BOBCAT CALENDAR: Montana State Beat Idaho for the First Time Today in 1928
9/29/2020 2:00:00 PM | Football
Idaho, Colorado College have each served as Bobcat league-mates and rivals at various times
A day-by-day look at Bobcat football history...
September 29
SPOTLIGHT: The first half-century of Montana State's football history feature some opponents that contemporary fans would find puzzling.
The Butte Business College. Fort Shaw Indians. Montana Wesleyan. Gonzaga.
But it also featured a lot of schools that would make perfect sense today. Enter, Idaho.
In 1905, Montana State ventured out of the Treasure State for a football game for the first time, and the initial opponent on October 9 was Idaho. (The Bobcats played at Washington State two days later.) The Montana State Agricultural College was not yet the Bobcats, and Idaho hadn't picked up 'Vandals' yet, either, and the visitors didn't put up much of a fight. Idaho won that contest 50-0.
The teams didn't meet again for 21 years. When the series was renewed, the Bobcats fought UI to a scoreless tie in Moscow in 1926, then fell 19-12 one year later in Bozeman, Coming off a 4-1-3 record the year before, the Vandals - now in the Pacific Coast Conference - opened the season with high hopes. Montana State's third trip to the Palouse came on September 29, 1926, a game that opened a new season, and was also Schubert Dyche's first as the top cat replacing his long-time friend and former boss Ott Romney.
Idaho scored early on a drive that was set up when the Bobcats fumbled a center snap. A blocked punt led to the first Montana State score, a safety. Ott Gardner's punting gave the Cats good field position, according to the Exponent, and his 40-yard touchdown run gave the Bobcats an 8-6 lead. Idaho scored in the third quarter to grab a 13-8 lead, but the Bobcats rallied. Montana State took over with five minutes remaining in the game, and a long run by Gus Wylie pushed the ball deep into Vandals territory. Duke Wellington prodded the Idaho line at the edges twice, then "Stag" Vogt tossed a pass toward the end zone. The ball deflected off of Bobcat end Herschel Hurd, glanced off the tip of a Vandal back's hands, then settled into the waiting arms of Frank Worden. Stag Vogt kicked the extra point, and the Bobcats left Idaho with an impressive, important season-opening win.
Tragically, Worden had only five more games in his Bobcat future. He died November 10 from complications related to a burst appendix. Unlike the 1912, when the death of freshman Frank Lange during a practice led the school to cancel the remainder of the season, the 1928 Bobcats wrapped up the season. Worden's death occurred on the day the MSC beat Wyoming in Billings, and a week later the Cats lost to Utah State in Logan. Having tied the Grizzlies the Bobcats earned the right to play Carroll College for the mythical state championship. The Saints beat Montana State 19-0 in Sheridan, Wyoming, on November 29.
BONUS: Befitting a football team with a history as long and illustrious as Montana State's, rivals come and go. Many of the program's traditional rivals fell off the board in 1937, when several Rocky Mountain Conference programs left that league to form a different circuit, and others fell by the wayside when the Bobcats became an independent after the 1956 season in advance of helping form the Big Sky in 1963.
Colorado College was a football power in the region for many years, beating Denver 12-0 in the first college football game west of the Mississippi River in 1885 and winning the league's first football championship in 1910. The Tigers finished in the top half of the league standings 15 times in the RMC's first quarter-century. When the league's more powerful members looked to remain nationally relevant, though, private CC and geographically isolated Montana State were among the schools left behind.
The final meeting between the schools (Colorado College discontinued football in 2008) was in 1956, when the Bobcats opened Rocky Mountain play at historic Washburn Field. George Marinkovich rambled for 147 of the Bobcats' 352 rushing yards. Jim Posewitz returned an interception for a touchdown to open the scoring, and Loren Sax snuck in on another to give the Cats a 14-0 halftime lead, and Montana State rolled from there. The second half included two Bobcat safeties.
The win came in Montana State's conference opener, and was the third of three straight games away from Gatton Field to open the season.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2018 - #5 EWU 34, MSU 17
2012 - MSU 24, at SUU 17
2007 - MSU 40, ISU 20 HC
2001 - MSU 34, CS Northridge 27
1990 - at Weber St 32, MSU 20
1984 - Idaho State 22, MSU 6
1980 - at Boise St 14, MSU 0
1973 - MSU 38, Fresno St 6
1962 - MSU 14, So Dak St 10
1956 - MSU 30, at Colorado Coll 14
1951 - at Colo Coll 40, MSU 13
1928 - MSU 15, at Idaho 13
1923 - at BYU 16, MSU 15
September 29
SPOTLIGHT: The first half-century of Montana State's football history feature some opponents that contemporary fans would find puzzling.
The Butte Business College. Fort Shaw Indians. Montana Wesleyan. Gonzaga.
But it also featured a lot of schools that would make perfect sense today. Enter, Idaho.
In 1905, Montana State ventured out of the Treasure State for a football game for the first time, and the initial opponent on October 9 was Idaho. (The Bobcats played at Washington State two days later.) The Montana State Agricultural College was not yet the Bobcats, and Idaho hadn't picked up 'Vandals' yet, either, and the visitors didn't put up much of a fight. Idaho won that contest 50-0.
The teams didn't meet again for 21 years. When the series was renewed, the Bobcats fought UI to a scoreless tie in Moscow in 1926, then fell 19-12 one year later in Bozeman, Coming off a 4-1-3 record the year before, the Vandals - now in the Pacific Coast Conference - opened the season with high hopes. Montana State's third trip to the Palouse came on September 29, 1926, a game that opened a new season, and was also Schubert Dyche's first as the top cat replacing his long-time friend and former boss Ott Romney.
Idaho scored early on a drive that was set up when the Bobcats fumbled a center snap. A blocked punt led to the first Montana State score, a safety. Ott Gardner's punting gave the Cats good field position, according to the Exponent, and his 40-yard touchdown run gave the Bobcats an 8-6 lead. Idaho scored in the third quarter to grab a 13-8 lead, but the Bobcats rallied. Montana State took over with five minutes remaining in the game, and a long run by Gus Wylie pushed the ball deep into Vandals territory. Duke Wellington prodded the Idaho line at the edges twice, then "Stag" Vogt tossed a pass toward the end zone. The ball deflected off of Bobcat end Herschel Hurd, glanced off the tip of a Vandal back's hands, then settled into the waiting arms of Frank Worden. Stag Vogt kicked the extra point, and the Bobcats left Idaho with an impressive, important season-opening win.
Tragically, Worden had only five more games in his Bobcat future. He died November 10 from complications related to a burst appendix. Unlike the 1912, when the death of freshman Frank Lange during a practice led the school to cancel the remainder of the season, the 1928 Bobcats wrapped up the season. Worden's death occurred on the day the MSC beat Wyoming in Billings, and a week later the Cats lost to Utah State in Logan. Having tied the Grizzlies the Bobcats earned the right to play Carroll College for the mythical state championship. The Saints beat Montana State 19-0 in Sheridan, Wyoming, on November 29.
BONUS: Befitting a football team with a history as long and illustrious as Montana State's, rivals come and go. Many of the program's traditional rivals fell off the board in 1937, when several Rocky Mountain Conference programs left that league to form a different circuit, and others fell by the wayside when the Bobcats became an independent after the 1956 season in advance of helping form the Big Sky in 1963.
Colorado College was a football power in the region for many years, beating Denver 12-0 in the first college football game west of the Mississippi River in 1885 and winning the league's first football championship in 1910. The Tigers finished in the top half of the league standings 15 times in the RMC's first quarter-century. When the league's more powerful members looked to remain nationally relevant, though, private CC and geographically isolated Montana State were among the schools left behind.
The final meeting between the schools (Colorado College discontinued football in 2008) was in 1956, when the Bobcats opened Rocky Mountain play at historic Washburn Field. George Marinkovich rambled for 147 of the Bobcats' 352 rushing yards. Jim Posewitz returned an interception for a touchdown to open the scoring, and Loren Sax snuck in on another to give the Cats a 14-0 halftime lead, and Montana State rolled from there. The second half included two Bobcat safeties.
The win came in Montana State's conference opener, and was the third of three straight games away from Gatton Field to open the season.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2018 - #5 EWU 34, MSU 17
2012 - MSU 24, at SUU 17
2007 - MSU 40, ISU 20 HC
2001 - MSU 34, CS Northridge 27
1990 - at Weber St 32, MSU 20
1984 - Idaho State 22, MSU 6
1980 - at Boise St 14, MSU 0
1973 - MSU 38, Fresno St 6
1962 - MSU 14, So Dak St 10
1956 - MSU 30, at Colorado Coll 14
1951 - at Colo Coll 40, MSU 13
1928 - MSU 15, at Idaho 13
1923 - at BYU 16, MSU 15
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