I love this thread! I can think of 75 or more reasons why it should keep going.
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"Old" Dornblaser
- Thread starter stilwtrgrizz
- Start date
At 80, all I can do is "reminisce." Remember, late 50s the Bear Paw "sophomore men's honorary," the Silent Sentinel senior men's honorary? Angel Flight, the AFROTC "auxiliary?" You walked on the grass of the Oval, you were close to breaking a law! The 60s changed all that. Not sure for the good.
Your time line is a little confused but within reason. I still remember Dave Rorvik's editorial regarding birth control (a rat on a string)..Front Street was where sex,drugs, and R & R were where it was at...Basketball remained popular while football slipped...but, I remember the empty bottles sliding down, beneath (the) bleachers at Dornblaser and getting rousing cheers from the students while those on the other side wondered why the students cheered when they didn't even pay attention to whether or not the team scored. Football was not much of a priority for many in the mid sixties. I recall Missoula as Berkely North in those days...too bad it changed...alas.[/quoteGrizLA said:
I still recall the cult read out of that era - "UNDER THE GRANDSTAND" by Seymour Hair... Check it out at your Barnes & Ignoble...
Here you go gents, seems appropriate for spinning these yarns.
stilwtrgrizz
Well-known member
I had many female friends that were members of that "Angel Flight" group. Speaking of the oval, remember when you could actually DRIVE around the oval? I do..........Grizzoola said:
I was in summer session when the City of Missoula auctioned off the bricks that were Higgins Ave and the University over bid and got them and commenced to ban driving past the Lodge and the turnaround where the women were dropped off minutes before the mandatory "curfew". Every time I visit UM and see the bricks now well worn around the oval and Griz sculpture, I remember picking up 21 credits in an 8 week session....I also mopped the floors of the lounge area at the Lodge and made more going through the couches than the salary...
stilwtrgrizz
Well-known member
So, I am learning even more from this thread. Is the primary reason you could drive around the oval, was to drop the women off at the dorms? I had thought it had something to do with Main Hall. :roll:GrizLA said:
This thread is great, bringing back a lot of memories. I never missed a football game in my years at UM...['63-'68}. Besides many of the Griz players, I'll never forget some of the opposition players, Roy Shivers of Utah State running wild, tacklers bouncing off "Thunder Ray", Stenerud chasing down the ball when it was snapped over the holder's head, but then bailing out when he saw the Griz players bearing down on him. Entertainment in the stands wasn't bad either, cams and dregs, drunks, etc. For some, Dornblaser at night wasn't a bad place to take a girl and a blanket, or a six pack with a couple friends. Who remembers the "Pizza Bug" delivering pizzas from Pizza Oven?
GrizRanger
Well-known member
Not sure I am proud about this, but when I lived in the UM dorms (Craig Hall), and I and my friends were too young to drink legally, we sometimes dressed up one of our buddies who looked older, as a dirty old cowboy, and with a fake ID, he could buy booze at the Turf Bar on Main Street. He bought flavored (often lime) vodka which we all drank in a empty Milwaukee Railroad boxcar (adjacent to present day river trail where Hellgate High track is now).
We had a grand old time getting drunk in the box car, telling stories,laughing, and eventually crawling back to the dorm. You would not think that is fun, but as I look back thru time it was a grand old time. Several of my old friends that we did this with (~1967-1968) have now passed on, and I miss them very much, and often reminisce with fondness upon these times.
As you age your mortality becomes more real, and good times from one's youth such as these assume greater significance.
We had a grand old time getting drunk in the box car, telling stories,laughing, and eventually crawling back to the dorm. You would not think that is fun, but as I look back thru time it was a grand old time. Several of my old friends that we did this with (~1967-1968) have now passed on, and I miss them very much, and often reminisce with fondness upon these times.
As you age your mortality becomes more real, and good times from one's youth such as these assume greater significance.
Oooh, yeah! I was a frosh, 1956, staying in Craig. At that time Maurice Avenue was a roadway thru campus. Closed long since w/ the Grizzly statue, etc. Anyway, Maurice was a disaster for a "street." It had big, deep potholes. Carl McFarland was pres. at the time. One morning, crossing Maurice to class, I saw a sign, "Carl's Bad Caverns." Yep, we had jokers back then!stilwtrgrizz said:I had many female friends that were members of that "Angel Flight" group. Speaking of the oval, remember when you could actually DRIVE around the oval? I do..........Grizzoola said:
When I was around 10 I used to scrounge under the bleachers during and after games for pop bottles people would toss down after they were done with them. I would cash them in to buy 22 shells so I could shoot gophers and badgers in the field behind my house just off Dore Lane. Good luck finding a field there now.
stilwtrgrizz
Well-known member
Shit, I'll drink to this whole thing. I really thought I might see 5 or 6 responses to this thread. WOW, was I wrong. Not to get too mushy here, but, this old Griz fan is absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the response, the stories, and the fun. Thank you sooooooooo much E-Griz . :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:Spanky said:
UMGriz75
Well-known member
Mid-70s, Milwaukee installed an elaborate underpass for pedestrians near the Field House to access the Van Buren St footbridge. Students were always crossing the tracks to access the bridge and the River, and even the Milwaukee's Electric-powered hotshot freights had special instructions for passing through the University of Montana. For over 70 years, the University and the Milwaukee Road shared the north edge of the Campus. It was a situation always ripe for a disaster, and its a miracle than none ever happened that I am aware of. Indeed, Mick Delaney recalls that student "specials" -- passenger trains assembled for trips to Butte and back for the Bobcat/Griz games -- were a popular item with the passenger depot so close to Campus; so there was a positive memory there for many years. I understand from some sources that on the return trips the trains would stop on the Campus proper to discharge U students living in dorms, and then continue to the Depot proper. I don't have any information that this tradition continued after the games alternated between Missoula and Bozeman, rather than Butte, but MILW ended its transcontinental passenger service in 1961, and so it was moot anyway.GrizRanger said:
In 1972 or '73, seems an engineer was switching on their East yard, and looked back just as he was starting his string of cars, and saw a large basset hound pulling out from under a boxcar with the leash extending under the boxcar. "Oh crap," as he set his air, and looked out the other side, and there was ANOTHER large basset hound pulling hard in the other direction, with his leash extending under the boxcar. Some fool student was trying to cross under a boxcar with a switching train operating, when his Bassets went beserk and took off in opposite directions and trapped him under the boxcar. It was a close call; the engineer reported it to the Roadmaster, and in turn the Railroad decided there were too many close calls, and so the U and the MILW spent the money to build the rather elaborate concrete pedestrian and bicycle underpass. I believe it was completed in 1974, possibly 1975. Of course, with the Hellgate Winds, it promptly filled up with snow in the winter, was mostly ignored by students anyway, and then the RR stopped running in 1980. It was filled in. But, it's still there, buried under the Bike trail. After the Apocalypse someday, archeologists will be digging around wondering what was on this ancient lakebed, and uncover this mystery. No doubt a temple, used for obsolete and mysterious religious ceremonies.
On the UM Campus, August, 1971:
