Greg Anderson's returns, Carlson's game plans recalled

The years and specifics have fuzzed somewhat but I remember two classics from the mid-70s at Dornblaser. The first was an MSU victory, but I remember Greg Anderson's punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns and the MSU faithful were squirming until the final gun. The second was a victory around 1978 when Gene Carlson came up with a tremendous game plan. The shotgun was run with precision, lots of motion on offense and it appeared that the Cats were befuddled the entire game. Things went so well for UM that day that one play comes to my mind even to this day: Bruce Carlson's perfect coffin-corner punt down into the northeast corner of the field.

Kurt Heine
Vancouver WA

View was good from the mascot's uniform in 1989

My fondest memory of a Griz-Cat game was when I volunteered in 1989 to be the Griz mascot. Back then before Monte he was known as Grizzly Otto. I traveled with the cheer sqad to beautiful and windy Bozeman for the game. I still remember the final score was 17-2, in favor of, who else, the Griz. I recall the two points very well. The Griz were down close to the end zone on the south end. I can't remember if it was a punt or if the center hiked the ball over the quarterback's head? All I remember is the ball flying towards the cheer sqad and Otto and landing near me. I threw the ball back to the ref. After the game I read that the center blamed it on the wind. That is my fondest memory in a Griz-Cat game.

Gregg Bauer
2050 Cote Lane, Missoula

Watkins' wild ride: One if by ground, two if by water ski

My name is Jim Watkins and my son is former Grizzly receiver, Jeremy Watkins. I started sending e-mails to relatives as far away as Taiwan in Jeremy's sophomore year so they could follow Jeremy and the Griz. As Jeremy's career went on, more and more people asked to be added to the list. By the end of his senior year the list included some odd 75 relatives, friends and friends of friends.

I went to school in Bozeman (1969/70) and was a big Bobcat fan when they had great teams. I was still a Bobcat faithful when they won the national championship.

We moved to Missoula in 1987, a year after Don Read took over as coach of the Grizzlies. It didn't take us long to become Grizzly fans after following the likes of Jody Farmer, Tim Hauck, Matt Clark, Mike Trevathan, Kirk Scrafford, Mike Rankin, Tony Rice, Bill Cockhill, Kirk Duce and Grady Bennett over the next few years.

After becoming a Griz fan, I made token bets every year with all my old Bobcat cronies. My brother, Bob Watkins, graduated from Bozeman, as did my brother-in-law, Tom Clark. I've been betting my brother $100 every year on the game and he's accumulated a debt that he will never pay. We don't exchange money within the family, for these kind of bets.

My brother-in-law Tom has remained a diehard Bobcat fan despite a decade of dominance by the Griz. I drove to Bozeman Friday afternoon for the 1997 game with my youngest son, Jason. When I got back from the game, I found that Tom had sent me an e-mail with a wager that the loser, he the Bobcat, me the Griz, would ski naked around Crystal Lake (near Libby). He was sure this was the Year of the Cats and wanted to take full advantage of the situation. The Griz came out on top in one of the most memorable Cat/Griz games ever. I tried to make him responsible for the bet, but he said I hadn't accepted it before the game. I reluctantly agreed.

The next year (1998) the game was in Missoula, and again, the Cats had a very good team. I made the "naked'' wager this time, a couple of weeks before the game. I was so sure the Griz would win, that the prospect of me skiing naked was not an issue. Tom accepted. I forwarded his acceptance to my football e-mail list to include them in all the fun. Everyone had a great time with the bet and the e-mail was flying. Well, we all know the Griz won in another classic battle. We all fully expected Tom to pay off during the summer of 1999. The summer passed and what had become known as "The Naked Ski,'' never happened. The occasions we were at the lake together, it just didn't work out. He found every excuse to make it not happen.

Tom put up with a lot of grief that year and most of the next year for not paying off. The wager was, that the loser, "Naked Tom,'' would be pulled by the winner, me, completely around the lake. At Crystal this is about a 15 minute ski, and there are cabins all around the lake shore. The loser would choose the day and time.

A large group of family and friends gathered at the lake to celebrate July 4, 2000. Tom had to endure an unreasonable amount of ridicule over the fact that he hadn't paid off his debt. He was so humiliated, he showed up at the Watkins' cabin with his boat, on Monday, July 3rd, at 5:50 a.m. I had told him the night before, that I would be on a work related conference call at 6:15 am. The summer so far had been particularly cool, and the temperature of the lake was still in the mid 50's. As he walked up the steps to my family's cabin, he could see his breath. I finished the call and we hit the lake at about 7 a.m. I was sure the later time would provide some spectators. I pulled the boat out in the lake as he stood on the dock and stripped. Tom would normally jump off the dock onto the water and ski away. In the interest of modesty, he chose instead, to take off out of the water. He nodded his head and I hit it. He came up on top of the water on his 1971 vintage O'Neil slalom ski. It sounds strange but it is true, it is the only ski Tom skis. It was the most comical sight I had ever seen! I laughed hysterically. My only regret was that I didn't have the "Bobcats Suck'' tape to play in his tape player.

I started around the lake and stayed as close to the shore as I could. I scanned the shoreline in anticipation of finding someone there that I could buzz. I found no one. There wasn't even another boat on the lake. Tom made some nice cuts (he's a very good skier). We went by his folks' cabin and he hunkered down over the ski in a squatting position. As we neared the end of the ski, I saw what I was searching for, a neighbor lady who was fishing at the end of her dock. I pulled as close as I could. She smiled and waved. I looked back and there was Tom again, in the hunkered position. I haven't asked her, so I don't know if she had any idea that the skier was sans clothing. As we made the U-turn to drop Tom off at our dock, my wife Cindy, whom I had secretly awakened prior to going out the door, was waiting on the dock cheering enthusiastically, with camera and a little towel in hand. Tom had pre-planned and came out of the water wearing the swimsuit he had stashed in his life jacket. Before heading back to the welcomed warmth of our cabins, we stopped long enough to laugh and shake hands, while Cindy snapped a picture. A Bobcat fan making such a wager, brings a whole new meaning to the term "numb nuts!'' I doubt Naked Tom will soon make another.

Jim Watkins
2626 Gleason St., Missoula

There's more to cheerleading than meets the eye

It was held in Bozeman that year and the winning streak, against the Cats, was up around 11 or 12. At the beginning of the game the tension was really high, being that we were on their turf this year. You think being just a Griz fan at a Griz/Cat game in Bozeman was intense, try being a Grizzly cheerleader at that time. Yeah, not only was I wearing Griz colors, I was a prime target for the hostile Bobcat crowd down on the field as a cheerleader for the Griz.

I remember walking up and down the sidelines before the game started and having Bobcat fans yell obscenities at you and throwing anything that was in their hand at that time. As the game got under way, our cheer squad was being shuffled further and further down the sidelines until we were basically pushed to one end zone where we had some familiar faces, but not all were friendly.

I am not sure how the scores were in that first half but I remember that the whole game was close from start to end. Even at halftime, the cheer squad couldn't leave the field by ourselves because of the possibility of getting into it with a Bobcat fan.

As the game went on both teams battled back and forth all game. I am sure you will remember this game as you think about it because this was the first time in a long time that the Bobcats came within a field goal of beating us.

It was late in the fourth quarter and we were ahead with under five minutes left in the game. A lot of us thought we had it in the bag. Well, that is when the Cat got out of the bag, so to say.

Somehow the Bobcats got the ball back and managed to score to put them ahead by just a couple of points with close to only three and a half minutes left in the game. Now at this point, if you are a cheerleader for the visiting team that has been beating the home team for many years, where now the home team is ahead with about three minutes left, there is only one thing going through your mind......riot!!!! We all knew at that time when that gun goes off in the next three minutes, and that score hasn't changed for the better, our cheer squad needed to get the hell out of there in a hurry.

Well, it was the most intense three minutes of my life. This was the first Griz/Cat game I had ever experienced. I had never seen how fans can get so intense, so supportive, so addicted to a sport up close like that. Every fan was standing. All the squad could do is stand and watch for what was going to happen on that kick return from the Griz.

Well, we were stopped down in their end for a while. Time was ticking down and with less then a minute and a half left Brian Ah Yat completed a pass to one of his receivers that brought us across midfield. We managed to inch our way a little closer but stopped somewhere around 30 yards out.

We only needed a field goal to win. Our field goal kicker was none other then Kris Heppner. I knew if we got within 35-45 yards, he would put it through the uprights. As time was down to just seconds, the Griz were lining up for the game-winning field goal and the whistle blew. What now? Well, the Bobcats called a timeout to try and freeze our kicker. When the game got under way again, and both teams came to the line, I looked up at the crowd and it was not pretty. Fans were starting to spill over the stands and I knew that if we missed that field goal, all hell was going to break loose.

With only a few seconds left, the kick went up and was good. I couldn't believe it. I thought for sure this was the day the Bobcats would break the winning streak, but it never came to that. When time ran out, the fans stormed that field, both teams met in the middle, goal posts came down and that was that.

To this day, that was the best game I had ever seen. Long live the Griz/Cat tradition.

Brian Simonson
University of Montana Class of '99