UM Sports Trivia | Week of June 13

By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN

 

Hockey fans everywhere were saddened by the news of the passing of Gordie Howe, Mr. Hockey, to more than a generation. How many professional playing careers span 34 years beginning at the same time as the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders and ending amidst the hostage crisis in Iran? Howe had a special connection to Missoula as his granddaughter Jade Roskum was a star on the UM volleyball team from 2006-10. Howe made several visits to Missoula and was very affable with fans who recognized him.

One of the leaders of the Chicago run to success is a player who played in the Pioneer League close to a decade ago. Dexter Fowler spent the 2007 season as a member of the Casper Ghosts a team affiliate with the Colorado Rockies.  Fowler, who spent several productive season with the Rockies in Denver, has ignited the Cubs this season– both on the base paths and in hitting for power.
Speaking of the Colorado Rockies forty years ago this week the fine citizens of Denver were double blessed as the NBA announced the Denver Nuggets would be one of four American Basketball Association teams merging into the NBA. Also the two year old Kansas City Scouts of the National Hockey League were moving to the Mile High City and being rechristened the Colorado Rockies. In the past four decades, the Nuggets have made it to 3 NBA West Championship seasons but have yet to reach the NBA finals. The Hockey Rockies were simply terrible (one promotion was if they held the opponent under 5 goals the fans got free french fries.) The highlight of the Rockies’ 6 year stay was the two seasons that Don Cherry was their head coach and made headlines with his somewhat erratic antics. In 1982 the Rockies became the New Jersey Devils and would win three Stanley Cups several years later.
Can Phil Mickelson finally get a U.S. Open title to complete the Grand Slam in the week he turns 46?  In the modern era the oldest golfers to win the U.S. Open were Julius Boroos in 1963 and Raymond Floyd in 1986–both at the age of 43.
********************

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.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 13th, 2016 at 9:21 pm
Category Archive: All Featured, All Sports & Recreation, Blogs, Spectator Sports, UM Athletics, University of Montana
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

«
»