Saints in a league of their own

Carroll College is on top of the NAIA football world again - and now the wider sporting world will know it.

On top of winning the NAIA national crown on Saturday, Carroll College gets the added honor of making the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine's Pictures of the Year issue.

The cover of the magazine (out this week) features a triumphant Saints player celebrating in the mud of Savannah, Tenn., after Saturday's 17-9 title-game win over the University of Sioux Falls.

This is great recognition for the top-notch Carroll football program, which has won national titles in five out of the past six years.

Maybe Carroll ought to think about moving up a division in the college football world.

A tug-of-war over a mammoth grizzly hide has been settled amicably.

The hide of the 830-pound behemoth that was struck and killed by a pickup truck will be displayed at the Lincoln Ranger District of the Helena National Forest.

The hide had been sought by Lincoln residents (who wanted the big bear kept close to home) and the University of Montana athletics department (which would have loved to display the bear at the University of Montana in Missoula, home of the Grizzlies.

Putting it in the ranger district offices keeps it in the realm of its former haunts around Lincoln. And UM officials were gracious in accepting the bear's placement.

A tip of the BATON to Don Lawrence, a true maestro on the local music scene, who is still going strong at age 77.

After seven decades of performing and inspiring others to perform, Lawrence shows no signs of letting up. His new gig of teaching music at Swan River School actually is a return to a spot he taught a few years ago.

He also plays big band music in the Don Lawrence Orchestra, German polka music in the Bavarian Echoes and "everything from Bach to Basie" in BrassWerks, plus directs the Spirit of Youth band for local middle school students.

He even wrote the fight song, "Go Glacier," for Kalispell's new high school.

Earlier this week he could also be heard joining the "Tuba Christmas" performance at Kalispell Center Mall.

All this is after a storied career mentoring young musicians at Columbia Falls High School and stints at the head of the class in Bigfork and Swan River schools.

Don Lawrence, obviously, has given much of his life to music, and for that we are all richer.