By LINDA McCARTHY
When you live in Missoula, Montana, there is an interesting dynamic when it comes to supporting professional sports teams. We’re far enough away from all major metropolitan areas that you don’t have a natural connection with any specific sports team, regardless of whether it’s the NFL, the MLB or the NHL.
Since Montana is essentially halfway between Seattle, Washington and Denver, Colorado, Missoulians are oftentimes split between their love of the Mariners and the Rockies, the Seahawks and the Broncos. In our house, the Seahawks are somewhat a dominant favorite, mostly because my husband and his family have been season-ticket holders for close to 30 years. The name Gallagher is even etched into the armrests of the seats they call their own.
Me? I’ve always been a Broncos fan. My family lived in Golden, Colorado during the 1970s when the Orange Crush was dominant. Yet it’s my love of John Elway and former head coach Mike Shanahan that makes me a strong supporter of Denver. The addition of Peyton Manning and Montana native Brock Osweiler make that team very exciting to follow this year.
As luck would have it, we have landed tickets to Saturday night’s preseason game, and we’re headed to Seattle to see the ‘Hawks and the Horsemen play. It should be a fun and exciting experience, but I am already outnumbered. We now have two Seahawk fans in our house of three. Manning may only play a series or a quarter, but Osweiler will certainly be fun to watch. I’ll be wearing orange. Tom and Maddy will be wearing blue and green. We’ll see who gets to celebrate the win.
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Linda McCarthy has been a Missoula resident for more than 25 years and serves as Executive Director of the Missoula Downtown Association, a private non-profit, membership-based organization dedicated to promoting, supporting and enhancing the vitality of Downtown Missoula. She and her family live in the Farviews Neighborhood, and her husband, Tom Gallagher, is a computer science professor at UM’s Missoula College. Linda holds two degrees from The University of Montana and was the 2008 Montana Alumni of the Year.
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