By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
The Montana Grizzlies play in the state of South Dakota for the first time in 39 years Saturday when they meet the University Of South Dakota Coyotes at the Dakota Dome. It was September of 1974 when the Grizzlies last played in South Dakota. That Saturday South Dakota blocked two Grizzly kicks to turn the game around for a Coyote win. Back in 1974 Joe Glenn was a young assistant at USD.
A win Saturday, and for the 21st time in the last 26 seasons, and the Griz will have won at least 8 games in a season. Prior to 1988 the Griz had only exceeded 7 wins twice in their history.
The Montana State Bobcats are hoping a recent trend continues in their rivalry with Eastern Washington, as the visitors have won each of the past two seasons in this series.
This past Saturday’s wins by the Griz and Bobcats marked each program’s 44th win during the presidency of Baraack Obama, our 44th President.
A win Saturday would also give the Griz 150 wins in the 21 Century, in other words, since the start of the 2000 season. The MSU Bobcats have claimed 98 wins since the start of the 2000 season.
From 1952 to 1991 there were 27 games of the World Series with one team having a chance to clinch the season without the need of a seventh and decisive game 7, but only six of those “clinching” opportunities were successful. Since 1992 11 times teams have entered game 6 with a chance to clinch and over those 21 seasons seven times teams successfully closed out the Series in 6 games.
The Montana Grizzly basketball team will open its official 2013-14 season on Tuesday November 12 at Minnesota. The last time the Grizzlies and Gophers met was in November of 2006 at the Old Spice Classic in Orlando. The Griz won over the Golden Gophers giving Wayne Tinkle his first Division I coaching win and the loss earned then Minnesota coach Dan Monson his immediate termination as the Gopher’s coach.
Minnesota’s new head coach is Richard Pitino, formerly the head coach of Florida International. The Grizzlies faced his father Rick Pitino when the older Pitino was at Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament in 1997.
Robin Selvig’s quest for his 800th Win as the head coach of the Montana Lady Griz begins in Earnest Sunday against Montana State Northern. For the first time since March 8, 1979 the Lady Griz will take the court without Annette Whitaker Rocheleau on their roster or their bench. The Legendary Assistant retired in June. Selvig needs just two wins to secure win 800; win 700 came against the University of Illinois in a Thanksgiving tournament in Mexico.
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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.