By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
The College World Series title won by Coastal Carolina in June marked the sixth time a school that has faced the Montana Grizzlies football team ( since 1960) has won the College Baseball World Series. Oregon State, Cal State Fullerton, Fresno State , Rice and the University of Minnesota. The Grizzlies hosted Coastal Carolina in the second round of the 2013 FCS play-offs–a game the Chanticleers won 42-35.
The 2016-17 Montana Lady Griz basketball schedule has been released and there are several interesting match-up in the pre-conference schedule. Montana plays in a tournament at the University of Iowa opening with South Dakota State in the schools’ second match-up all-time. In 2008 the teams met in Cancoon and the Jackrabbits beat the Lady Griz. The Lady Griz Classic will be palyed in November for the first time, as Incarnate Word of Texas and Utah State will be in for the Round Robin format schedule over 5 days, going Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Former Griz football coach Mick Delaney will be attending both Soccer and football this fall as his grandson Michael will be a wide reciever for the football team and Mick’s granddaughter Jacey Delaney will be in her second season with the Griz soceer team.
The national nominating convention is upon us and naturally there are some sports connections to the convention sites. For the fifth time in history one of the conventions will be hosted in an arena that earlier in the spring had hosted the NBA finals: Los Angles in 1960 and 2000, San Francisco in 1964 and Chicago in 1996. In 2004 the Democratic Convention was held in Boston and that October the Red Sox broke their World Series drought. In 1972 Miami hosted both conventions and that fall the Miami Dolphins did the impossible and recorded the only perfect season in the Super Bowl era.
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.