2010 Hall of Fame Boards
Hall of Fame Class of 2010
INGRID GUSTAFSON
Ingrid Gustafson enjoyed considerable success as a skier at Montana State throughout her career, but during her senior season became a Bobcat legend. A two-time qualifier for the National Championships, Gustafson capped a solid senior season in 1983 by qualifying for the NCAA Championships in both alpine disciplines. At the NCAA Championships, she finished 10th in the slalom to earn All-America honors. Gustafson helped lead MSU to a first-place finish at the AIAW Far West Regional Championships as a freshman, and qualified for the national meet as a junior, as well.
LARRY RUBENS
Long before he became an NFL offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, Larry Rubens was the rock in the middle of the Bobcat offense. A three-year starter at center whose career was interrupted by injury, Rubens was First Team All-Big Sky center for the Bobcats as a senior in 1981, and also earned First Team All-America honors that year, as well. Following his Bobcat career, Rubens played signed a free agent deal with Green Bay and played for the Packers in 1982 and ’83. After a stint in the USFL, Rubens played for the Chicago Bears in 1986.
MIGUEL GALEANA
A soft-spoken and physically unimposing kid from Washington, Miguel Galeana let his running speak for him with unprecedented volume. From the beginning of his cross country career in the fall of 1993 to his departure after a record-breaking senior season in 1998, Galeana won four Big Sky Conference Championships and earned All-America honors in the steeple chase twice. Galeana punctuated his remarkable speed and spectacular endurance with athleticism and determination. He was part of the first men’s team ever to win a Big Sky Championship at Montana State, the 1993 cross country squad, and joined Shannon Butler as the only Bobcats to that point in school history with individual championships in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track.
KAREN WEYLER
Karen Weyler Massey arrived at Montana State with a strong athletic background, and left with a handful school records and a slew of individual honors. In between, Weyler and her teammates boosted Montana State volleyball from the bottom of the Big Sky Conference to the league’s upper echelon. She became Montana State’s first-ever Big Sky Freshman of the Year, earned honorable mention all-conference honors as a sophomore, second team honors as a junior, and First Team All-Big Sky honors as a senior. In her varsity career, MSU went from seven wins in 1994 to 19 her senior year, much of it due to the efforts of Karen Weyler.
PAT BOLTON
During his senior season, the late Ken Nicholson, MSU’s long-time and legendary Sports Information Director and a member of the Bobcat Hall of Fame himself, projected that Pat Bolton’s kicking records at Montana State would last for many years. 35 years later, Nicholson was clearly right. Bolton came to Montana State from Butte as part of an impressive line of Bobcat kickers, and exceeded his billing. He scored 234 points in his career, still the most ever by a Bobcat, and his 44 field goals is second-most in school history. He converted four field goals of more than 50 yards, and in one game at Idaho State kicked field goals of 53, 51, 49 and 27 yards. Bolton left MSU with the most points scored by a kicker in NCAA history.
1993 MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
In 1993, the Montana State men’s cross country team achieved what none of its predecessors could, by translating determination, persistence and cohesiveness into the program’s first Big Sky Conference Championship. This group of runners from throughout the Northwest, motivated by a near-miss in 1992, scored 35 points at the 1993 Big Sky meet, the school’s best performance ever, placing four runners in the top 10. That group will forever be known as the first men to ever win a Big Sky title in men’s track or cross country.
DUSTY BIRKENBUEL
Among the array of defensive stars at Montana State in the early 1970s it might have been easy for fans to overlook Dusty Birkenbuel, but his teammates and coaches and opponents never did. Birkenbuel distinguished himself with a ferocious style in the middle of the Bobcat defense as an inside linebacker, earning All-Big Sky and Honorable Mention All-America honors in 1973, and Second Team All-Big Sky honors a year later as a senior. Birkenbuel was lauded for his versatility and sure tackling, and in one game against North Dakota State during his junior season he intercepted two passes, caused one fumble, and recovered another.
