BOBCATS BY THE NUMBERS: Jersey Number 41 Takes On Special Meaning at Montana State
7/21/2019 12:00:00 PM | Football
Brayden Konkol moves into jersey number 41 for his senior season
July 21: 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.
#41
Brayden Konkol, S: Brayden Konkol moves into jersey number 41 this season, the ninth straight season a Montanan – the 41st state admitted to the Union – wears the number commemorating his home state. Konkol entered MSU's starting lineup for the 10th game of his freshman season and has never left. He started at linebacker throughout his sophomore season, and at safety as a junior when he earned Honorable Mention All-Big Sky honors. He has been one of MSU's leading tacklers for the past two seasons – including leading the team with 93 last fall – and has also set the physical tone of defensive play which Bobcat coach Jeff Choate demands.
41 – The Treasure State, and more specifically, admission order of Montana into the Union.
Jeff Choate has never really checked out of his role as a history and social studies teacher, which he held during his high school coaching career in the late 1990s, so in the process of preparing his third Bobcat football for last season's Cat-Griz game he came upon an idea.
"I like traditions in college football," he said. "At Boise State we introduced the hammer, and Montana State has had something like that. I really like the rodeo team leading us onto the field on horseback, and I've wanted to put our staff's stamp on this thing, so it dawned on me (last November) as I was giving a little history lesson on our helmet that we've had some spectacular players wear that jersey, and in the recent past they were from Montana. We have the block 'M' (on the team's helmet, a tribute to the 'M' on Mount Baldy), and we've added 1889, the year Montana became a state, the 3-7-77 indicative of the vigilantes and state law enforcement, the 406 area code, and we've had 41 on the back of the helmet, so just putting some of those things together I thought it would be a really cool way to honor our state and recognize a player who has done some really good things as a Bobcat."
Going forward from this season a player hailing from Montana will wear jersey number 41, although that has been the case at Montana State for much of the program's history. The first season on record for which the Cats assigned jersey numbers, 1926, saw Pop Gregory from Lewistown wear No. 41. Since then stars such as Sam McCullum (1971-73, Kalispell), Ron Muri (1975-78, Miles City), Brad Daly (2009, 2011-13, Helena) and Grant Collins (2014-18, Bozeman) have all donned that number.
He said landing on Konkol wasn't a difficult decision. "He's done just about everything for us on defense," Choate said. "He's a Montana kid, a local kid. He started on special teams for us as a redshirt freshman then worked his way onto the field as a safety. The next year we needed to move him to Will linebacker, and last year he started again at safety. He's highly competitive, very unselfish, and most importantly he has that Montana toughness. That's something that will always be a factor because this state produces so many tough, hard-nosed kids."
When Choate called Konkol to his office on a quiet day in May, the senior from Belgrade didn't know what to expect. "I thought I was in trouble," Konkol says with a smile, "my grades or something." But Konkol accepted the honor with enthusiasm. "I thought it was great," he said of Choate's proposal.
And now, for his senior season, Konkol will follow so in the footsteps of so many Bobcats he cheered for growing up. "I've always been a Bobcat," he said, "and those guys were my heroes."
For now, Choate is unsure how the player who occupies jersey number 41 at MSU is selected. "It might be as simple as coaches putting our heads together," he said. "But we'll see. But every tradition starts somehow, and I hope this becomes something cool that people rally around."
Chronology: Earl Gregory (1926), George Alquist (1940), Art Dougan (1941), Mark Hampton (1946), John Mora (1947-49), Tom Bleakly (1950), Vic Berra (1953-54), Jim Corder (1955), Loren Sax (1956), Dick Posewitz (1957), Chuck Bovan (1958), Harry Stagnito (1959-60), Terry Meo (1962-63), Dale Jackson (1965-66), Don Duntsch (1968-69-70), Sam McCullum (1971-73), Dave Stengel (1974), Ron Muri (1975-78), Mark Sansaver (1979-81), Jeff Effland (1982), Mark Harwood (1983-86), Steve Haugeberg (1987-88), Jeremy Wicht (1989-92), Matt Engelking (1993-96), AJ Stoneburner (1999-2000), Jason Guerrero (2001), Isaac Gardner (2002), Jeff Galloway (2003), Shane Cavallini (2004), Tom Adolfae (2005), Will Claggett (2006-07), Zach Coleman (2008), Na'a Moeakiola (2010), Brad Daly (2009, 2011-13), Grant Collins (2014-18), Brayden Konkol (2019)
Notes on #41: Earl "Pop" Gregory was a star as Montana State fought to relevance in the mid-1920s after a dormant decade. The Bobcats' 5-4 record in 1923, Gregory's freshman season, was the program's first over .500 since 1915. The Cats finished with a winning record in each of Gregory's four seasons, and as a senior in 1926 the Lewistown product served as team captain. Gregory also offers some insight into one of the truly significant aspects of campus life on 'the hill' in the school's early years. He was inducted into Les Bouffons, a men's honorary of the top 10 upperclassmen who, late in the fall semester, dressed in costumes and acted out skits and pranks near Montana Hall. Membership was a mark of prestige, and it featured many well-respected athletes… Positive feelings surrounded Montana State's run game entering the 1995 season, but anyone who says now that they saw Matt Engelking's meteoric starburst coming would be engaging in revisionist history. A third-year tailback from northern Colorado, Engelking had all of 13 career carries to his name when his junior season dawned, having spent his career behind the exceptional duo of Fred Moore and Clint Morton. By the time he was finished he'd gained 2,462 yards in his career, fourth-most in Bobcat history to that point, and he had posted two of the school's top seven single seasons in that category. Engelking was not a flashy runner, didn't have game-breaking speed, and wasn't the prototypical power back. But, he brilliantly blended all three of those elements, fusing a broad skill set with the kind of assets – intelligence, vision, running hard – that don't really show up except in games. Running behind a veteran offensive line and benefitting from fullback TT Ryan's blocking, Engelking showed an amazing knack for hitting holes at the right time, utilizing a burst that coaches often describe as 'football speed.' Matt Engelking was a quiet kid, but his grin always gave the impression he knew more than he was letting on. Watching Engelking was a pleasure, and analyzing how his particular skills and savvy played out was a window into understanding the offensive system that Dave Telford and Jim McElwain built for Cliff Hysell.
