This tradition, in fact, has nothing to do with rigid rules of protocol or brittle custom.
No, this tradition has a soft, sweet center.
But it's probably safe to say there aren't too many places that feature cascading cream-filled cakes after every touchdown by the home team.
Known as “tossing your Twinkies” in these parts, the soaring snacks are the brain children of several industrious souls in Section 107 on the west side of Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Brian Horner and Patrick Mourar have been part of the confection crew from its conception in the early 1990s. But both give credit to fellow Griz fans Mark Hettick and Randy and Brady Reimann, all of whom have moved on to other seats in the stadium.
Horner and Mourar have remained in their spot in the first two rows of the section, directly behind the visiting team's bench.
More recently they've been joined by Lance and Dustin Hughes, and occasionally a “rookie” will be allowed to help out.
After every Grizzly touchdown and extra point - and only then - the guys rip open boxes of the goodies and begin flinging them to fans in 107 and nearby sections.
At a minimum, they'll go through 40 boxes (or $100) a game - depending on how much the Montana offense cooperates.
“Teams, when they come in here, they think it's amazing,” Horner said. “They've never seen anything like it. Some of them end up asking for Twinkies.”
And the cake quadrant is glad to oblige - as long as the visiting coaches say it's OK.
But Mourar said they always try to save a few boxes for their personal “players of the game.”
Frequently, and not surprisingly, the group's biggest customers are offensive linemen like J.D. Quinn and Brent Russum, who stop by for a box on their way to the locker room.
“They'll be waving as they come off the field,” said Mourar, who travels to every home game from Spokane where he lives. “We definitely try to hook them up.”
And when a player has an exceptional game, the guys will seek them out on the field afterward.
“When Chase Reynolds had his breakout game (against Central Washington) earlier this year, we hunted him down. He was like, ‘It's about time,' ” Mourar said.
Tossing your Twinkies actually started as the more unpleasant-sounding “tossing your cookies” in the '90s.
Hettick's wife at the time would make some for the guys at the game, and they began passing them around to their neighbors.
Eventually, the snack time caught on, and Hettick, Mourar and Horner, all of whom worked at Tidyman's, began bringing boxes of fresh-baked cookies from the store bakery to satisfy the demand.
The cookies, it turned out, made decent Frisbees, and soon they were pitching them a fair distance.
“I was known for getting them to the camera guys on top of the press box,” Mourar said.
Then came the “incident” at Idaho State in 2002.
What happened isn't clear, but the group received a letter from the University of Montana athletic department.
“They said we couldn't do it anymore or we'd lose our tickets,” Mourar said. “I was tossing 'em pretty good, which is probably where the liability thing came in.”
“Yeah, the cookies became a little hazardous,” Horner said. “The athletic department told us we had to quit or go to something softer.”
Behold, the Twinkie.
Every Saturday morning before home games Horner and Mourar stop by Sweetheart Bakery on Broadway to pick up boxes of the Hostess treats.
“We get them as fresh as we can,” Horner said.
And the Twinkie tossers take their fun on the road, making nearly all of the Griz away games.
Not surprisingly, they're a big hit wherever they go.
Except Bozeman. Turns out Bobcats don't like soft, creamy goodness.
“A guy got thrown out of the game there last year,” Mourar said. “He came after us, wanted to fight because he didn't like us tossing the Twinkies after the Griz scored. But he was drunk ... and they took him away. That's really the only place we've ever had any problems.”
Well, that's not quite true.
The year was 1996 - still the cookie days - and Montana's monster offense was scoring points at a record pace.
At one game, the men discovered they had a problem.
“We brought 30 dozen cookies, which was a lot, but we figured out before halftime that we were going to run out,” Horner said.
Not wanting to disappoint the faithful, they huddled and audibled to a stop and go plan.
“We called a store and had them get a bunch of boxes ready for us,” Horner said. “Then we called a cab and had the cab go pick up the cookies and bring them back to the stadium.”
The cookies arrived just before the start of the third quarter.
“Since that day we got smart. We've never run out,” Horner said. “We make sure of that.”
These guys are no Ding Dongs.
Sports writer John Smithers can be reached at 523-5257 or at jsmithers@missoulian.com.
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Vrede wrote on Nov 29, 2008 2:09 AM:
Go Griz! "