Here’s a subject I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about: escalators. Much like stairs or an elevator, the escalator is just there. When my age was in the single digits, I rode the escalator at Sears. And probably J.C. Penney. And maybe at the Idaho Department Store. I don’t accurately remember which buildings had escalators. I just remember that it seemed every department store in every city I visited had escalators. Portland, Seattle, San Francisco. And they were fun in the way that simple things are fun when you’re a kid and you’re incredibly bored. For instance, during a trip to a department store.
As I got older, I rode escalators in other places, too. Before Idaho had any large malls, I almost always made a visit to a mall on vacation. They all had escalators. I rode them in airports, too. The newer airports even had moving sidewalks, which I like to think of as flat escalators. The New York subway system has lots of escalators. The Washington DC metro system has really long escalators. In fact, the longest single escalator in North America is located in the DC metro. And there’s an escalator at the CNN Center in Atlanta that takes you from the atrium, on the ground floor, to the eighth floor, with no stops in between.
I’ve never traveled outside North America, with the exception of Hawaii, but if I did, I could find some great escalators. Hong Kong has an escalator that’s 745 feet long. They also have multiple systems of outdoor escalators, since Hong Kong has hills and lots of people who walk to work. There’s one system where you ride an escalator, then walk a few yards, then ride another escalator, then walk a little further, then ride a few more escalators. In all, it’s 800 yards long.
At this point I should probably tell you why I’m talking about escalators. Boise State played the University of Wyoming. The University of Wyoming does not have any escalators. Neither does the city of Laramie, the location of the university. In fact, there are a total of two escalators in the entire state of Wyoming. One of them is in a bank in the city of Casper. The other one is also in a bank in the city of Casper. A different bank. But that’s it. There are only two. Or, I should say, two sets. If you count the escalator going up as one and the one coming back down as another, then there are four.
Now, Wyoming is the least populated state in America. It’s got about 580-thousand people. So the state has one set of escalators for every 290-thousand people.
Listen to this description of one of those escalators, written by Megan Lee in the Casper Star-Tribune: “The shiny silver steps appear, seemingly from nowhere, and take the traveler to the building’s second level. Then, after the traveler has completed his or her second-floor business, the escalator delivers the traveler safely back to the first floor. The escalators are a popular attraction for children, who can ride the moving staircase for free during business hours.”
That sounds like someone describing something they’ve never seen before, doesn’t it? I don’t know anything about Megan Lee of the Casper Star-Tribune, but she wrote that article in 2008. Five years later, the Atlantic magazine did a story on Wyoming’s escalators and found that there were still only two. Why? The source in the Atlantic says, number one, they’re more expensive to install than elevators, number two, Wyoming doesn’t have very many tall buildings, and number three, if there’s a fire in the building, you’re better off in an enclosed stairwell than you would be on an escalator. But they also said the lack of escalator practice could be dangerous, citing a report that an eleven-year-old girl from Casper, whose parents keep their money in a third bank, was visiting relatives in Des Moines, Iowa and was hurt after falling 25 feet from an escalator handrail to the floor of a mall.
So what does this all have to do with football? Simple. Since becoming a Division One college football team, Boise State has won 72 percent of its games. Wyoming has won 48 percent. So Boise has a lot more escalators, but Wyoming has had a lot more ups and downs.
