grizpsych
Well-known member
RIP Mr. O! Thank you for teaching me the game of Baseball and the game of life. You were a true inspiration.
Some of the best moments of my childhood were because of this man. I will never forget: After practice, I would stay around and help him maintain all of the Mt. Sentinel Little League fields. Although the parking lot is much better today, those fields have never been as nice as they were when he tended to them.
In addition, Mr. O was also a friend of my family and me. He was at all of my graduations and my wedding. He will truly be missed.
There was a perfectly good intramural field where Washington-Grizzly Stadium stands now, and the "M" on Mount Sentinel used to be made out of whitewashed rocks.
Inside the venerable Adams Center, the basketball court used to run east to west.
One of the few threads through all these landmarks was Bob O'Conner, who died Thursday at the age of 90 in Missoula. A World War II veteran, O'Conner became a local fixture shortly after transferring from the University of Idaho.
He saw all four of his children earn their undergraduate degrees from the University of Montana. He also witnessed a couple of Adams Center makeovers, UM's on-campus football stadium hatch and sprout wings and the "M" turn to cement.
He saw the latter up close. It was his company that poured the cement in 1968.
"They had to kind of make a road over to where the ‘M' was," said Kathy O'Conner, Bob's daughter. "They had all the forms all set up, and they poured it. Free of charge."
None of this takes the full measure of the man some called "Okie." A longtime coach in Mount Sentinel Little League, he and fellow coach Dale Clawson were the subject of a 1993 profile by the Missoulian.
If he seemed a bit over-competitive there - his teams won six state championships - you could find his sense of humor in almost every other instance.
"More one-liners and more jokes than anybody I ever knew," said Chuck Maes, UM's associate athletic director for internal operations. "Everybody has a memory; you just shake your head and smile."
"He was always very proud of being born and raised in Wallace, Idaho," said his daughter. "He blew up his birth certificate and framed it and pointed out where it said, ‘Legitimate.'
" ‘That was important, back in those days,' he'd say," Kathy remembered. "He was a kook."
But he was also loyal to athletics. It didn't matter who was playing, he'd go watch.
"When I lived in Spokane, he and mom would visit and if there was a game, we'd go out to Joe Albi Stadium," Kathy O'Conner said.
When Mount Sentinel's Little League complex was renamed for Clawson after he passed away in 2006, O'Conner was there.
"(It's) more than appropriate," O'Conner said of honoring Clawson. "It was almost mandatory."
A fan of all UM athletics, he made every home basketball game for the Griz and Lady Griz, as well as football games. Robin Selvig, the 33-year coach of the Lady Griz, remembered that O'Conner got extremely interested in his team when Margaret Williams signed in the mid-1980s.
"He was really good friends with Margaret's dad, a Supreme Court judge in Washington state," Selvig said. "I got lots of good advice from him in those days - good naturedly. He helped me out quite a bit at that time.
"He's always been a good fan and good friend. He was always there. His involvement in Little League was unbelievable, but just in terms of Lady Griz - I think he was a fan before Margaret played, but he was really a fan then."
***
Of late, O'Conner watched basketball games after shepherding season-ticket holders into the parking lot next to the stadium; for years, he and his wife, Adeline, who passed away in October 2008, ran the split-the-pot contests at football games.
"Tough stuff, Mr. O'Conner leaving us," said Gary Hughes, who retired as assistant athletic director at UM in 2000. "I just saw him Monday (Feb. 6), at the Griz game against Idaho State. So I was a little shocked."
Bob O'Conner was with his son Mike, a professor of computer science at UM, when he passed. He was heading upstairs to send a fax - Bob O'Conner was still working, selling insurance for Aflac - when he collapsed.
"Ninety years old and on his way to work. That's what people have told us," his daughter said with a laugh. "They said his heart just kind of gave out. He was gone before he fell."
On Saturday his car, an aging station wagon with "Griz Pride" printed on the bug screen, was parked in front of the Adams Center, where the Lady Griz played Northern Colorado.
"You gotta love that car," said UM athletic director Jim O'Day. "That car was the talk of so many people. It kind of brought a tear to your eye when you walked into the building and the car was right there - without him in it."
O'Conner oversaw parking at UM for several years, though nobody - including Hughes - could remember exactly when he started organizing lots and putting out signage to make sure people didn't go to the wrong spots.
Two things are clear - he started it during the Dornblaser Stadium days, and to help raise money for Mount Sentinel Little League. Then he just kept going.
"Our greatest ambassador is what we always said," Maes said. "When I started here in 1988, Bob was doing the parking and split-the-pot with his wife Adeline.
"When he got older and we got bigger, we took over split-the-pot and Bob stayed with the parking. He stored the signs at his house."
He weighted them down with cement-filled tire sections, a bent piece of rebar serving as a handle. The weights originally saw action back when Washington-Grizzly Stadium had a grass playing field.
"He made hundreds of them," Maes said. "He made those originally so the tarp wouldn't blow away."
Tarps are no longer needed at the stadium, but people will still need to park.
"We didn't even think about it the last 15, 20 years," said Maes. "I've never once thought about the signing being up for the parking.
"He truly just loved doing it. He was always out there, no matter how cold it was. He was giving people jumps. ... He's irreplaceable."
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/ca3b11ba-578f-11e1-80dd-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1mT3QIXM1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Some of the best moments of my childhood were because of this man. I will never forget: After practice, I would stay around and help him maintain all of the Mt. Sentinel Little League fields. Although the parking lot is much better today, those fields have never been as nice as they were when he tended to them.
In addition, Mr. O was also a friend of my family and me. He was at all of my graduations and my wedding. He will truly be missed.
There was a perfectly good intramural field where Washington-Grizzly Stadium stands now, and the "M" on Mount Sentinel used to be made out of whitewashed rocks.
Inside the venerable Adams Center, the basketball court used to run east to west.
One of the few threads through all these landmarks was Bob O'Conner, who died Thursday at the age of 90 in Missoula. A World War II veteran, O'Conner became a local fixture shortly after transferring from the University of Idaho.
He saw all four of his children earn their undergraduate degrees from the University of Montana. He also witnessed a couple of Adams Center makeovers, UM's on-campus football stadium hatch and sprout wings and the "M" turn to cement.
He saw the latter up close. It was his company that poured the cement in 1968.
"They had to kind of make a road over to where the ‘M' was," said Kathy O'Conner, Bob's daughter. "They had all the forms all set up, and they poured it. Free of charge."
None of this takes the full measure of the man some called "Okie." A longtime coach in Mount Sentinel Little League, he and fellow coach Dale Clawson were the subject of a 1993 profile by the Missoulian.
If he seemed a bit over-competitive there - his teams won six state championships - you could find his sense of humor in almost every other instance.
"More one-liners and more jokes than anybody I ever knew," said Chuck Maes, UM's associate athletic director for internal operations. "Everybody has a memory; you just shake your head and smile."
"He was always very proud of being born and raised in Wallace, Idaho," said his daughter. "He blew up his birth certificate and framed it and pointed out where it said, ‘Legitimate.'
" ‘That was important, back in those days,' he'd say," Kathy remembered. "He was a kook."
But he was also loyal to athletics. It didn't matter who was playing, he'd go watch.
"When I lived in Spokane, he and mom would visit and if there was a game, we'd go out to Joe Albi Stadium," Kathy O'Conner said.
When Mount Sentinel's Little League complex was renamed for Clawson after he passed away in 2006, O'Conner was there.
"(It's) more than appropriate," O'Conner said of honoring Clawson. "It was almost mandatory."
A fan of all UM athletics, he made every home basketball game for the Griz and Lady Griz, as well as football games. Robin Selvig, the 33-year coach of the Lady Griz, remembered that O'Conner got extremely interested in his team when Margaret Williams signed in the mid-1980s.
"He was really good friends with Margaret's dad, a Supreme Court judge in Washington state," Selvig said. "I got lots of good advice from him in those days - good naturedly. He helped me out quite a bit at that time.
"He's always been a good fan and good friend. He was always there. His involvement in Little League was unbelievable, but just in terms of Lady Griz - I think he was a fan before Margaret played, but he was really a fan then."
***
Of late, O'Conner watched basketball games after shepherding season-ticket holders into the parking lot next to the stadium; for years, he and his wife, Adeline, who passed away in October 2008, ran the split-the-pot contests at football games.
"Tough stuff, Mr. O'Conner leaving us," said Gary Hughes, who retired as assistant athletic director at UM in 2000. "I just saw him Monday (Feb. 6), at the Griz game against Idaho State. So I was a little shocked."
Bob O'Conner was with his son Mike, a professor of computer science at UM, when he passed. He was heading upstairs to send a fax - Bob O'Conner was still working, selling insurance for Aflac - when he collapsed.
"Ninety years old and on his way to work. That's what people have told us," his daughter said with a laugh. "They said his heart just kind of gave out. He was gone before he fell."
On Saturday his car, an aging station wagon with "Griz Pride" printed on the bug screen, was parked in front of the Adams Center, where the Lady Griz played Northern Colorado.
"You gotta love that car," said UM athletic director Jim O'Day. "That car was the talk of so many people. It kind of brought a tear to your eye when you walked into the building and the car was right there - without him in it."
O'Conner oversaw parking at UM for several years, though nobody - including Hughes - could remember exactly when he started organizing lots and putting out signage to make sure people didn't go to the wrong spots.
Two things are clear - he started it during the Dornblaser Stadium days, and to help raise money for Mount Sentinel Little League. Then he just kept going.
"Our greatest ambassador is what we always said," Maes said. "When I started here in 1988, Bob was doing the parking and split-the-pot with his wife Adeline.
"When he got older and we got bigger, we took over split-the-pot and Bob stayed with the parking. He stored the signs at his house."
He weighted them down with cement-filled tire sections, a bent piece of rebar serving as a handle. The weights originally saw action back when Washington-Grizzly Stadium had a grass playing field.
"He made hundreds of them," Maes said. "He made those originally so the tarp wouldn't blow away."
Tarps are no longer needed at the stadium, but people will still need to park.
"We didn't even think about it the last 15, 20 years," said Maes. "I've never once thought about the signing being up for the parking.
"He truly just loved doing it. He was always out there, no matter how cold it was. He was giving people jumps. ... He's irreplaceable."
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/ca3b11ba-578f-11e1-80dd-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1mT3QIXM1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
