MISSOULA — To date, there are no former Montana Grizzlies in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
There aren’t any Griz in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield Massachusetts. No, there are no UM alumni in the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and there are certainly no alums in the NHL Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario.
Hello, Whiting, Indiana, home of the Mascot Hall of Fame. Population: Monte the Grizzly Bear. The darling of Montana fans was announced as a member of the 2024 induction class this summer, and he will be recognized at the Griz home game Saturday against Western Carolina.
The road to becoming the lone FCS hall of famer was one of trial and error, a developing persona and an outstretching brand that became synonymous with the state of Montana.
Monte prepares to take the field during the college football game between the Montana Griz and Butler Bulldogs at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
BEN ALLAN SMITH Missoulian
Early History
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Before any students suited up in costumes, the University of Montana-Missoula deployed live bear cubs as the football team’s mascot. The results of using cubs were what one would expect; the turnover rate for the animals was high, as was the amount of different names used. There was Teddy, Lucky, Fessy, Fessy II, Fatty, Fessy III, Cocoa, Jerry, and yes, Fessy IV.
Fessy the bear poses in a 1938 yearbook photo.
Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library.
The fourth rendition of Fessy was removed from her post because, as The Kaimin put it in an Oct. 3, 1946 issue, “More than one student has learned that although Fessy’s teeth are not long they are sharp.”
The reasons the practice was discontinued seem obvious from a 2024 lens.
“That was never something that was tabled as an option,” former Monte Barry Anderson said of the return of live cubs. “It’s not like Uga the Bulldog or whatever they call the bison in Colorado, this is a full-on bear.”
An earlier version of Otto the Grizzly Bear sits with the Montana marching band.
Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library
With the morally ambiguous tradition in the past, the university introduced its first costumed mascot in the 1980s with Otto. The mascot was sponsored by Grizzly Auto Center, his name a homophonic pun, and he underwent multiple makeovers during his tenure. None were received particularly well.
“Everybody called it (Otto) ‘The anorexic wolf,'” former UM marketing director Christie Magill said.
A later version of Otto the Grizzly Bear performs at a Montana basketball game in the early 1990s.
Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library
“He had a hard plastery look and a fixed smile,” former Monte Scott Stiegler said of the first version of Otto. “I think it probably did look pretty intimidating. People said the last one looked like Alf as opposed to the 80s bear costume.”
By the early 1990s, the need for a rebrand became clear. After working to create the design over the previous few years and holding a fan vote to determine its new name, Monte was debuted in the fall of 1993.
An early version of Monte jumps for the crowd at Marshall University for the 1995 FCS national championship game.
Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library
Monte debuts
Stiegler, a student at UM in the 90s, heard from a fraternity brother in Sigma Nu that the school was looking for someone to wear the costume for the next football season. He impulsively took on the gig, the first game of the season serving as his “tryout” in the brand-new suit.
“I thought the suit would be itchy, so I wore these jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt and it was a terribly hot day,” Stiegler said. “I was so dehydrated, I probably had heat stroke, but I had a blast.”
With Monte on the sideline, the Grizzlies beat South Dakota State, 52-48. Montana finished 10-2 in Monte’s first year, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1989 and setting the course for a dominant stretch of Griz football while Stiegler roamed the sidelines. The program won its first national championship in 1995 and reached the playoffs in each of Stiegler’s five seasons in the suit.
Whether or not Monte’s presence contributed to the winning is impossible to confirm, but the correlation exists nonetheless.
While the on-field product steadily improved, the personality and aura surrounding the mascot continued to expand, too. Monte grew infamous for pulling hijinks on unsuspecting fans, all while clumsily trying to fit into human life as a bear.
Monte teases event staff on the sidelines.
Monte entertains the audience by running into the goal post during the Griz home opener against Northwestern State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.
BEN ALLAN SMITH Missoulian
Stiegler said he could write a book full of his favorite memories.
“I got to be me and hide behind that mask, and find myself in there,” Stiegler said. “I found a personality I didn’t really know existed.”
While multiple students would take turns wearing the costume in later years in an effort to offset the time commitment of the role, Stiegler served alone during his run under the mask. The Montes of today receive a full tuition waiver for playing the role.
“During the school year, I for sure put the suit on no less than 3-4 times a week,” Stiegler said.
The costume continued to undergo changes after Stiegler had hung up the bear head, resulting in a design closer to the one fans can see on the sidelines today. While keeping the rounded features and pronounced snout, the newer model featured less-beady eyes.
The demand to play the mascot had skyrocketed, though; instead of finding someone willing to wear the suit like Stiegler, the school instead held tryouts to pick the best option. Anderson said those auditioning put on the costume for the first time right before their performance, consisting of a rehearsed skit and some what-would-you-do scenarios, so there was no time to acclimate to the dimensions of the suit.
“I’d never been in something that was so claustrophobic and cut off your typical senses,” Anderson said. “You can’t breathe, it’s hot, it’s itchy.”
The red, white and blue bandana
Anderson’s first home game under the mask came on Sept. 22, 2001, against Western Washington. The game was the first since 9/11, a moment Anderson described as one of the most emotional of his career.
“The players, the crowd, there was a lot of spontaneous hugging, crying,” Anderson said. “Everyone was connected.”
In a, as Anderson put it, “patriotic, bad-ass hybrid” decision, Monte donned the star-spangled headband for the game. What was originally planned to be a one-off accessory became a design staple after the overwhelmingly positive public response.
“It adds this splash of color and reminds us that though Monte represents athletics, and on a bigger scale the university, he is Montana’s mascot,” Anderson said. “No offense to the other predominant school, there’s something representational about Monte and the USA headband echoes that.”
“He’s not just the school. He’s bigger than that.”
Monte flies in the air for a dunk before the Montana Grizzlies tip off against the Montana Stata Bobcats at the Brawl of the Wild at Robin Selvig Court in Missoula, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024.
ANTONIO IBARRA OLIVARES, Missoulian
National recognition
Monte’s rise to fame culminated in winning the 2002 and 2004 Capitol One Mascot of the Year competitions. The national contest fueled by fan voting helped launch Monte into a stratosphere previously unseen. His appearance schedule became jam-packed, not just for athletic and academic events but for corporate sponsorships in Montana and beyond.
“Any business in Missoula, in the state of Montana, everyone wanted Monte at their event,” former UM mascot program director Kenny Dow said.
Over the years, Monte’s likeness was used for a variety of merchandise. A children’s book, “The Great Monte Mystery,” was released to success. Children’s growth charts were incredibly successful, too, Magill said.
Kyle Fehrer holds his two-year-old daughter Drew, wearing her Monte the mascot Halloween costume, before the football game Nov. 9, 2019.
TOM BAUER/Missoulian
“He kinda just took a life of his own,” Magill said. “We had Monte growth charts that were popular with kids. Not a football player, a mascot.”
Big Sky students celebrate with Monte during the crosstown basketball game between Missoula Hellgate and Missoula Big Sky at Selvig Court, Friday, Feb. 17, 2023.
BEN ALLAN SMITH Missoulian
Winning the contests earned UM a pair of $15,000 prizes, too, which Anderson and the mascot team used to upgrade the costume. By making the dimensions, primarily the head, smaller, the costume became easier to perform the acrobatic stunts Monte grew to be known for in.
The process wasn’t cheap — Anderson said the helmets alone can cost over $5,000 depending on the functionality.
Monte Bear nears the end of the court after walking its entire length on his hands during a timeout Jan. 9, 2020.
SARA DIGGINS, Missoulian
“The version I started with, you’re looking out the nose,” Anderson said. “The nose isn’t close to your face so you’re looking through a toilet paper tube. You can’t see, and you have to turn your head anywhere you want to look like binoculars.”
Monte rides into Washington-Grizzly Stadium on his motorcycle. Later versions of Monte shrunk the size of his head to make the costume easier to perform in.
COURTESY PHOTO
One of the stunts Monte became synonymous with was his motorcycle entrance. Anderson cited speeding into Washington-Grizzly Stadium as one of the highlights of his time as Monte, as very few collegiate mascots are awarded their own personal entrance.
“We had to really work on the motorcycle entrance, having the guys practice riding a motorcycle,” Dow said. “They’re just students who aren’t actually motorcycle riders, so it was always nerve wracking with them on the bike.”
Monte sits with the Great Divide trophy during the Big Sky Conference college football game between Montana and Montana State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023.
BEN ALLAN SMITH Missoulian
On-field mischief
It seems every former Monte has a story from Bozeman. Stiegler remembers his first trip to Montana State for a football game, where he was pelted with batteries from the Bobcat faithful.
“After the game, the campus security had to escort me to the fieldhouse to change because there were kids, fans with baseball bats waiting to greet me outside,” Stiegler added.
Anderson, for his part, was asked to leave an MSU basketball game after out-dancing the Bobcat mascot and nailing a half-court shot behind his back.
Monte slides on the turf during the FCS second round playoff game between Montana and Delaware at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023.
BEN ALLAN SMITH Missoulian
These incidents, as well as a throwing-beer-cans-to-fans escapade at Portland State, helped lead the Big Sky Conference to create general guidelines for mascot activities. They were dubbed, “Monte Rules.”
One such rule was staying away from referees at sporting events, a stipulation possibly caused by Monte after an official threw a penalty flag the bear disagreed with.
“Monte goes and picks up the flag, wipes his armpits with it, and then hands it back to the referee,” Dow said. “As a coordinator, I was furious, but I think that’s what makes Monte such a great mascot. Teetering the line of what is entertaining and what’s going to get you in trouble.”
Monte performs a back flip in the end zone during the game between Montana and Monmouth at Washington-Grizzly Stadium Sept. 21, 2019.
BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian
Memories of Monte
While former Monte performers might not miss specific aspects of the job, such as cleaning the costume (a process that varied from actor to actor but included trips to laundromats, Febreze and taxidermy assistance), the nostalgia they attach to the bear costume oozes through their memories. Many of the actors will be in Missoula this weekend to celebrate their former likeness’ honoring.
Monte points to the crowd in the first half of a football game Oct. 5, 2019.
TOMMY MARTINO Missoulian
Anderson, who now owns his own company that consults with corporations on their mascots, remembers being struck by the love he received from people of all ages in the costume.
“You don’t go into it anticipating that side of it,” Anderson said. “You’re going to go to this school, or this tailgate, and you have these little kids who want to hug you. They’re so excited to see you, and as a guy in your early twenties who’s like, ‘Motorcycles, running into stuff,’ all of the sudden this part comes in and it’s this totally unique aspect that I really loved.”
Monte greets young fans during the Big Sky Basketball Championships quarterfinal game between the Griz and Idaho State at Idaho Central Arena in Boise, Idaho, Monday, March 6, 2023.
BEN ALLAN SMITH Missoulian
While Monte enters the Hall of Fame this year alongside Jaxson de Ville (Jacksonville Jaguars), Lou Seal (San Francisco Giants) and Orbit (Houston Astros), the larger-than-life quality of Monte seems to hold more meaning for not just Griz fans, but Montanans everywhere.
“I love seeing the growth, and I’m so proud that it’s continued,” Stiegler said. “Monte is the face of the university now, statewide and outside the borders of Montana.”
Griz fans and the UM Spirit Squad accompanied by Monte attend a party at Frisco Bar on Friday, Jan. 5 in Frisco, Texas.
BEN ALLAN SMITH Missoulian
Carson Cashion is a sports writer for 406 MT Sports, primarily covering the Bitterroot Valley. Follow him on X @CarsonCashion or contact him at carson.cashion@406mtsports.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-19 01:00:00
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