LARAMIE, WYOMING- With the successful launch of the Cowboy Ph.D. programs at Colorado State in Ft. Collins and the University of Wyoming in Laramie, men and women of all stripes seeking a career are flocking to enroll.
Especially popular among the students are classes teaching how to "Sing like Gene Autry" and "Shooting from the hip (or how to speak frankly with your peers)". In the first class, learning how to sing with a half-yodel, half nasal pitched whine is a super challenge. The shooting class has had it's share of problems, as in the first semester when what was supposed to be a friendly conversational exchange turned into an actual exchange of gunfire. Everyone in the classroom took cover however and no one was injured.
Wild Bill McGoon, an actual cowboy from Hole-in-the-ground, Wyoming teaches the enthusiastic songsters and shares reminiscences from days gone by such as the time when Teddy Roosevelt and Barbara Bush tied in the arm wrestling tournament of '09. His memory isn't the best these days but he can still, "spit out his chaw of tobacco and send up a croon like a lovelorn coyote".
