By DAVE GUFFEY for GoGriz.com
Grizzly football will soon be coming to a highway near you thanks to a new partnership with Jim Palmer Trucking of Missoula.
Jim Palmer Trucking will be assisting the football program this season by transporting the team’s equipment and supplies for the Grizzlies’ six road games. Jim Palmer Trucking will be using a prestigious 75th anniversary Peterbilt truck, paired with a custom-wrapped Grizzly football trailer.
The trips include stops in Laramie, Wyo.; Fargo, N.D.; Grand Forks, N.D.; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Cedar City, Utah; and Cheney, Wash. The distance of the round trips will total more than 10,300 miles.
“Jim Palmer Trucking and my family are very excited to have the opportunity to work with the university and Grizzly football team,” said Darrel Wilson, owner of Jim Palmer Trucking. “This reestablishes a long-standing relationship between JPT and the University of Montana and starts a new one between our family and the university.
“We are very proud to establish the Clark Wilson Memorial Athletic Scholarship in remembrance of our son and to continue our long-standing commitment to civic involvement.”
“This truck will be a wonderful traveling billboard for Grizzly football and the University of Montana,” said UM Director of Athletics Kent Haslam. “We appreciate the partnership with Darrel Wilson and Jim Palmer Trucking. I am excited to see this rig rolling down the highway.”
The donation was made by Wilson and his family, who are the new owners of Jim Palmer Trucking. The company has agreed to donate a truck and trailer to transport football equipment and supplies at no expense to the university.
In addition to assisting the Grizzly football program, Jim Palmer Trucking has become a corporate sponsor of Grizzly Athletics. Continuing their generous support, the Wilson family has endowed a scholarship for a student-athlete at the University of Montana.
“We began putting a plan together this summer, and we are thrilled to have built such a strong relationship with Jim Palmer Trucking and the Wilson family,” said associate athletics director Greg Sundberg.
“They are an amazing group of people, and we are grateful for their generous support. This will not only benefit the football program but will be a huge marketing tool for the University of Montana.”
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