30 years later: Renegade Cows live on

In the fall of 1979, Augustana's intramural community was blessed (or cursed) to meet the Renegade Cows.

Based on the short story in comedian Steve Martin's 1977 book, Cruel Shoes, these Augustana freshmen were "born for trouble" and aimed for people to learn the lesson: "don't fool with renegade cows."

The team took a comedic approach to their first few years.

According to Jon Sogn, in 1979, the team not only lost every game, they didn't score a point until the last play of the season.  In that last game, the opposing squad "full of jocks" was up 42-0 late in the second half. 

"We tried a long pass to Terry (Alby) Wissink, who was in double coverage.  The two defenders went up to intercept the pass, collided in mid-air, and knocked each other to the ground," Sogn said.  "The ball fell into Alby's hands and he trotted untouched into the end zone for our first score of the year."

In the high-flying moment, the Cows returned to their bumbling ways as Alby spiked the ball, only to have it bounce back up and break his glasses.

  "I looked at the other team, and they were on the ground rolling with laughter," Sogn said.  "We didn't care.  We mobbed Alby and carried him on our shoulders back to the sideline."

For two and a half years, the team struggled and was less-than-feared, but gained notoriety in 1982 with a second-place finish in the intramural basketball season.

"We were still a bunch of undersized goofballs," Wissink said.  "What we lacked in speed and size, we made up for with a lack of talent."

Later that year, the squad took home a victory in the 1982 intramural football championship.

"We knew the intramural football championship was going to be the closest most of us would ever get to athletic glory," Mike Larson said. "So it was a lot of fun to finally win the football title."

After graduating in 1983, the team was dissolved, forever frozen in the history of the hallways at Augustana, or at least in their own minds.

The story, however, didn't end there. 

First awarded in 2008, the "Renegade Cow Scholarship" is a gift of approximately $1000 per year, and is awarded to "an Augustana College student who has participated in intramural sports (as a competitor, referee, or otherwise) and exemplifies the spirit of intramural sports."

Unlike other scholarships, the recipient need not be a 4.0 student, or a gifted athlete.

Instead, "the ability to laugh at oneself" is taken into consideration, and "success (or lack thereof) in intramural sports" isn't a factor. 

"We wanted it to go to someone who was not exactly Michael Jordan or Charles Barkley," Larson said. "Underachiever types like us who actually ‘got it' regarding the purpose of intramural shorts - sportsmanship and fun with a little friendly competition thrown in." 

Off the intramural field, the Cows were regular attendees at the athletic events, serving as a precursor to the Augieholics.

"The Cows were particularly good at heckling the Jackrabbits at basketball games," Larson said. "The particulars on that probably don't need to be developed."

They would storm the Sioux Falls Arena, where the Vikings played their home games, yelling at the opposing schools, "with obnoxiousness as their forté."

The self-proclaimed "good guys" of the school left a lasting impact on Augustana's history with their renegade adventures, and continue to invest in the college through their scholarship to intramural participants today.

They even issue a game challenge to this year's intramural champions.  After all, you "don't fool with renegade cows."