BOBCATS BY THE NUMBERS: 96 Days Before Kickoff, We Look at Montana State Foot Ball in 1896
5/27/2019 2:00:00 PM | Football
A look at the number 96 in Bobcat Football history
May 27: In addition to a quick look at players wearing the jersey number corresponding to the number of days remaining until Montana State's season opener at Texas Tech on August 31, Bobcats by the Numbers brings you another tidbit or two aligning with that number.
#96
Amandre Williams, DE: Amandre Williams brings an impressive body of work and strong bloodlines to the Bobcat football program, where he appears ready to assume an important role on the team's defensive front. He saw varsity action at Washington in 2017-18 as a defensive lineman after an impressive prep career as a quarterback in the Seattle area. The son of former Wyoming standout Tyrone Williams, Amandre appears poised to secure a role as a versatile athlete for a Bobcat defense looking to break out in 2019.
96 – While 1897 marks the official beginning of the Bobcat football program, the foundation was laid in '96, one season earlier. The game of foot ball had a strong foothold in the east, where the Big Three of Harvard, Yale and Princeton mostly dominated the gridiron and the sporting press, but "owing partly to the fact that the colleges are situated many miles apart and the railroad fares are so exorbitant" intercollegiate sporting contests were more difficult to pull together in the 19th century West, the November, 1896 Exponent reported. "It is earnestly hoped that our college officials and the students will soon co-operate in a movement to encourage contests with other colleges and even with other teams of the adjacent cities and towns." Denizens of Bozeman could hardly have imagined the spectacle college football would become, and later in that same issue an early example of subtle trash talk emerged: "There was considerable talk about arranging a game of foot ball between the college team and a picked team of ex-players from the city of Bozeman. The game was to be played on Thanksgiving, but the day went by without anyone witnessing that important event, which would have been the first foot ball game that ever took place in the city. As there were many anxious people waiting to see that great game which did not take place, we feel that it would be some satisfaction to them if we make a prophecy as to how it would have been carried on. The majority of the ex-players of the city are 200-pound professional business men and a few of the city employees. It would have been a sight worth seeing to witness the heavyweights of our professional ranks and police force taking their respective positions as quarter-back, right and left-tackle, center-rush, etc., and then watching patiently for the ball to be put in play, in order for them to make an exhibit of their present activity and past experience. We can imagine how hard these heavy-weights would have hit the ground whenever there chanced to be a fall thereon, and what a waste of energy whenever they attempted to kick the ball through a goal, missing it completely. If the city team expects to play the college eleven they had better practice how to fall easy, also how to kick a foot ball, unless they intend to use one as large as a whisky barrel. We further suggest that they had better be careful and not select the most able men from the professional ranks and police force of the city, because there will be need of medical aid during the game, a coroner to hold inquests, able police to make arrests, and also some experienced lawyers the winning players for their heartless action against the city foot ball team. We trust that the foot ball enthusiasm existing among the players of the proposed city team will not cease to such a degree that it cannot be rekindled some time in the near future."
Early accounts credit Professor William Fisk Brewer as the person most responsible for organizing and and coaching the first Montana State football team, although he is never credited as the school's head coach. His name appears in the Exponent and Montanan throughout the 1920s as both a beloved faculty member and an avid supporter of Bobcat Athletics. He served for many years on the Athletics Commission, which oversaw the school's sports teams and served as a liaison to the administration and faculty. Brewer graduated from Iowa College (now Grinnell), where he a charter member of that school's Phi Beta Kappa honorary, earning his bachelor's degree there in 1891 and a master's degree in 1897. He also earned a master's degree from Harvard in 1891. He became a Professor of English and Latin at Montana State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1896, and taught at the school until 1942. He and his wife Mabel moved to Lodi, California, in 1948, and he passed away there in 1963 at the age of 92. He is interred in Bozeman's Sunset Hills Cemetery.
Chronology: Boyd Burtsch (1983), Ron Hanson (1984-87), Larry Keltner (1988), Walter Sampson (1989-90), Pat Call (1991), Rob Brandland (1992-94), Jeremy Curry (1995-96), Kevin Mimball (1997-98), Dusty Daws (2000-04), Jason Macciola (2005), Paul Bartsch (2006-08), Zach Minter (2009-12), Monte Folsom (2013-14), Zach Wright (2014-18), Amandre Williams (2019-)
#96
Amandre Williams, DE: Amandre Williams brings an impressive body of work and strong bloodlines to the Bobcat football program, where he appears ready to assume an important role on the team's defensive front. He saw varsity action at Washington in 2017-18 as a defensive lineman after an impressive prep career as a quarterback in the Seattle area. The son of former Wyoming standout Tyrone Williams, Amandre appears poised to secure a role as a versatile athlete for a Bobcat defense looking to break out in 2019.
96 – While 1897 marks the official beginning of the Bobcat football program, the foundation was laid in '96, one season earlier. The game of foot ball had a strong foothold in the east, where the Big Three of Harvard, Yale and Princeton mostly dominated the gridiron and the sporting press, but "owing partly to the fact that the colleges are situated many miles apart and the railroad fares are so exorbitant" intercollegiate sporting contests were more difficult to pull together in the 19th century West, the November, 1896 Exponent reported. "It is earnestly hoped that our college officials and the students will soon co-operate in a movement to encourage contests with other colleges and even with other teams of the adjacent cities and towns." Denizens of Bozeman could hardly have imagined the spectacle college football would become, and later in that same issue an early example of subtle trash talk emerged: "There was considerable talk about arranging a game of foot ball between the college team and a picked team of ex-players from the city of Bozeman. The game was to be played on Thanksgiving, but the day went by without anyone witnessing that important event, which would have been the first foot ball game that ever took place in the city. As there were many anxious people waiting to see that great game which did not take place, we feel that it would be some satisfaction to them if we make a prophecy as to how it would have been carried on. The majority of the ex-players of the city are 200-pound professional business men and a few of the city employees. It would have been a sight worth seeing to witness the heavyweights of our professional ranks and police force taking their respective positions as quarter-back, right and left-tackle, center-rush, etc., and then watching patiently for the ball to be put in play, in order for them to make an exhibit of their present activity and past experience. We can imagine how hard these heavy-weights would have hit the ground whenever there chanced to be a fall thereon, and what a waste of energy whenever they attempted to kick the ball through a goal, missing it completely. If the city team expects to play the college eleven they had better practice how to fall easy, also how to kick a foot ball, unless they intend to use one as large as a whisky barrel. We further suggest that they had better be careful and not select the most able men from the professional ranks and police force of the city, because there will be need of medical aid during the game, a coroner to hold inquests, able police to make arrests, and also some experienced lawyers the winning players for their heartless action against the city foot ball team. We trust that the foot ball enthusiasm existing among the players of the proposed city team will not cease to such a degree that it cannot be rekindled some time in the near future."
Early accounts credit Professor William Fisk Brewer as the person most responsible for organizing and and coaching the first Montana State football team, although he is never credited as the school's head coach. His name appears in the Exponent and Montanan throughout the 1920s as both a beloved faculty member and an avid supporter of Bobcat Athletics. He served for many years on the Athletics Commission, which oversaw the school's sports teams and served as a liaison to the administration and faculty. Brewer graduated from Iowa College (now Grinnell), where he a charter member of that school's Phi Beta Kappa honorary, earning his bachelor's degree there in 1891 and a master's degree in 1897. He also earned a master's degree from Harvard in 1891. He became a Professor of English and Latin at Montana State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1896, and taught at the school until 1942. He and his wife Mabel moved to Lodi, California, in 1948, and he passed away there in 1963 at the age of 92. He is interred in Bozeman's Sunset Hills Cemetery.
Chronology: Boyd Burtsch (1983), Ron Hanson (1984-87), Larry Keltner (1988), Walter Sampson (1989-90), Pat Call (1991), Rob Brandland (1992-94), Jeremy Curry (1995-96), Kevin Mimball (1997-98), Dusty Daws (2000-04), Jason Macciola (2005), Paul Bartsch (2006-08), Zach Minter (2009-12), Monte Folsom (2013-14), Zach Wright (2014-18), Amandre Williams (2019-)
Players Mentioned
DL
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