Podcasts by Griz Greats: The Silver Anniversary of the 1995 National Champions
In 1995 the University of Montana football team made a magical run to its first national championship, beating the Marshall Thundering Herd 22-20 on December 16th for the title. We commemorate this remarkable season 25 years later, through the eyes of the players, coaches and personnel involved in bringing a championship to Missoula Montana.
Further podcasts by ESPN Missoula
Podcast on the topic Football
All episodes
Defensive end Corey Falls from 2021-03-03T15:19:03
Corey Falls was a junior defensive end from Medford, Oregon who led the Grizzlies with nine sacks during the 1995 run to the national title. Falls, who hails from the same town as future Griz Bu...
Listen
Running back Kelly Stensrud from 2021-03-03T11:12:01
Kelly Stensrud is a Missoula native and a Hellgate alum who was a senior starting running back for Montana's 1995 national title team. He scored 10 touchdowns during that 1995 season.
Listen
Defensive end Randy Riley from 2021-03-02T11:27:22
Randy Riley and fellow Butte, Montana native Brian Toone converged to make one of the biggest plays of Montana's 22-20 national title game victory over Marshall in December of 1995. The Butte sa...
Listen
Sean Goicoechea, All-Big Sky safety from 2021-03-01T20:13:22
Sean Goicoechea hailed from just down the road from Missoula, growing up in Stevensville, Montana. He rapidly rose to become a starter and key contributor at safety during his junior year to hel...
Listen
Offensive coach Brent Pease from 2021-03-01T19:40:53
Brent Pease was a record-setting quarterback during his time playing for the Montana Grizzlies. During the middle and end of his professional playing career in the early 1990s, the Moscow, Idaho...
Listen
Defensive end Yohanse Manzanarez from 2021-02-09T16:00:37
Yohanse Manzanarez was part of the heart and soul of the Griz defense in 1995. The physical, tough defensive end from Great Falls set the tone in many ways, helping anchor the Montana defensive fro...
Listen
David Sirmon, linebacker from 2021-01-21T15:33:44
David Sirmon was a senior linebacker for the 1995 Montana Grizzlies and finished his final season at UM as the team's third-leading tackler. He piled up 65 tackles, a sack and two tackles for lo...
Listen
Jon Kasper, former Missoulian beat writer and current Big Sky senior associate commissioner from 2021-01-07T15:13:53
Jon Kasper is a native of Great Falls, Montana who went to C.M. Russell High with former Montana All-American quarterback Dave Dickenson. Kasper attended the University of Montana, working for t...
Listen
Dave Dickenson, College Hall of Fame quarterback from 2020-12-16T15:20:30
Dave Dickenson is widely considered the greatest player in the history of the Big Sky Conference and the most legendary Griz of all time. The dynamo quarterback from Great Falls led UM to three ...
Listen
Jim O'Day, former administrator and UM AD from 2020-12-15T15:35:50
Before Jim O'Day started working for the Grizzly Scholarship Association or as an athletic administrator at the University of Montana and before he became UM's athletic director (2005-2012), the...
Listen
Brian Toone from 2020-12-09T21:28:58
Brian Toone was a junior on the 1995 National Championship team. He graduated from Butte High where the Bulldogs made a state championship run in his senior season. From there he became a standou...
Listen
Hall of Fame wide receiver Joe Douglass from 2020-11-25T16:53:32
Joe Douglass came to the University of Montana as a transfer after starting his career at Oregon State. In his two seasons with the Griz, he was prolific enough to earn All-American honors both ...
Listen
Eric Simonson from 2020-11-20T15:05:29
Eric Simonson came to Montana as a skinny, athletic offensive lineman from Plentywood, Montana. He transformed himself into an elite offensive lineman, one that would earn first-team All-American h...
Listen
Mike Bouchee from 2020-11-13T18:14:12
Mike Bouchee grew up in Missoula as the son of former Griz lineman Bill Bouchee and the pride of Montana football was instilled in him at an early age. By high school, Bouchee was an all-state line...
Listen
Wayne Hogan - Former Athletic Director at UM from 2020-11-05T21:55:11
Wayne Hogan became the AD at UM during the 1995 football season. He was hired by then President George Dennison and officially started on the job in October of 1995. What a time to come on board ...
Listen
Dave Kempfert from 2020-10-30T17:47:43
Dave Kempert, OL - Missoula native Dave Kempfert grew up in Missoula and was as close to the UM athletic department as any kid in the Garden City. His father, Al Kempfert, was an administrator in ...
Listen
Jason Crebo from 2020-10-23T16:21:52
Those who know him best describe Jason Crebo as a gentle giant. Those who watched him play for Montana remember the Helena native as one of the fiercest defensive players the school has ever produc...
Listen
Dave Guffey - UM Sports Information Director 1978-2015 from 2020-10-15T14:57:14
Dave Guffey came to the University of Montana to take the head job at “information services” in the fall of 1978. At the time, Gene Carlson was the head Griz football coach and Mike Montgomery had ...
Listen
Bill Johnston - Former head of the UM Alumni Association from 2020-10-06T17:17:19
When Bill Johnston retired as the CEO of the University of Montana alumni foundation after 36 years at UM, former Montana President Royce Engstrom stated: "It’s said that Montana is one small town ...
Listen
Matt Wells - University of Montana HOF Wide Receiver from 2020-10-01T19:13:30
Matt Wells came to the University of Montana from Ashland, Oregon as an undersized, deceptively quick wide receiver who spent his prep days catching passes from fellow future Griz Bert Wilberger. W...
Listen
Blaine McElmurry from 2020-09-24T18:06:29
Montana's 1995 national championship football team lit up scoreboards across the Big Sky Conference and Division I-AA. But the Griz defense that year played as pivotal a roll in helping Montana cla...
Listen
Mick Dennehy from 2020-09-10T15:53:50
Mick Dennehy was the Offensive Coordinator for the Griz football team in 1995. After playing in '71 and '72 as an All-conference Safety for UM, Dennehy became the OC in 1991, a roll he held for 4 ...
Listen
Andy Larson from 2020-09-01T18:54:09
In his Junior season Helena native Andy Larson made history and an indelible mark on the history of Griz football when he made a national championship winning field goal with 39 seconds remaining t...
Listen
Mick Holien from 2020-08-26T19:05:02
Episode 1 features the former Voice of the Griz, decorated play by play broadcaster for 30 years at the University of Montana Mick Holien. Holien started calling Lady Griz Basketball in 1985 befor...
Listen
Griz Greats Episode 1 - A Tootell and Nuanez Introduction from 2020-08-25T18:42:55
Tootell and Nuanez discuss the state of affairs surrounding University of Montana football prior to the 1995 season and what the National Championship meant to the school, city and state. They fur...
Listen