Montana Grizzlies Football
National champions, the “Griz”
Affectionately called the “Griz” by fans, the University of Montana Grizzlies football team plays within the highly competitive NCAA Division I Championship subdivision, or Division I-AA. Despite the impressive level of competition, the Griz have qualified for a record 14 straight playoff appearances, a feat of pride within University of Montana halls.
However, the school’s most famous football successes came in 1995 and again in 2001, when the Grizzlies won the national championship.
The team has been in existence for well over a century, with players forming teams just four years after the school was established in 1893.
Washington-Grizzly Stadium
With a capacity larger than most professional basketball or hockey arenas, Washington-Grizzly Stadium holds an impressive 23,117 fans. Located on the University of Montana’s central campus in Missoula, the stadium was first opened in October of 1986. Since that time it has seen the team to five national championship meetings, including the years 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001 and 2004. As mentioned, it won twice, in 1995 and 2001.
The stadium itself is named after major construction donor Dennis Washington, who forwarded $1 million to the project in 1985. In the years since it was completed in 1986, the complex has been updated three times, the most recent being the 2003 addition of 4,000 seats. Although the original plans only called for a stadium with a 12,500 capacity, it has since progressively grown. The largest crowd in Grizzly football history came in 2006, when the team played Montana State University in front of a reported 24,018 fans.
The stadium has been home to a few notable rock concerts as well. In 1998 it hosted Pearl Jam, who kicked off their North American tour in Missoula. The Rolling Stones played to more than 22,000 screaming fans as recently as October 2006.
As for the football team itself, the Grizzly engage in their most heated single game during a season in what is called the “Brawl of the Wild.” This game, although not often of critical importance in NCAA competition, is played against state rival Montana State University. Other heated games are played against the University of Idaho and its Vandals.
