By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
Saturday evening the Montana Grizzly football team will try for the first win in the state of North Dakota in 42 years. In September of 1971 the Grizzlies entered the game in Grand Forks with a 21 game regular season winning streak. The Griz trailed by 14 at the half but senior quarterback Gary Berding departed from the Griz wishbone attack to pass Montana by the Fighting Sioux.
The Griz head to Grand Forks well rested after a bye week. Over the years, the Griz have taken care of business after a bye in the schedule. Over the last 25 years Montana is 16-2 the week after having a bye. From 1990 to 2003 the Griz won straight games coming of a bye… Last year’s home loss to Montana State was only the second time in a quarter of century that Montana has lost coming off a bye. In 1992 Brad Lebo led a well-rested Grizzly team to a 47-29 upset of No. 2 ranked Idaho.
It was 50 years ago Saturday that Grizzly football picked up its most recent of win outside the U.S. as the Griz won 29-0 over the University of British Columbia. The Griz lost two subsequent visits to BC to face Simon Fraser University.
Speaking of Simon Fraser, the Klansmen made their first visit to the Adams Center 16 years ago on October 26th for an exhibition. The last time SFU played in Dahlberg arena was November of 1997 when the Klansmen got a last second tip-in to upset the Griz.
Remember when major companies sponsored contests where a community competed for the honor of hosting some special event? Well that sort of contest still exist. A Canadian company that produces the “Official Cheese of the National Hockey League” sponsored a contest for the most “hockey crazy” town in Canada with the winning community getting the honor of playing host to the first NHL exhibition game of the 2013-14 seasons. So Saturday September 14, Stirling-Rawdon, Ontario will play host to the Winnipeg Jets and the Washington Capitols.
A little “pop” culture trivia. It is ironic that this weekend there will be a “rock” concert at Ogren Park. This weekend is the 50th anniversary of the last Missoula performance of George Dennison and the Firebirds. Soon after 1963 Dennison embarked on a “Solo” career that eventually led him to the Presidency at University of Montana.
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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.