By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
The Montana Grizzlies nail-biters to start the season marked the first time since 1977 that the Griz opened the season with 2 games decided by a 3 points or less since 1977. In ’77 the Griz opened with a 2-point loss at home to Nevada-Las Vegas and then lost by 3 at Northern Arizona the following week. By the way, Saturday’s loss to Cal Poly was just the fourth home loss in September since 1999; three of those four loses have been by a single point.
Portland state’s 24-17 win over Washington State marked the first time since 1965 that the Cougars had lost a home game to a member of the Big Sky Conference. In 1965 the Idaho Vandals ruined WSU’s home opener with a 17-13 triumph.
Entering play on October 17, 2009 the Montana Grizzlies and the Kansas Jayhawks were both 5-0 and poised to make their mark in their respective divisions of College football. The Griz narrowly defeated Eastern Washington while Kansas lost at Colorado. Since that October Saturday nearly 6 years ago the Griz have gone 52-1-23 while the Jayhawks have stumbled to a 12-56 mark. This Saturday Kansas hosts a school that recalls a very happy moment in recent KU history–the Memphis Tigers. In April of 2008 the Jayhawks basketball team staged a dramatic comeback to beat Derrick Rose and the Memphis Tigers for the NCAA Men’s Basketball crown.
Ten of the top 12 teams in the FCS pre-season coaches poll have already lost a game in 2015. The only two schools of that elite dozen not to have tasted defeat thus far are Montana State and Jacksonville State.
Of the ten teams currently in position to reach the MLB playoffs this fall only the New York Yankees and st Louis cardinals have won World series Championships in the last 20 years. Both Houston and Texas have been to the World Series but have never claimed the big Prize.
A note from Kindergarten that might be an omen for the 50th Super Bowl in February. It was “Green Day” in Kindergarten last Thursday and all were clad in green. One young lady had a cheerleader outfit on representing the Green Bay Packers, noteworthy is the fact that the young lady’s name was ‘Destiny’!
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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.