Remembering Magic: The Ford Wyoming Center's 43-Year Local Legacy

As a Casper native that was born in the mid 1970s, I remember two major additions to our fair city from my youth.

One was the when the Eastridge Mall first opened back on October 13th, 1982. The other was when the Casper Event Center first opened its doors earlier the same year.

On January 7th, 2021, the building was renamed the Ford Wyoming Center, but the history is still the same.

Earlier today (Monday, April 17th, 2025), on the anniversary of the grand opening, the official Ford Wyoming Center Facebook page shared some throwback photos of that auspicious occasion (shown below).

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There have been a myriad of great memories I have had in and around that building with friends and family. My first memory of attending an event at the Casper Events Center was the first time the world famous Harlem Globetrotters performed there. At the time, in addition to touring, the team also had their own self-titled Saturday morning cartoon series, as well as many members often being featured in cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera (most notably being Scooby-Doo).

The main reason that event stands out was because one of the Globetrotters most well known players, the towering 6'8" Meadowlark Lemon gave a 5-year-old me free tickets to the event, while I was standing inside the ticket area holding my younger brothers hand while my father stood outside in the long line while it was snowing.

Thirty plus years later I had the pleasure of sharing the court with the a new generation of Globetrotters, both as their opposition and as a teammate.

Since then, I've had the pleasure of performing at, as well as attending, a multitude of events at the Ford Wyoming Center and making new, unforgettable memories with my own children.

Here's to hoping the arena will be around for another 43 awesome years.