BOBCATS 125 - TOP 50: Butch Damberger
7/21/2022 2:00:00 PM | Football
Butch Damberger was at his best when his team needed him the most, and became a two-time All-America and long-time contributor on the MSU campus
We look at the 25 players that Bobcat fans and a blue ribbon panel of long-time MSU football observers ranked between 26th and 50th in the quest to determine the program's all-time players. In this segment of the countdown, players are listed alphabetically. You can find details here and a directory here.
Butch Damberger, TE, 1976-79
ALL-TIME TEAM: None previously
HONORS: Honorable Mention All-America and 1at Team All-Big Sky in 1979, Honorable Mention All-America and 1st All-Big Sky in 1978
A CLOSER LOOK: It was late in the summer of 1976, and Butch Damberger didn't know what September would hold for him. Joining a basketball program in the Frontier Conference seemed most likely. But then he headed to the Montana East-West Shrine Game, and everything changed.
Damberger still remembers his conversation with Sonny Holland after the Montana Shrine Bowl following in August, 1976. The multi-sport star from Cut Bank, Montana, had no firm college plans just weeks before Labor Day, and had just starred in the game featuring the Treasure State's top prep football players. Holland pulled Damberger aside in Great Falls' Memorial Stadium after that game for a conversation that included an invitation to join the Bobcat football team.
Days later Damberger was in fall camp in Bozeman as a walk-on tight end. Weeks later he was jogging onto the field to replace injured Al Reichow as the team's second tight end. And not long after that, Damberger was catching crucial touchdowns against North Dakota State and Toledo during a playoff run that led the Cats to their second national championship.
Damberger was a two-time All-America tight end for the Bobcats, earning 1st Team All-Big Sky honors as a junior and senior, and was a prototype of an MSU football player in that era. He was rugged, smart, and productive, from small-town Montana, and he helped the Bobcats remain at or near the top of the Big Sky Conference and Division II (later I-AA and FCS) football.
After a stellar high school coaching career, Damberger returned to MSU as Cliff Hysell's first hire in December, 1991, and never left. He remained on staff through the transition to Mike Kramer, helped reestablish the program with the 2002 Big Sky Championship, then moved across campus to manage the Strand Union Building. Like so many one-time Bobcat student-athletes - Joe May and Val Glynn and Max Worthington and Sonny Holland - Damberger has become a campus icon with his long-time professional service on campus, and with his commitment to improving the experience of attending and working at MSU.
FROM LEGENDARY MSU ATHLETIC TRAINER CHUCK KARNOP: "He was a good one. Butch ... always came to work, was really enthusiastic, a guy you didn't think had bad days. Butch was a (very) polished guy."
Butch Damberger, TE, 1976-79
ALL-TIME TEAM: None previously
HONORS: Honorable Mention All-America and 1at Team All-Big Sky in 1979, Honorable Mention All-America and 1st All-Big Sky in 1978
A CLOSER LOOK: It was late in the summer of 1976, and Butch Damberger didn't know what September would hold for him. Joining a basketball program in the Frontier Conference seemed most likely. But then he headed to the Montana East-West Shrine Game, and everything changed.
Damberger still remembers his conversation with Sonny Holland after the Montana Shrine Bowl following in August, 1976. The multi-sport star from Cut Bank, Montana, had no firm college plans just weeks before Labor Day, and had just starred in the game featuring the Treasure State's top prep football players. Holland pulled Damberger aside in Great Falls' Memorial Stadium after that game for a conversation that included an invitation to join the Bobcat football team.
Days later Damberger was in fall camp in Bozeman as a walk-on tight end. Weeks later he was jogging onto the field to replace injured Al Reichow as the team's second tight end. And not long after that, Damberger was catching crucial touchdowns against North Dakota State and Toledo during a playoff run that led the Cats to their second national championship.
Damberger was a two-time All-America tight end for the Bobcats, earning 1st Team All-Big Sky honors as a junior and senior, and was a prototype of an MSU football player in that era. He was rugged, smart, and productive, from small-town Montana, and he helped the Bobcats remain at or near the top of the Big Sky Conference and Division II (later I-AA and FCS) football.
After a stellar high school coaching career, Damberger returned to MSU as Cliff Hysell's first hire in December, 1991, and never left. He remained on staff through the transition to Mike Kramer, helped reestablish the program with the 2002 Big Sky Championship, then moved across campus to manage the Strand Union Building. Like so many one-time Bobcat student-athletes - Joe May and Val Glynn and Max Worthington and Sonny Holland - Damberger has become a campus icon with his long-time professional service on campus, and with his commitment to improving the experience of attending and working at MSU.
FROM LEGENDARY MSU ATHLETIC TRAINER CHUCK KARNOP: "He was a good one. Butch ... always came to work, was really enthusiastic, a guy you didn't think had bad days. Butch was a (very) polished guy."
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