Griz celebrate homecoming
The captains of the '54 team will be introduced in the first quarter of the game against Idaho State.
By ANDREW HINKELMAN
The Daily Inter Lake
Saturday's return home from a successful trip to Ogden, Utah, will indeed be homecoming on the University of Montana campus.
The annual gathering of alumni this year will feature a 50th reunion of the 1954 Grizzly football team, a squad that went 3-6 but has left its mark through the years via fund raising, and hopes to ensure its legacy in perpetuity by endowing a scholarship.
According to a press release sent in by Kalispell's J.D. Coleman, who was sports editor of the Montana student newspaper in 1954, the surviving members of that Griz team are trying to raise $20,000 for the endowment.
The '54 Griz football team started its tradition of financial support in the spring of 1955 by organizing an alumni football game.
Homecoming events this week include a no-host registration Thursday night, a breakfast and golf outing Friday morning followed by a dinner that evening, and concluding with a ride on a homecoming parade float, tailgate party at the stadium and postgame party.
The tailgate function will be in section 15 of the River Bowl if anyone wants to stop and say hello.
The captains of the '54 team will be introduced in the first quarter of the game against Idaho State.
- HEIDELBERGER HIDING: Last Saturday at Weber State, the Grizzlies' leading receiver, Jefferson Heidelberger did not catch a pass.
Montana coach Bobby Hauck wasn't available for comment Tuesday, but he told the Missoulian that the Wildcats paid extra attention to him, opening things up for other receivers - Levander Segars in particular - and he didn't play as much due to some injuries.
- BALANCING ACT: The second half of the Weber game was by far the most balanced offensive effort of the season for the Griz.
Montana had 117 yard rushing on 20 carries and 98 yards passing on eight attempts, perhaps showing that the running game, which has not been sound so far, is ready to assert itself.
- A KICK: After not making Montana's first road trip to Sam Houston State, former Flathead Brave Pete Sloan accompanied the team to Ogden.
At first glance, it's a somewhat odd decision by Hauck. You can only take a certain number of players on a trip, and with injuries to the offensive line and elsewhere, it doesn't make a lot of sense to bring along a player who only handles kickoffs.
That is, until you consider that Weber State's Wiley King is second in the Big Sky Conference in kick returns. Sloan's ability to put the ball in or near the end zone (four touchbacks, two brought out of the end zone, another to the 3) negated a big weapon.