MISSOULA — The world outside of Washington-Grizzly Stadium has been unkind to the Montana Grizzlies under Bob Stitt. The Griz, losers of four straight Big Sky Conference road games, embark on their first trip of the Big Sky Conference season on Saturday.
Montana plays at Portland State this weekend. Because of a scheduling conflict at Providence Park with a nationally televised women’s professional soccer game, the game will be played at Hillsboro Stadium about 15 miles from downtown Portland.
The game could have been played in Missoula.
Portland State athletic director Valerie Cleary initially proposed to Montana AD Kent Haslam that the schools move the game to Friday night at Providence Park. Montana already had charter flights, hotels and transportation services booked. Plus, Portland State is coming off its second bye of the season and UM is coming off a heated showdown with Eastern Washington. Montana declined.
All date changes for league football games must be approved by both schools, per Big Sky Conference rules.
Washington-Grizzly stadium – North Endzone/by Brooks Nuanez
Once the Friday game was not an option, Haslam presented the idea of hosting the game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium instead. He told Cleary Montana would take care of all its game-day expenses but Portland State would take the ticket gate fully as if it was a PSU home game.
“I certainly made that an option but it honestly didn’t go that far at all,” Haslam said from Portland via telephone on Thursday. “We first heard that the change needed to be made back in March. At that time, I told (Portland State) Missoula was an option but their administration — as they should and I would’ve done the exact same thing — said they were not going to do that. It never went very far at all.
“It was probably about a one-minute conversation and that was about it.”
PSU head coach Bruce Barnum crossed paths with Stitt at the Big Sky Kickoff media conference in Park City, Utah in July. Haslam had re-addressed the offer to Cleary to no avail in early June. In Park City, Stitt mentioned the possibility of playing the game in Missoula to Barnum.
“That was the first time I learned that one of the options brought up by Montana was playing it at their place and us getting the gate, being like a home game for us at Washington-Griz,” Barnum told Skyline Sports on September 20. “I said, ‘Why not? Let’s do it.’ You know we would have a crowd. It would be like a money game for me.
“I would’ve had to control some things. I would’ve had to address the crowd pre-game, telling them when to cheer and not to cheer if I’m the home team (laughs).”
Portland State senior captain Josh Kraght at the 2017 Big Sky Kickoff in Park City, Utah/ by Brooks Nuanez
Portland State senior wide receiver Josh Kraght represented PSU at the media days event. He heard the option as well and told Barnum the team would almost certainly be behind the decision to play in Missoula instead of Portland
“After we got back, my team actually voted to go to Missoula but it was too late from my understanding,” Barnum said. “What a great venue to play college football in.”
Instead, the game will be played in Hillsboro Stadium, a 7,600-seat venue that opened in 1999. The facility hosts home football games for Century High School and state playoff games for the Oregon School Activities Association’s smaller school divisions.
“While we are disappointed that we are unable to play in our home stadium of Providence Park, we are grateful that the folks at Hillsboro Stadium have made the date available to us,” Cleary said in a press release in September. “We strive to have all of our home dates consistent and downtown at Providence Park, but we were challenged to work out an arrangement in this case.”
Portland State has used Hillsboro Stadium as a home site in the past. The entire 2000 and 2010 seasons were played at Hillsboro while Providence Park was undergoing renovations each time. PSU also played single games in 2014 (Western Oregon) and 2015 (North Dakota) at Hillsboro due to scheduling conflicts at Providence Park.
Montana head coach Bob Stitt on the Husky Stadium sideline in Seattle/ by Blake Hempstead, for Skyline Sports
That venue will now serve as the place where Portland State will try for its first win (the Viks are 0-3 this season) and the place Montana hopes to right its road woes. Montana lost 35-16 at Providence Park in Stitt’s first tip to Portland in 2015.
“You hope not,” Stitt said of having the different venue affect his team. “It’s a nice stadium. I’ve never been there but people say it’s a very nice stadium. It’s obviously not what we are used to here but we are going to show the kids the stadium on Friday night, get them accustomed to that and see how far it is from the hotel and all those things.
“But the thing we’ve talked about is you are not playing football to play in a big stadium. You are playing football for the love of the game, everything about it, being with your friends on the road and have an us against the world mentality. This is our chance to show we’ve come a long way.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
