• Tony Windis, Sr. – Jan. 27, 1933 – May 14, 2024

One of the greatest players in Cowboy basketball history has passed away.  Tony Windis, Sr., a Wyoming great during the late 1950’s, died Tuesday night (May 14).  He was 91.

A Wyoming icon, Windis was a member of the Cowboy All-Century Team selected in January of 2005, and a member of UW’s Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, inducted in 1999.  A native of Long Island, N.Y., Windis was an All-American in 1958 and 1959, and a three-time All-Skyline Conference performer for the Cowboys.

Considered one of the finest pure shooters in Cowboy history, Windis averaged 21.2 points per game for his career which still ranks second in UW history.  During his senior year of 1958-59, he averaged 24.4 points per game.  He scored 50 points against New Mexico on Jan. 10, 1958, which remains the second best single-game total in school history.  For his career, he scored 1,465 points.

Following his Cowboy career, Windis influenced hundreds of high school basketball players as a prep coach from 1971 through 1985.  During that time, he coached five state championship teams.  In 1977, while at Mountain View, he became the first coach in Wyoming history to win both a boys and girls state championship in the same year.

Windis’ name will be forever etched in the tradition of Wyoming basketball.