Name-a-Day Calendar, May 2: Montana Grizzlies

Page 177 of 365

Chosen in: The mid-1910s, made official in 1923

Chosen by: Local sportswriters

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The University of Montana opened in 1895 and began playing football in 1897. In its infancy, the team was known informally as the Bears because, well, there are a lot of bears in western Montana. The team even had live bear mascots!

In the late 1900s, sportswriters started getting a little more creative and called the team the Bruins. Then, sometime around 1915, they also began regularly calling them the Grizzlies, using the two names more or less interchangeably. Neither of these nicknames were official—at least, not until 1923, when Montana accepted an invite to join the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), an olden-day precursor to the modern Pac-12. At this time, the school went ahead and made it official: they were the Montana Grizzlies.

Montana ditched the PCC in 1950 and the live bear mascots not long afterward. Since 1993, they’ve had a costumed bear mascot named Monte. Have you ever wanted to read a student newspaper article explaining their mascot’s TikTok account? Too bad.

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Next page: Montana State Bobcats

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