ALL-TIME BOBCATS TOP 25: #17 Don Hass
8/25/2022 9:24:00 AM | Football
MSU's legendary Iron Tumbleweed ravaged opposing defenses...
Don Hass compiled a legendary career as a star running back during one of Montana State's most successful eras of Bobcat football. The Glendive product left Bozeman as one of the greatest legends ever to don the Blue and Gold, and that remains true today.
Don Hass, RB, 1965-67
ALL-TIME TEAM: 2000 Billings Gazette All-Time Team, 1969 Billings Gazette All-Time Team
HONORS: 1966 1st Team All-America and 1st Team All-Big Sky, 1967 1st Team All-America and 1st Team All-Big Sky
A CLOSER LOOK: There's a story about Don Hass, perhaps apocryphal but more likely with some truth, that he woke up on October 21, 1967, and didn't feel much like playing football. He shared that with a teammate on the way to Gatton Field that morning, but at some point the spirit moved him and he suited up for that day's Bobcat game against Weber State.
And then he carried the ball 34 times for 298 yards.
Re-read that.
Don Hass carried 34 times for 298 yards, still the best single game in Bobcat history, as Montana State beat the Wildcats 21-6. That win gave sent the Homecoming crowd into the Bozeman evning happy, and clinched the team's second straight Big Sky crown, its third in four years.
It also sealed the legend of Montana State's Iron Tumbleweed. Later in 1967 he repeated as 1st Team All-America, and by the close of his career his 2,954 career rushing yards (3,054 if you count the post-season, which the NCAA now recognizes but at the time did not) was over 1,700 more than his closest competition. Said differently, he set MSU's career rushing record midway through his junior year.
In his 17th career game.
Hass averaged an astounding 146.0 yards per game in 1966, and in fact gained 101.5 yards a game during his three-year career (freshmen were not eligible at the time). Those numbers remain Bobcat records by comfortable margins.
In case there's an idea that Hass piled up big numbers in unimportant games, here are his three game totals against Big Sky foes:
Weber State: 298-34-2 (1967), 23-109-4 (1966), 0-0-0 (1965).
Idaho State: 18-65-0 (1967), 22-172-3 (1966), 0-0-0 (1965)
Idaho: 25-118-1, 34-209-2, 11-30-0.
And of course...
Montana: 42-209-1 (1967), 27-142-1 (1966), 129 in 1966
That's three Cat-Griz games, three 100-yard efforts, three Bobcat wins. He averaged 160.0 yards rushing per game in that series. In eight conference games as a junior and senior, he surpassed 100 yards rushing seven times.
The famed Iron Tumbleweed (so dubbed by sportswriter Norm Clarke) joined Sonny Holland as Montana State's most revered football players in history upon his graduation. In terms of production per game played, he remains the gold standard of all Bobcat running backs.
FROM TEAMMATE JAN STENERUD: "I don't think he had great straight-away speed, like a 4.5 or 4.6 (in the 40 yard dash), for a running back, but he was fast. He went to Dallas for training camp, which was a loaded team in those days, and if he had went to some other training camp I think he would have made the NFL. He was just a terrific running back. He was strong, he had great moves, he stood out. In my opinion, if he had gone to most teams in the league he'd have made it in the NFL."
Don Hass, RB, 1965-67
ALL-TIME TEAM: 2000 Billings Gazette All-Time Team, 1969 Billings Gazette All-Time Team
HONORS: 1966 1st Team All-America and 1st Team All-Big Sky, 1967 1st Team All-America and 1st Team All-Big Sky
A CLOSER LOOK: There's a story about Don Hass, perhaps apocryphal but more likely with some truth, that he woke up on October 21, 1967, and didn't feel much like playing football. He shared that with a teammate on the way to Gatton Field that morning, but at some point the spirit moved him and he suited up for that day's Bobcat game against Weber State.
And then he carried the ball 34 times for 298 yards.
Re-read that.
Don Hass carried 34 times for 298 yards, still the best single game in Bobcat history, as Montana State beat the Wildcats 21-6. That win gave sent the Homecoming crowd into the Bozeman evning happy, and clinched the team's second straight Big Sky crown, its third in four years.
It also sealed the legend of Montana State's Iron Tumbleweed. Later in 1967 he repeated as 1st Team All-America, and by the close of his career his 2,954 career rushing yards (3,054 if you count the post-season, which the NCAA now recognizes but at the time did not) was over 1,700 more than his closest competition. Said differently, he set MSU's career rushing record midway through his junior year.
In his 17th career game.
Hass averaged an astounding 146.0 yards per game in 1966, and in fact gained 101.5 yards a game during his three-year career (freshmen were not eligible at the time). Those numbers remain Bobcat records by comfortable margins.
In case there's an idea that Hass piled up big numbers in unimportant games, here are his three game totals against Big Sky foes:
Weber State: 298-34-2 (1967), 23-109-4 (1966), 0-0-0 (1965).
Idaho State: 18-65-0 (1967), 22-172-3 (1966), 0-0-0 (1965)
Idaho: 25-118-1, 34-209-2, 11-30-0.
And of course...
Montana: 42-209-1 (1967), 27-142-1 (1966), 129 in 1966
That's three Cat-Griz games, three 100-yard efforts, three Bobcat wins. He averaged 160.0 yards rushing per game in that series. In eight conference games as a junior and senior, he surpassed 100 yards rushing seven times.
The famed Iron Tumbleweed (so dubbed by sportswriter Norm Clarke) joined Sonny Holland as Montana State's most revered football players in history upon his graduation. In terms of production per game played, he remains the gold standard of all Bobcat running backs.
FROM TEAMMATE JAN STENERUD: "I don't think he had great straight-away speed, like a 4.5 or 4.6 (in the 40 yard dash), for a running back, but he was fast. He went to Dallas for training camp, which was a loaded team in those days, and if he had went to some other training camp I think he would have made the NFL. He was just a terrific running back. He was strong, he had great moves, he stood out. In my opinion, if he had gone to most teams in the league he'd have made it in the NFL."
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