By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
Will this year finally be the year of a Triple Crown winner in horse racing? American Pharaoh will try to do what no horse has done since Affirmed in 1978, win all three legs of the Triple Crown. Twelve horses over the last 37 years have come to the Belmont with a chance for immortality, but each has failed. In 1998 Real Quiet lost by a neck in the Belmont and that was the closer any of the 12 colts have come. Both Big Brown and California Chrome in 2014 were overwhelming favorites who seemed a lock in the Belmont but faltered down the stretch. Something that may be a good sign for American Pharaoh is that he was born on Groundhogs Day 2012, but no word whether he saw his shadow that day.
This Saturday the Women’s World Cup Soccer tournament begins in Canada. In 2011 in Germany the United States lost in the finals to Japan in a match that came down to penalty kicks where Japan scored 3 to the United State’s 1. The Women’s World Cup has some different powers than the Men’s World Cup. Countries such as Sweden, Japan, China, and Norway have been powers in the Women’s game. The United States last won the World Cup in 1999 when the tournament was held on U.S. soil.
This is the third time the Stanley Cup Finals involved a team from Florida. In 1996 the Colorado Avalanche swept the Florida Panthers in 4 games to claim their first Cup. In 2004 the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Calgary Flames for the title. The West Champions have won the Stanley Cup 6 of the past 8 years.
With the Early opener against North Dakota State the Grizzly football team will have two open weeks during the midst of the season. The Griz will have the week of September 12th off and then October 17th.
A unique sports relationship exists between Boston and St. Louis. In 1957 the Boston Celtics won their first NBA with a series win over the St. Louis Hawks. In 1970 the Boston Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in the expansion era with a series sweep of the St Louis Blues. In February of 2002 the New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 to claim the Franchise’s first Super Bowl Crown. Then in 2004 the Boston Red Sox broke an 86 year draught with a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
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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.