UM Sports Trivia

By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN

Here’s a good omen for the MSU Bobcats as they begin their play-off run. Both the 1984 Bobcats and 2001 Grizzlies started their runs to a national title with games on Saturday December 1st.

It was interesting, to say the least, to hear some of the Stony Brook players express concern about the weather in Montana. Five weeks ago the Campus of Stony Brook and the surrounding area was rocked by Hurricane Sandy.

Among the alums of SNY-Stony Brook are Radio commentator Laura Schlesinger, TV host Joy Behar and Texas Rangers reliever Joe Nathan.

This week the Grizzly men’s basketball team travels to face two West Coast Conference members, second year WCC member and original member the University of San Francisco. It has been 35 years since the Griz faced BYU. Back in December of 1977 the Grizzlies marquee player was Michael Ray Richardson but that night in Provo Charlie Yankus had the game of his life with a double double and 5 blocks. The rivalry with USF is quite recent as the teams have met 4 times in the last decade with the Dons winning three of those contests. This USF team features one of the national leaders in both rebounds and blocked shots in Cole Dickerson.

For the 33rd consecutive season the Montana Lady Griz will hold the annual Classic this weekend with Idaho and Tennessee state as the visitors. This is the first time in 21 years that the Lady Griz tournament has been held prior to Christmas. From 1984 to 1991 the event was conducted in early December.

You’ve got to feel a little sorry for recently fired University of Colorado coach Jon Embree fired after just two seasons, rather bad seasons however. Last season the hype for Colorado game with UCLA began early as Embree’s son Tyson was a senior defensive back for the Bruins. Unfortunately the week before the game at Colorado several UCLA players were involved in a bench-clearing brawl against Arizona. Young Embree was among 8 players suspended for the Colorado game.

The passing of “Dallas” star Larry Hagman brings this tidbit to mind. The “Dallas” TV Series ran from April of 1978 to May of 1991, but in those 13 years while the TV Series was topping the ratings the Dallas Cowboys never won a Super Bowl. The Boys won 3 Super Bowl titles in the 5 seasons following the end of the series.

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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.