Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Las Vegas’ sports rivalries: Past, present and future

Rebels Paint the Cannon Red

Steve Marcus

UNLV football coach Tony Sanchez, right, looks over the Fremont Cannon during a cannon-painting ceremony Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, at UNLV. The Rebels recovered the Fremont Cannon after defeating the Wolfpack 23-17 on Saturday in Reno.

The UNLV football team’s fourth consecutive regular season without a winning record will be much easier for fans to swallow if it prevails in Reno against UNR in the annual Fremont Cannon game next Saturday.

Such is the nature of rivalries, which are in some ways the lifeblood of sports. Las Vegas is lucky to have several long-standing rivalries spread across its sports teams.

Here’s an overview of some of the most boisterous.

Past

High school basketball: Bishop Gorman vs. Durango

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Former Durango High basketball coach Al La Rocque during the 2008 season, which was the last in his 34-year career in Southern Nevada. La Rocque, after spending the past four years watching his daughter play at Stanford, is back in coaching as an assistant at Northern Arizona University.

Former Durango High basketball coach Al La Rocque’s strategy to beat Bishop Gorman involved more than drawing up efficient plays.

He realized that taking down Gorman at its famed “House of Glory” involved stealing the home-court advantage. So, he instructed supporters to show up for the junior varsity game, which was played three hours before the varsity, to occupy most of the seats in the gym.

Durango won that night and, the next time it played at Gorman, tickets were presold — a rarity for a prep game — to block the visiting team’s fans from taking over.

“By time the varsity game started at Gorman, we had more people. We had signs, we had everything,” La Rocque said.

When the teams played at Durango, officials stopped preselling tickets at 2,600, and there was a tailgate in the parking lot. In the zone championship game in 1996, when both teams were nationally ranked, officials stopped allowing fans into Cimarron-Memorial and fire marshals were called.

“What makes a rivalry is both sides have to win,” La Rocque said. “We were on the fortunate side of a couple of bounces and on the negative side of a couple of bounces.”

Durango, which won state championships in 1995 and 1996, was led by notables such as Ra’oof Sadat, Thomas McTyer and Nate Miller. Gorman won a state title in 1997 and eventually became a state powerhouse, winning the past six championships.

The “House of Glory” moved across town, from the old Gorman on Maryland Parkway to the school’s new digs in Summerlin. The rivalry with Durango is dead — except for the memories.

“Those were just some special nights,” La Rocque said.

Present

College football: UNLV vs. UNR

Fremont Cannon game

• Who: UNLV at UNR

• Where: Mackay Stadium, Reno

• When: Noon Nov. 25

• Radio: ESPN 1100 AM and 100.9 FM

• TV: AT&T SportsNet (DirecTV 684, Cox 1313, CenturyLink Prism 1760, Dish Network 5414)

• Early betting line: UNR minus-2.5

UNLV doesn’t have a storied football history with Heisman campaigns, bowl games and field-storming victories. But the Rebels do have a classic in-state rivalry, complete with an iconic trophy/artifact that goes home with the winner.

The Rebels and Wolf Pack have played 42 times since 1969, with the winners claiming the Fremont Cannon, a 545-pound Civil War-era replica, and earning the right to paint it in their school’s colors until the following year.

Former UNLV quarterback Caleb Herring led his team to victory in the cannon game as a senior in 2013, and said the rivalry was so strong that players on both sides could feel it in the week leading up to the contest.

“Preparation for it is always intense,” he said. “As with any rivalry, there’s always bad blood. (UNR is the) in-state rival, and everybody knows the history.”

Herring said a loss to UNR wounded the team more than any other during his time at UNLV, but that winning the cannon was one of his finest collegiate memories.

“We got a chance to wheel that cannon out and take it back home, and we painted it red in the student union for everyone to see,” he said. “It was one of the highlights of the season for any Rebel fan to bring that cannon back.”

High school football: The Bone Game

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From left, Las Vegas's Vince Castro, Joshua Mayfield and Donny Francis celebrate defeating Rancho in their annual "Bone Game" Friday, Oct. 5, 2012. Las Vegas won 45-0 for their 17th consecutive win in the series.

The winning team in the annual meeting between Las Vegas High and Rancho earns Sir Herkimer’s Bone — a cow bone from a butcher shop donated to the series in the 1950s. Las Vegas has won the series 22 consecutive years, but judging by the packed stands, it hasn’t diminished the game’s importance.

College basketball: UNLV vs. San Diego State

Aside from last season, when the Rebels won just 11 games, there isn’t a better rivalry in the Mountain West Conference. The matchups usually feature great crowds, close finishes and heated play.

Minor league baseball: Silver State Diamond Challenge

When the Reno Aces joined Las Vegas 51s in the Pacific Coast League for Triple-A baseball in 2009, the franchises started a season-long competition. The team with the best head-to-head record at the end of the year wins the Silver Plate Trophy.

Future

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Los Angeles Kings forward Andrei Loktionov (10) battles on the boards with Vegas Golden Knights left wing David Perron (57) during their preseason game at the T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday, September 26, 2017. .

Pro hockey: Vegas Golden Knights vs. ???

Rivalries in the NHL are built on playoff battles. A best-of-seven series full of bone-crunching hits and blood-drawing fights ending with one team going home for the summer is the quickest way to create hatred.

“It’s not something that pops up; it builds over time and eventually it hits a tipping point,” Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “Those games get elevated after a playoff series. It sticks in your head, that playoff mentality, and the emotions run high.”

Still in their inaugural season, the Golden Knights haven’t yet had the opportunity to make enemies on the ice. It could take Vegas years to develop a true rival, but there are a few teams that seem more likely than others, mostly because of their proximity to Las Vegas.

“We haven’t played the L.A. Kings yet but I have a feeling that may be one, and maybe Arizona for a battle for the desert,” Schmidt said.

The Kings and Coyotes are in the Pacific Division and will play the Golden Knights four or five times every regular season, providing plenty of opportunities to generate bad blood.

“It’s great to have rivals,” Schmidt said. “With 82 games, it’s nice to have a couple circled ones on the schedule. It gives you a little added enthusiasm when certain teams come to town. We each have our former teams, but it’s nice to have one team to hate together.”

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Denver Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler is sacked by Oakland Raiders defensive end Khalil Mack during the second half Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015, in Denver.

Pro football: Las Vegas Raiders vs. Denver Broncos

The soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders have a 62-52-2 all-time record against the Broncos.

When the Raiders arrive in Las Vegas in a few years, they’ll bring along one of professional sports’ greatest rivalries.

Their series with the Denver Broncos defies the idea that the current construction of the NFL isn’t conducive to long-term rivalries. The contempt between the Raiders and Broncos goes back nearly 60 years.

The two franchises, along with the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers, were original teams in the American Football League’s Western Division in 1960 and have continued to share a division ever since. They’ve had more than their share of run-ins since then.

Perhaps most famously, the Raiders reportedly had an agreement in place with the Baltimore Colts to trade for John Elway after the 1983 NFL Draft. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle blocked the deal, and Elway ended up with the Broncos, where he reached five Super Bowls and won two during a mostly down period for the Raiders.

Mike Shanahan coached the Broncos to their first two Super Bowl victories a decade after being fired as coach of the Raiders. The Broncos have won 10 of the past 12 meetings between the teams, but still trail overall.