Why not baseball?

[BobcatDel]

Dang, it would be nice to see women's wrestling and baseball at MSU.

In addition, there are a few schools I personally love seeing get beat in any competition. This one is especially sweet as to who beat the "Better dead than red!"

https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2023/04/2 ... e-history/

You've lived in the south for too long CatGrouch. Bozeman is just now starting to thaw out. There is no way the D1 Montana teams could make baseball work without a full sized dome in which to play, seeing as how the season starts in the middle part of February, with preseason drills/camp before that.

MSU-B barely makes it work right now, and it's only because Billings is the banana belt of Montana. I'd expect Brookings to have a similar climate to Billings.

Damn. They best get rid of pasture pool too then...

Wonder how they were able to play baseball at MSU when I was a kid?

1. The seasons were probably shorter then.
2. The ‘Cats probably played the first half of the schedule on the road.
3. It didn’t work very well, which is why they quit.

I did enjoy sitting on the grass and watching games at Dyche Field.

71 was the last year of baseball. I remember the team practicing in the fieldhouse with the track team. Other than baseball and wrestling, what were the other two sports they dropped the end of 71? Skiing? The rifle team? Bowling?

Remember Title IX was signed in 1972. Budget was tight in 1971 so athletics were struggling and the 1972 changes devoting more dollars to women’s sports were the major reasons for cutting out some of the men’s sports.

I still communicate with a couple of the baseball guys and see them if they stop in for a football game.

I had to pull the annual out for 1970-71. You already mentioned wrestling and baseball going away. We did have a men’s golf team at the time (finished 2nd to last in conference that year) which was eliminated. Bowling and rifle team were shown in the “intramural” section of the annual. We had a very good rifle team in those years…remember Lones Wiger the Olympic medalist and World Champion was on that team pre-1971. There is a men’s soccer team shown in the sports section but the way it reads they were just trying to form the team.

I think skiing kept going if recollection is correct. Also we still had freshmen men’s BB and football teams known as the “Bobkittens” for those not of that vintage…(and yes the Gris freshmen teams were known as the “Cubs”). Freshmen could not play varsity per NCAA rules at that time but I don’t remember what year the freshmen teams were dropped.

You get double bonus points if you can remember the full basketball team from that era other than the usual Weeks, Brickhouse, Koelzer names. And triple bonus if you can tell me who the homecoming queen was!

I let my yearbooks go when I moved. Darn! Now I want to look at them (67-68 thru 70-71). So, I’m not cheating. And I’m going to try for the triple bonus on the Fall 1970 Homecoming Queen. Peggy Edie.

Del, did you retire back to the Gallatin? 4ever, did you ever leave?

@Cat Grad Yes, I (bobcat4ever) did leave after 70 years. Born in Bozeman, graduated and retired from MSU. My skeleton had some injuries and a poor surgical result such that I have no ability to get around on snow and ice. We‘ve lived in Southern Nevada, snow and ice free, for four years now. The move to warm weather and a smaller town (and ESPN+) has been perfect for us.

Great! I've never heard of anyone retiring to the north. Even all the great people I served with in the Army, both active and the reserves, they all retired to the south someplace. I moved to Wyoming for the summers and southern Missouri and northern Arkansas for the winter months. It's difficult for me to return to the area I was raised in for very long. I don't recognize Belgrade International Airport, for instance. Seems all I do is go to funerals or weddings when I go back home.

Must have been great for your dad to shoot with a guy like Lones Wiger on the team. Probably learned a trick or two.

We might be the only people in the free world to retire “north” after being gone 40 years and living in southern US or south of equator for something like 21 years. But elderly parents all still living in Montana was the driving factor, all gone now. But in hindsight we don’t regret it. We’ve loved getting to 80% or more of BB and FB games and being active with the school. We’ve got grandkids in Tennessee, Texas and other family and friends in Arizona so we've chosen to do the short term southerly visits in the winter. We are healthy now but I suppose one of these days we will be pulled south too….I used to enjoy more snow activity but shoveling is becoming less fun!

Edit: we lived in Tulsa for a couple years and enjoyed. Southern Missouri and northern Arkansas were beautiful places at the time. Almost bought a lot on the huge lake near Branson. Used to enjoy the White River area in Arkansas.

[Cat Grad]

You've lived in the south for too long CatGrouch. Bozeman is just now starting to thaw out. There is no way the D1 Montana teams could make baseball work without a full sized dome in which to play, seeing as how the season starts in the middle part of February, with preseason drills/camp before that.

MSU-B barely makes it work right now, and it's only because Billings is the banana belt of Montana. I'd expect Brookings to have a similar climate to Billings.

Damn. They best get rid of pasture pool too then...

Wonder how they were able to play baseball at MSU when I was a kid?

1. The seasons were probably shorter then.
2. The ‘Cats probably played the first half of the schedule on the road.
3. It didn’t work very well, which is why they quit.

I did enjoy sitting on the grass and watching games at Dyche Field.

71 was the last year of baseball. I remember the team practicing in the fieldhouse with the track team. Other than baseball and wrestling, what were the other two sports they dropped the end of 71? Skiing? The rifle team? Bowling?

Remember Title IX was signed in 1972. Budget was tight in 1971 so athletics were struggling and the 1972 changes devoting more dollars to women’s sports were the major reasons for cutting out some of the men’s sports.

I still communicate with a couple of the baseball guys and see them if they stop in for a football game.

I had to pull the annual out for 1970-71. You already mentioned wrestling and baseball going away. We did have a men’s golf team at the time (finished 2nd to last in conference that year) which was eliminated. Bowling and rifle team were shown in the “intramural” section of the annual. We had a very good rifle team in those years…remember Lones Wiger the Olympic medalist and World Champion was on that team pre-1971. There is a men’s soccer team shown in the sports section but the way it reads they were just trying to form the team.

I think skiing kept going if recollection is correct. Also we still had freshmen men’s BB and football teams known as the “Bobkittens” for those not of that vintage…(and yes the Gris freshmen teams were known as the “Cubs”). Freshmen could not play varsity per NCAA rules at that time but I don’t remember what year the freshmen teams were dropped.

You get double bonus points if you can remember the full basketball team from that era other than the usual Weeks, Brickhouse, Koelzer names. And triple bonus if you can tell me who the homecoming queen was!

I let my yearbooks go when I moved. Darn! Now I want to look at them (67-68 thru 70-71). So, I’m not cheating. And I’m going to try for the triple bonus on the Fall 1970 Homecoming Queen. Peggy Edie.

Del, did you retire back to the Gallatin? 4ever, did you ever leave?

@Cat Grad Yes, I (bobcat4ever) did leave after 70 years. Born in Bozeman, graduated and retired from MSU. My skeleton had some injuries and a poor surgical result such that I have no ability to get around on snow and ice. We‘ve lived in Southern Nevada, snow and ice free, for four years now. The move to warm weather and a smaller town (and ESPN+) has been perfect for us.

Great! I've never heard of anyone retiring to the north. Even all the great people I served with in the Army, both active and the reserves, they all retired to the south someplace. I moved to Wyoming for the summers and southern Missouri and northern Arkansas for the winter months. It's difficult for me to return to the area I was raised in for very long. I don't recognize Belgrade International Airport, for instance. Seems all I do is go to funerals or weddings when I go back home.

Must have been great for your dad to shoot with a guy like Lones Wiger on the team. Probably learned a trick or two.

We might be the only people in the free world to retire “north” after being gone 40 years and living in southern US or south of equator for something like 21 years. But elderly parents all still living in Montana was the driving factor, all gone now. But in hindsight we don’t regret it. We’ve loved getting to 80% or more of BB and FB games and being active with the school. We’ve got grandkids in Tennessee, Texas and other family and friends in Arizona so we've chosen to do the short term southerly visits in the winter. We are healthy now but I suppose one of these days we will be pulled south too….I used to enjoy more snow activity but shoveling is becoming less fun!

Edit: we lived in Tulsa for a couple years and enjoyed. Southern Missouri and northern Arkansas were beautiful places at the time. Almost bought a lot on the huge lake near Branson. Used to enjoy the White River area in Arkansas.

I bought my boat from some folks living in Springfield at the time; we test drove it on Table Rock Lake! My lady friend's son-in-law's parents own the bowling alley and the outlet mall area in Branson. An aunt and uncle retired from northeast Montana to Bella Vista. Small world. I too returned to Montana twenty years ago to care for my mother before she passed. Got to spend the last six years of her life with her.

I love the fishing down there after being raised in the Gallatin Valley. Especially when the browns are running...

[Bobcat4Ever]

I let my yearbooks go when I moved. Darn! Now I want to look at them (67-68 thru 70-71). So, I’m not cheating. And I’m going to try for the triple bonus on the Fall 1970 Homecoming Queen. Peggy Edie.

Theyre all digitized and available on the MSU Library website

@catamaran Thank you!! That might be the best thing I’ve ever read in this here sports chat board.