By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
As all Montana Grizzly fans know winning in Bozeman is tough to do. With the Lady Griz and Griz basketball wins on Saturday for the first time in 30 years UM has swept Montana State in Bozeman in the four major team sports (in the fall Grizzly volleyball and Football conquered the Bobcats in Bozeman.)
In the 1981-82 Academic year the UM volleyball recorded their first ever win over the Bobcats with a win in Bozeman. Two weeks after the volleyball team landmark victory the Griz football team claimed its first win in Bozeman in ten years . In basketball in February of 1982 Lady Griz picked up their 10th consecutive win over the Bobcats while the Grizzly men avenge an earlier home loss to the Bobcats.
The University of North Dakota is in for some changes next year as they join the Big Sky Conference, settle the questions surrounding the School’s Fighting Sioux nickname, and for the first time in 25 years have a new women’s basketball coach.
The UND mens basketball team won the Great West Conference tournament and while not getting an NCAA tournament invitation did earn a spot in the CIT post-season tournament. However this season the North Dakota men are winless on the road. This week the UND men have a long way to go to try to win games at Chicago State and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The North Dakota women are leading the Great West and are 7-1 since coach Gene Roebuck announced this would be his last season at the helm of the program. Under Roebuck the UND Women have won 3 Division II national titles. Currently the matter of the Fighting Sioux nickname is back in the legislature. The University has replaced its long-time logo–a profile of a Native American warrior– with a bright Green “ND” logo.
In Sunday’s Super Bowl Victor Cruz of the Giants and Danny Woodhead for the Patriots scored their teams’ first touchdowns. In the fall of 2006 Cruz and Woodhead played key roles in the upset wins in Montana. Cruz had several clutch catches and one touchdown reception as the University of Massachusetts Minutemen downed the Grizzlies at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in the FCS semi-finals 19-17. In September of 2006 Woodhead helped Division II Chadron State to a 34-23 win in Bozeman the week after the Bobcats had defeated the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder.
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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.