By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
After an impressive showing in a home exhibition match with Carroll College, the Montana Grizzly soccer team embarks on an 8-city, 8-match road swing. Unlike most pre-conference schedules which feature tournaments that allow a team to play two matches in a weekend without having additional travel, Montana plays a series of single matches on their home field of the host schools. The Griz will make stops from Spokane to Columbia, Missouri. This season marks the 20th anniversary of the first UM Soccer team which played its first season at Fort Missoula.
While Wyoming ‘s new head football coach Craig Buhl brought most of his staff from North Dakota State, Buhl retained one coach from the previous Cowboy staff and it is someone that spent some time coaching at Montana. Pete Kaligis spent most of the past 5 seasons in Laramie working on offense and will now move over and work with the Cowboys’ defensive line. Kaligis spent six seasons in Missoula during the Bobby Hauck regime (2003-2008). Pete Kaligis was a popular ambassador for the program.
On Sunday, August 17, the Houston Astros won their 52nd game of the 2014 season eclipsing their win total of the entire 2013 season with 37 games to go this season. Three other major League teams have a good chance of matching their win totals from last season before August is done. Both the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners need just 4 wins to match their total from 2013, and the LA Angels need just 6 wins to match their victory total from last season.
Retiring Major League baseball Commissioner Bud Selig got into Major League baseball when he organized a group to buy the floundering Seattle Pilots in the spring of 1970 just a week or so before the start of the season. Selig delivered one of the most accurate quotes ever when he said at the Franchise purchase and transfer to Milwaukee “I have always wanted to own a major league team in the worst way,” and the Pilots/Brewers were definitely a team in the worst way—they were in financial debt without a stadium commitment and without much Major League talent. Selig knew he needed to make his first acquisition a big name talent and so he signed recently retired major league catcher Bob Uecker as his radio voice for the Brewers.
A word to the wise… In a recent story about parking problems in the University District one of those interviewed was the human “persona” of Monte. “My auto policy doesn’t cover having my car damaged by an irate bear.”
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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.