Up with Montana, boys, down with the foe,
Good ol' Grizzlies out for a
The lads of Kappa Sigma sang their own boisterous version of the University of Montana fight song at Centennial Circle on the UM Oval on Friday at just past noon.
And again at just past 1 Š
And 2 Š
“Every hour on the hour until kickoff,” vowed Matt Ferguson, a founding member of the three-year-old fraternity at UM.
“We say on the hour every hour but it's usually about five after, to let people get out of class and get over here,” said Kevin Molm, vice president of Kappa Sigma.
The hardiest of the bunch will be there for the swan song at noon Saturday, then march over to Washington-Grizzly Stadium. There they'll catch the 12:37 p.m. kickoff of the 106th Brawl of the Wild between the Montana Grizzlies and the Montana State Bobcats.
It's the second year for Kappa Sigma's squeal of the pig marathon, and they hope it becomes a tradition. Last year, since the game was in Bozeman, they started singing on Thursday.
“As soon as we got done at noon on Friday, we headed out to Bozeman,” Ferguson said. “That wasn't a very fun drive.”
There was no apparent fatigue Friday on campus - after all, it was Friday on campus. As the Main Hall clock chimed noon, Kappa Sigma president Jose Diaz was actively recruiting passersby to join in.
“No, no, Jose. I've got a test in, like, two minutes ago,” protested one girl as Diaz steered her to the shadow of Rudy Autio's grizzly bear statue.
“Where's Kevin?” wondered Diaz at three minutes past 12.
“Where's the handouts?” asked Ferguson.
“Kevin's got 'em,” Diaz said.
Molm showed up carrying a box stacked with lyrics for “Up With Montana.”
As if it were planned, a campus tour guide led a group of high school seniors and their parents through Centennial Circle at 12:05.
“Come on and sing,” the fraternity boys pleaded.
There were a few takers. The rest stopped to watch.
“I think they're thinking they'll really like going to a school that has a tradition like this,” Molm said later. “They're going, ‘Wow, I want come here and do that next year.' ”
When the time arrived, there were 25 people gathered at the grizzly. They belted out the ditty in 28 seconds.
Some clapped along. All hooted and hollered after the distinctive closing lines:
... the squeal of the pig will float on the air
from the tummy of the Grizzly bear.
How much practicing had the 22 Kappa Sigs done?
“We go to the football games every week, you know,” said Diaz. “Multiply that by how many semesters you've been going to school.”
A long night loomed.
A tackle football game was planned in the Oval to kill the hour between 3 and 4 p.m.
“The trick is to keep moving, because if you sit down, it'll take its toll on you,” said Ferguson, who added he didn't plan to sleep until Saturday night or Sunday morning.
“Because if I fall asleep after the football game I won't get up, and I won't be able to celebrate the rest of the day,” he said.
“One of our guys lives really close. He's got a big-screen TV and an Xbox,” Molm said. “I'm sure we'll be hanging out, playing some video games, watching some movies, trying to stay awake.”
Last year, the choir stayed strong until early morning.
“Up until 3 a.m., there were at least a dozen out here singing,” Molm said. “Then again about 7 a.m., everyone started coming back.”
The Kappa Sigma are proud to do their part during Bobcat week.
“We wanted to start some pretty awesome traditions before we all moved on and graduated,” Diaz said. “We thought this would be a great opportunity to show some school spirit. You don't really hear a lot going on for Cat-Griz in, like, the campus community, though it's changed a lot this year.
“This is one of the things we started last year and we're really excited about it.”
Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com
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