistant for a year at Montana and five more at Wyoming, said he intended to telephone soon.

“(The firing) was kind of depressing, because I know what kind of a coach Brandenburg is and what he can do in the proper situation,” said Parker, now a teacher at Laramie High School. “When you’re released in the middle of the year, it definitely hurts your career. He’s too good a coach for that.”

In two seasons as coach at Montana and nine at Wyoming, Brandenburg had never had a losing campaign. In San Diego, he didn’t have a winning season.

“To a certain degree, I think a part of every successful coach’s approach is that they have a design or method that is successful, and sometimes it’s pretty firm and maybe a little unyielding,” Roach said. “I would suspect in his reflecting on it that maybe he would feel he should have or could have been more flexible.”

Roach said he has not spoken to Brandenburg since Jan. 9, when Wyoming was in San Diego.

“He was worried, I could tell that,” Roach said. “I just told him there was a lot of it left and I was hopeful he could turn it around.”

That night, Wyoming handed the Aztecs their fifth consecutive loss. The streak has now reached 14. It was time to make a move.

“There are so many ironies in athletics,” McKinney said. “Who would have thought that (the firing) would happen the day before they were leaving for here, of all places?

“That’s the irony of them all.”