Column: ‘House That Rob Built’ stands up
“The House That Rob Built,” documentary is now available for streaming, and I don’t want to tell you what to do, but if you have an extra eight or nine dollars you might plunk it down.
You might also take your allergy medication, lest you get runny eyes and nose – and that’s not just because a few faces in this doc about Robin Selvig and the Lady Griz that was years in the making have left us.
Longtime Griz announcer Mick Holien and former Montana (and Michigan State) men’s coach Jud Heathcote make appearances. Holien was around long enough to see the finished film, which showed a year ago at the Montana Documentary Film Festival in Missoula. Heathcote was not.
Both of them helped tell the story of how the Lady Griz came to kick so much butt.
If you are of a certain age you’ll love the glimpses of past players in newspaper photos and television footage, of a younger, permed-up Selvig, of Dawn (Silliker) Deden with big hair, of sellout crowds at Dahlberg Arena and – holy crap, is that Tim Hauck? (It is)
The hour-long movie, co-written and co-directed by Lady Griz alum Megan Harrington, covers the width and length of Selvig’s coaching career, from his recruitment out of Outlook to play for the Griz to his retirement party.
It can’t get to everything, obviously, but you get to see Selvig’s love of the game, one of the many factors that went into his 865 wins over 38 seasons.
He talks of his final game as a Griz player, a loss at the Big Sky tournament, and how he decided then and there he’d stay in basketball as a coach.
Left out is that his first coaching job was with UM’s freshman men’s team in 1974-75, and his next was at Plentywood High School. He was hired to be the boys’ coach, but then asked to coach the girls when Zoonie McLean decided he’d stick around one more year (and guide the Wildcats to the 1976 State A boys’ crown).
Selvig coached Plentywood for three seasons before the UM job came open in the spring of 1978. He was 25. Would things have been different if he hadn’t coached girls in northeast Montana? Selvig himself isn’t sure.
Many of you might be surprised at his humor, assuming you weren’t among the 2,600 fans at Dalberg after his 800th win.
“I love Missoula. I love the University,” he said that night. “I love our fans. I love this sport. And when the girls play good, I love them.”
Really the doc is about the girls that helped make the program what it is. None of you should be surprised at how much the players respect Selvig and relish their time as Lady Griz.
Flathead grad Cheri (Bratt) Roberts got emotional, talking about fans pouring in to watch them play Oregon State. The big crowds the Lady Griz drew helped when they played in front of 8,353 at Wisconsin, at the 1992 NCAA Tournament. Not really a problem, though Shannon (Cate) Schweyen’s 22 points by halftime certainly helped.
I spied Julie Epperly in the production; I was reminded how many Native American players had an opportunity to play for Selvig – starting with Browning’s Malia Kipp and including Box Elder’s LeAnn Montes, who is now an attorney.
I’m old enough to remember when UM’s Schreiber Gym was called, simply, the “Old Men’s Gym.” So are some of these Lady Griz. But the film is not just for UM alums, it’s for those who might never otherwise know what the program was, or is, about.
There has been a post-production coaching change, but that is neither here nor there. Selvig’s timing was perfect, getting back to a campus about to embrace Title IX, and so was Montana’s. Suddenly women’s basketball programs had an equal number of scholarships and it was mandated that facilities be upgraded as well.
“Which seemed like a no-brainer,” Selvig says in the film. He built his program on tough Montana athletes, then eventually started losing the best of them to bigger programs. He guided the Lady Griz at their peak, and it doesn’t hurt to look back at what was built. It’s quite the House, and film.
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Viewers that search "The House That Rob Built" on-line will find several icons. Each is a path to watch the documentary.