By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
A special Hoo-Ray for the Big Sky Eagles boys track team. After 33 years and a history of outstanding talent the eagles have claimed their first boys track title. What is especially remarkable is that the Eagles won state getting points from a multitude of athletes. The closest the Eagles had come to a boy’s team title was back in 1993 when it came down to a battle between Big Sky and Billings Skyview in the 1600 meter relay. The 1,600 relay ended in a dead heat between the Eagles and Falcons so Skyview took the title by half a point. By the way, the last time a Missoula School won a AA boys track title was Hellgate in 1980 (Hellgate benefited from the Mount St. Helens explosion that pushed back the state track meet).
Saturday afternoon in Tampa there was Lyle Overbay doing his hitting magic again, smacking a 2- run homer to give the New York Yankees an extra-inning win. Overbay began his pro career in Missoula in 1999 and wowed the Pioneer League that summer. Overbay made his major League debut for the Diamondbacks in September of 2001. While Overbay was not on the-Backs post-season roster when the team claimed the World Series, he is the last remaining position player from that team still in the majors.
On Memorial Day 2012 the Los Angeles Dodgers had the best record having begun the season winning 32 of its first 48 games. In the year since the Dodgers have posted a 75-88 record. After Memorial Day 2013 the St. Louis Cardinals have the best record in baseball.
The San Antonio Spurs have won the Western Conference finals for the fifth time in 15 years, but the first since 2007. Over the last 24 years the Spurs have been the best team in the NBA’s Western Conference. Former Griz player and Coach Larry Kryskowiak with a wink and a grin would like to take credit for helping the Spurs Franchise’s turnaround. Krysko was part of the 1986-87 Spurs team that posted the second worst record in the league thus earning San Antonio a place in the NBA lottery which gave them the top pick in the draft. In June of 1987 the Spurs used that top pick to select Navy’s David Robinson even though Robinson would not be available to the Spurs for 2 more years as he fulfilled his military commitment.
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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.