By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
After a loss, there’s no other place the Montana Grizzlies would rather be than at home at Washington Grizzly Stadium. Since the start of the 1998 season the Griz are 17-4 at home the week after suffering a loss. As a matter of fact the last time the Griz loss at Washington Grizzly Stadium on the heels of a loss the previous week was in the opening round of the 2005 FCS play-offs when Cal Poly beat the Griz.
The Griz have beaten Portland state the last 9 times the Vikings have come to Missoula. The last Portland State win in Missoula came in 1987 a 20-3 win that remains the only game in the 27 seasons at Washington-Griz stadium that the Grizzlies have failed to score a touchdown.
The Vikings of PSU are coming off 9 days between games since the most recent game. The Vikings played a Thursday night game last week to accommodate TV so they have had extra time to prepare. The Griz have played only one Thursday night game in the middle of the schedule when they narrowly lost at Idaho in 1989 in an ESPN game–fortunately they dominated Weber State the following week.
It was 40 years ago this week that the Grizzly football team picked up its first ever win over a nationally ranked opponent. In 1973 Division II was established and for the first time there were true “national” polls for smaller college teams. The Griz pounced on the South Dakota Coyotes who were number 3 in the AP poll. Montana recorded a 34-19 win.
Interim USC football coach Ogeron makes his home debut next Thursday as the Trojans host the Arizona Wildcats. From 2005-2007 Ogeron was the head coach at the University of Mississippi and his home game at Ole Miss was memorable. In September of 2005 Mississippi opened its home schedule hosting the Wyoming Cowboys. Mike Brieske’s defense shut down the Rebels and Joe Glenn and Company left Oxford with a resounding win.
Of the 9 teams remaining in the Major League baseball play-offs only 3 franchises have claimed a World Series title within the last 22 years. The Atlanta braves won the World Series in 1995; St Louis Cardinals have won world titles in 2006 and 2011 and the Boston Red Sox 2004 and 2007.
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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.