The University of Montana Grizzlies leave Tuesday afternoon for Chattanooga, Tenn., and Missoula will send the team off in style - with a parade and motorcade through town.
All around Missoula on Monday, Grizmania was on the move. To wit:
- The team send-off rally is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
- Two pre-game tailgate parties are planned in Tennessee on Friday afternoon.
- Hotels are booked.
- Planes are chartered.
- The team itinerary is set.
- And “Griz Nation” signs are at the print shop.
With all these preparations, UM administrators and organizers will be lucky to get packed before their flight takes off later this week.
First, though, the football team will leave town.
UM is encouraging fans to show their support for the team during a send-off rally at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Missoula Police Department, Missoula Fire Department, Monte and the UM cheerleaders will accompany three bus loads of football players and one of staff to the airport.
The team will depart the parking lot nearest the south end zone of Washington-Grizzly Stadium around 1:30 p.m. The UM Grizzly Marching Band may be on hand to play the school fight song, temperatures permitting.
The motorcade will cross the Madison Street Bridge and make a left onto Broadway, passing through downtown Missoula en route to the airport.
UM is passing out 800 “Griz Nation” and “We Believe” signs to local businesses located along the route, hoping to encourage businesses to decorate their windows or hand them out to employees who want to take a late lunch to cheer on the team as the buses pass by.
“It's a few minutes outside, but it's cool for the guys to see them showing their support,” said Brynn Molloy, special events coordinator for the Grizzly Scholarship Association.
Those posters are also available by contacting University Relations, located on the third floor of Brantly Hall on campus.
Of the 162 people on the chartered UM flight, 94 are athletes, said Greg Sundberg, executive director of the GSA. The rest of the seats go to UM administrators, members of the alumni office, GSA staff, equipment managers, a team physician and surgeon, the head trainer, three student trainers and seven managers.
The UM Grizzly Marching Band and UM Cheer Squad leave town on Thursday.
The upcoming championship game has already generated more interest than UM's trip to Chattanooga back in 2004, when barely 1,000 tickets sold - but not as much enthusiasm as the trip in 2001.
There was a line of 25 people waiting for tickets when they went on sale at the Adams Center Box Office window beginning at 8 a.m. Monday. The first man in line had arrived two hours earlier, said Celine Fisher, box office manager.
By Monday night, 1,744 tickets had been sold, including ones purchased as package deals through travel agencies. UM was allocated 3,750 tickets. They will be on sale though the Adams Center Box Office until Wednesday at 3 p.m.
“One would think with the economy the way that it is” that folks might not travel east for the game, Fisher said, “but they are going to watch the Griz.”
In fact, Davidson Travel filled its 200-passenger charter flight to Tennessee on Saturday and would have filled a second had another aircraft been available. The package included airfare, hotel accommodations and game tickets.
“We are working the phone as hard as we can,” said Carol Gaub, a travel consultant. “They are going fast and furious.”
AAA Travel also offered Griz fans a 162-passenger chartered flight to the game, selling the last seat on Monday, said Jackie Kerr, assistant manager of travel services.
Meanwhile, the team has a busy schedule once it touches down in Chattanooga.
On Wednesday, there's a news conference and team photo in the morning and a closed practice from 1-3 p.m., said Jean Gee, associate athletic director. On Thursday, there's an awards luncheon at noon. Then the team will participate in a charity event. The Griz athletes will present a football to a family who just received a Habitat for Humanity house.
Then it's another practice for the team at 2:30 p.m. in Finley Stadium.
“It's a pretty intense trip for these guys,” Sundberg said. “There's not a lot of down time.”
As for the fans, they'll have time to party in Tennessee at two events hosted by the GSA and UM Alumni Association.
On Thursday, Griz fans are invited to a social gathering at the Chattanooga Convention Center, starting at 8 p.m. Admission is $5, and food and beverages will be available for purchase.
President George Dennison, athletic director Jim O'Day and head coach Bobby Hauck will speak, Sundberg said. Monte, UM cheerleaders and the marching band all will be in attendance.
On Friday, pre-game tailgating activities will begin at 5 p.m. at Chattanooga's Market Street Tavern. It's located about three-quarters of a mile from Finley Stadium. Food and beverages are available for purchase and fans are invited back to the tavern for a post-game gathering.
“It'll be the Griz headquarters,” Sundberg said.
Let the games begin.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
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