Dan Sundling running against the Grizzlies, 1964
Photo by: UM Kaimin
BOBCAT CALENDAR: Stifling Defense, Balanced Ground Game Lead Cats to First Big Sky Title with Decisive Win in Missoula
11/7/2020 9:00:00 AM | Football
Montana State won at Dornblaser Stadium for the first time since 1958
A day-by-day look at Bobcat football history...
November 7
SPOTLIGHT: The Bobcat football program and its fans occupied a different and changing world in the fall of 1964.
Montana State had joined four other regional, similar institutions (along with Gonzaga, which did not field a football team) to form the Big Sky Conference in 1963-64. Weber State won the league's first football crown, but for the first time in at least four decades, maybe in school history, the Bobcats really had things up and rolling by the early '60s.
The Bobcats rolled into Missoula today in 1964 with a 1-0 Big Sky mark, but only two games remaining on the three-game league schedule - Cat-Griz, and at Weber State, the team's second straight trip to Ogden to play a game with massive championship implications. UM, on the other hand, had handed Weber State its only league loss while falling at Idaho State a week earlier.
The day's theme emerged early. Montana State's defense suffocated the Grizzlies, with UM failing to cross its own 25-yard line in the game's first 20 minutes. By that time Ray Foley had connected with Dan Sundling on an 18-yard touchdown pass, Foy McClung kicked a 34-yard field goal, and early in the second quarter Foley hit Dick Haden on a six-yard scoring pass to stake Montana State to a 16-0 lead.
A second quarter UM touchdown narrowed the margin to 16-6 at halftime, but short runs by McClung and Dan Hodge pushed the winning margin to 30-6 in a game when the Bobcats were never really threatened. Montana State rushed for 236 yards on the day, rolling up 434 yards of offense out of its veer scheme, while the Bobcat defense held UM to 161 total yards and nine first downs.
The Cats closed the regular season with a 24-0 whitewashing of Weber State, eliminating any doubt about the Big Sky's best football team. The game, as it turns out, had post-season implications that still convoluted. While previous Camellia Bowls had laid claim to deciding the NAIA National Champion, oversight now belonged to the NCAA, which decided that the Camellia Bowl would decide the NCAA Division II West Region championship.
That governing body also declared junior college players who had not graduated from their two-year school ineligible for post-season play. Reigning NAIA champion Los Angeles State and second-ranked San Diego State would have been drastically effected by that rule, so third-ranked Sacramento State and sixth-ranked Montana State (the Cats jumped Long Beach State and Santa Clara, who also would have lost too many players) for the western small college championship. The Cats beat Sac State 28-7.
(Pat Kearney's The Divide War provided considerable information for this article. Thanks also go to technical advisor Jeff Choate.)
BONUS: In 1959 Montana State won its fourth straight Cat-Griz game, dominating the Grizzlies 40-6 at Gatton Field. We won't take a detailed look at that game, which was over almost as quickly as it began, but it's worthwhile to pay tribute to the men who completed their Bobcat careers at the conclusion of the 1959 season.
This is certainly the most accomplished senior class in Bobcat history as the 1950s faded into 1960, and a case can be made for being the most talented, as well. Six of the 15 seniors in 1959 lettered on the National Championship team as freshmen, five earned All-America honors (including three who earned multiple such honors), and four are in the Bobcat Athletics Hall of Fame as individuals.
Drilling down a little further: Sonny Holland was MSU's first-ever three-time All-America, his linemate Charlie Jackson was the school's first African American player, and Holland was selected to play in the 1959 East-West All-Star Game in San Francisco.
As a class those seniors compiled a sensational 31-6-1 cumulative record, appeared in its second bowl game, won the final Rocky Mountain Conference crown in the school's final year in that league, and won Montana State's first National Championship. To a man, Montana State's 1959 seniors have remained dedicated to their alma mater, most have remained engaged, and they are an out-sized part of the school's football history.
And as every single one of them would tell you, they were part of the first Bobcat team to beat the University in nine years, the first to win in Missoula since 1902, and, in fact, they never lost to the Grizzlies.
To call them great does not do them justice. This is a group of Bobcat immortals. Here is a look:
HB Dennis Campbell/Great Falls
G Gene Cannon/Glendive
T Chuck Dallum/Cut Bank
QB Gary Davies/Concordia, Kansas
QB Daryl Dupuis/Polson
G Arjay Godston/Staten Island, NY
C Sonny Holland/Butte
G Charles Jackson/Winchester, Virginia
E Brad Lowell/Concordia, Kansas
E Bill Mack/Toledo, Ohio
HB Jim McLeod/Havre
FB Rocco Perciavalle/Leetsdale, Pa.
HB Bob Rudio/Helena
T Gene Schilling/Fairfield
E Bob Surdam/Reading, Mass.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2015 - #18 Southern Utah 34, MSU 23
2009 - MSU 28, at Portland State 10
1998 - at Eastern Washington 31, MSU 24
1987 - Idaho 14, MSU 7
1981 - at Idaho State 31, MSU 3
1970 - at UM 35, MSU 0
1964 - MSU 30, at UM 6
1959 - MSU 40, UM 6
1953 - at UM 32, MSU 13
1936 - at Wyoming 19, MSU 6
1925 - MSU 25, Colorado Mines 0
FINIS: Dave Miller was a powerful fullback for the Bobcats in the early 1960s, holding down that position from 1962-64 while excelling in multiple roles. He was known as a tremendous blocker early in his career, transitioning into the role as one of the team's featured backs. He rushed for 415 yards as a junior in 1963, second on the team to Dan Sundling's 672, and led the Cats in rushing as a senior with 688 yards. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native pummeled the Grizzlies today in 1964, rushing 19 times for 93 yards.
November 7
SPOTLIGHT: The Bobcat football program and its fans occupied a different and changing world in the fall of 1964.
Montana State had joined four other regional, similar institutions (along with Gonzaga, which did not field a football team) to form the Big Sky Conference in 1963-64. Weber State won the league's first football crown, but for the first time in at least four decades, maybe in school history, the Bobcats really had things up and rolling by the early '60s.
The Bobcats rolled into Missoula today in 1964 with a 1-0 Big Sky mark, but only two games remaining on the three-game league schedule - Cat-Griz, and at Weber State, the team's second straight trip to Ogden to play a game with massive championship implications. UM, on the other hand, had handed Weber State its only league loss while falling at Idaho State a week earlier.
The day's theme emerged early. Montana State's defense suffocated the Grizzlies, with UM failing to cross its own 25-yard line in the game's first 20 minutes. By that time Ray Foley had connected with Dan Sundling on an 18-yard touchdown pass, Foy McClung kicked a 34-yard field goal, and early in the second quarter Foley hit Dick Haden on a six-yard scoring pass to stake Montana State to a 16-0 lead.
A second quarter UM touchdown narrowed the margin to 16-6 at halftime, but short runs by McClung and Dan Hodge pushed the winning margin to 30-6 in a game when the Bobcats were never really threatened. Montana State rushed for 236 yards on the day, rolling up 434 yards of offense out of its veer scheme, while the Bobcat defense held UM to 161 total yards and nine first downs.
The Cats closed the regular season with a 24-0 whitewashing of Weber State, eliminating any doubt about the Big Sky's best football team. The game, as it turns out, had post-season implications that still convoluted. While previous Camellia Bowls had laid claim to deciding the NAIA National Champion, oversight now belonged to the NCAA, which decided that the Camellia Bowl would decide the NCAA Division II West Region championship.
That governing body also declared junior college players who had not graduated from their two-year school ineligible for post-season play. Reigning NAIA champion Los Angeles State and second-ranked San Diego State would have been drastically effected by that rule, so third-ranked Sacramento State and sixth-ranked Montana State (the Cats jumped Long Beach State and Santa Clara, who also would have lost too many players) for the western small college championship. The Cats beat Sac State 28-7.
(Pat Kearney's The Divide War provided considerable information for this article. Thanks also go to technical advisor Jeff Choate.)
BONUS: In 1959 Montana State won its fourth straight Cat-Griz game, dominating the Grizzlies 40-6 at Gatton Field. We won't take a detailed look at that game, which was over almost as quickly as it began, but it's worthwhile to pay tribute to the men who completed their Bobcat careers at the conclusion of the 1959 season.
This is certainly the most accomplished senior class in Bobcat history as the 1950s faded into 1960, and a case can be made for being the most talented, as well. Six of the 15 seniors in 1959 lettered on the National Championship team as freshmen, five earned All-America honors (including three who earned multiple such honors), and four are in the Bobcat Athletics Hall of Fame as individuals.
Drilling down a little further: Sonny Holland was MSU's first-ever three-time All-America, his linemate Charlie Jackson was the school's first African American player, and Holland was selected to play in the 1959 East-West All-Star Game in San Francisco.
As a class those seniors compiled a sensational 31-6-1 cumulative record, appeared in its second bowl game, won the final Rocky Mountain Conference crown in the school's final year in that league, and won Montana State's first National Championship. To a man, Montana State's 1959 seniors have remained dedicated to their alma mater, most have remained engaged, and they are an out-sized part of the school's football history.
And as every single one of them would tell you, they were part of the first Bobcat team to beat the University in nine years, the first to win in Missoula since 1902, and, in fact, they never lost to the Grizzlies.
To call them great does not do them justice. This is a group of Bobcat immortals. Here is a look:
HB Dennis Campbell/Great Falls
G Gene Cannon/Glendive
T Chuck Dallum/Cut Bank
QB Gary Davies/Concordia, Kansas
QB Daryl Dupuis/Polson
G Arjay Godston/Staten Island, NY
C Sonny Holland/Butte
G Charles Jackson/Winchester, Virginia
E Brad Lowell/Concordia, Kansas
E Bill Mack/Toledo, Ohio
HB Jim McLeod/Havre
FB Rocco Perciavalle/Leetsdale, Pa.
HB Bob Rudio/Helena
T Gene Schilling/Fairfield
E Bob Surdam/Reading, Mass.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2015 - #18 Southern Utah 34, MSU 23
2009 - MSU 28, at Portland State 10
1998 - at Eastern Washington 31, MSU 24
1987 - Idaho 14, MSU 7
1981 - at Idaho State 31, MSU 3
1970 - at UM 35, MSU 0
1964 - MSU 30, at UM 6
1959 - MSU 40, UM 6
1953 - at UM 32, MSU 13
1936 - at Wyoming 19, MSU 6
1925 - MSU 25, Colorado Mines 0
FINIS: Dave Miller was a powerful fullback for the Bobcats in the early 1960s, holding down that position from 1962-64 while excelling in multiple roles. He was known as a tremendous blocker early in his career, transitioning into the role as one of the team's featured backs. He rushed for 415 yards as a junior in 1963, second on the team to Dan Sundling's 672, and led the Cats in rushing as a senior with 688 yards. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native pummeled the Grizzlies today in 1964, rushing 19 times for 93 yards.
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