By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
In his new capacity as defensive coordinator at Washington State, former Grizzly defensive coordinator Mike Breske will see a few teams he will remember from the recent past. The Cougars’ first three games next fall include visits to former Mountain West Conference foes BYU and UNLV, who Breske faced as a member of Joe Glenn’s staff at Wyoming. The Cougars first home game will be against Big Sky member Eastern Washington.
When your great-grandfather is a movie superhero, you likely would have inherited some extra powers. New Montana recruit Nick Holt VI is the great-grandson of actor and Olympic swimming star Buster Crabbe. Crabbe won gold at the 1932 Olympics in the 400 meter medley, and then had a successful career playing Flash Gordon in the movies.
Saturday night in Berkeley, California, it will be a coaching match-up of the old pro and the protégé. Former Grizzly star Larry Kryskowiak takes his Utah Utes to face his former coach Mike Montgomery. Montgomery is in his fourth season rebuilding the Cal Bears program.
There were a lot of “firsts” Sunday in the Denver Broncos overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. One first that may have slipped underneath the radar was the fact that Tim Tebow was the first non-Pac (8, 10, 12) quarterback to take the Broncos to a play-off win. The three previous quarterbacks to lead Denver to a post-season win were: Craig Morton (Cal), John Elway (Stanford), and Jake Plummer (Arizona State).
Wide Receiver Victor Cruz has been a big part of the New York Giants success this season. Cruz made himself right at home in 2006 when he and the UMASS Minutemen came to Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Cruz had 6 catches in the Minutemen’s 19-17 semifinal round win that night.
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Chris Walterskirchen has been an observer of Montana sports for nearly half a century. A Kalispell native, Chris has worked in various capacities for professional and college sports organization of at various times: ranging from announcing and statistical work to the concessions and even a stint as a costumed mascot.
Chris has academic degrees in communications and elementary education. His style of sports trivia involves more than just who won and who lost, but also focuses on the obscure or human side of sports. In this blog you will learn things like the Grizzly football team has won 210 games over the 19 seasons since they have had Monte as their mascot or that UNLV is the only school that both the Griz and Lady Griz have both faced in the NCAA basketball tournament
When not following sports Chris enjoys taking care of animals of all kinds (a peacock rescue?) and reading to pre-schoolers.