By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
The Montana Grizzlies got single game record performances out of Jerry Louie McGee and Brady Gustafson, but it wasn’t enough for the Griz to get the win at Cal Poly. This marked the second straight year the Griz have lost by a single point to the Mustangs of Cal Poly, the first time that double-whammy has happened to the Griz. Odd tidbit: three of the last 5 Grizzly head coaches have suffered one point losses in their first loss as head coaches–Joe Glenn, Bobby Hauck and Bob Stitt last September.
Jerry Louie Mcgee’s 21 catches broke a single game reception mark that had sood for 19 years. Josh Paffhausen came to Montana as a quarterback out of Butte and battled for the job in 1996 but accepted the change to Wide Receiver and in his second game at the position and caught 15 against St. Mary’s
The Thunderbirds of Southern Utah may ahve a new head coach but Demario Warren has been a part of the T-Birds staff for 8 years as defensive coordinator, an area he still oversees as head coach. One of the other finalists for the Southern Utah job was former MSU coach Rob Ash.
While the MSU Bobcats lost on Saturday to North Dakota it was the first time in 9 years the Bobcats have given up less than 20 points only to lose. Odds would seem good for the Cats this weekend as they face a Sacramento State team that lost to Western Oregon 38-30 a couple weeks before the WOU Wolves lost in Bozeman 55-0.
Nebraska transfer Lane Hovey has had a couple of crucial catches already this season. Hovey was a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. While at Nebraska Hovey also won the Brook Berringer Citzenship award ( Berringer the Cornhuusker quarterback killed just a few days before the 1996 draft.)
Fifty years ago Saturday the Portland State Vikings made their first appearance in Missoula and the Griz shutout the Vikes 10-0. What is noteworthy in that 1966 game was that the Griz had their first successful field goal attempt in nearly 3 seasons. Terry Bergen (of Darby) booted the field goal. That streak of games without a field goal had grown to 23 before Bergen made his kick.
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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.