By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
Ninety years ago this was the first Heavyweight boxing championship fight to ever be held in Montana as Jack Dempsey faced Canadian Tommy Gibbons. The Dempsey-Gibbons fight nearly bankrupted the northern Montana as it was ill-prepared for the throng of people that came to town and the lack the financial backing the town leaders had hoped for. Dempsey had to struggle with Gibbons but did retain his title.
This is the fifteenth season for the Missoula Osprey in the Pioneer league. Of the 8 affiliates during the Os first season of 1998 only the Osprey and Billings Mustangs have the same parent organization. Four cities that were part of the League during Missoula’s tenure are no longer a part of the circuit: Butte, Medicine Hat, Casper and Provo.
For many years Yale and the University of Montana have had the top attendance in Division FCS. In 2013 the Bulldogs and Griz will have a common opponent on their schedule. On October 5th the Yale Bulldogs travel to Cal-Poly of the Big Sky Conference and then the Cal Poly Mustangs come to Missoula for a game that could have title implications. If you are wondering, the Grizzlies have never faced an Ivy League member in football.
How good a barometer of who will reach the World Series in October is who had the best records on the Fourth Of July? Well on July 4, 2012 the Texas Rangers had the best record in the American League while the Washington Nationals had the top mark in the National League. Both the Rangers and Nationals were in the post-season last year, but both were gone before the League Championship Series.
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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.