George Ferguson Column: Mick's voice is a Cat-Griz tradition itself

It’s Brawl of the Wild Week. It’s the 115th meeting between the Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats. It’s Cat-Griz or Griz-Cat, or simply the game. It’s the one day each year when Montana is truly divided.

And, when it comes to this annual football feud, there are a lot of constants. And, at least for Montana fans, and fans who still like to get their football games via one of the most traditional mediums ever — radio, a constant on Cat-Griz Saturday has been the voice of Mick Holien.

If you’re a fan of the Montana Grizzlies, then there’s nothing better than hearing Mick’s famous “Touchdown Montana” and the only thing better to Griz fans than hearing his call when the Grizzlies score, is when the Grizzlies score against the Bobcats.

Well Griz fans, if you’re listening to Mick when the Griz and Bobcats meet this Saturday in Bozeman, get your fill, and hope the Griz score in bunches, because the last time Mick says “Touchdown Montana” or the last time fans hear him he go to commercial break saying, “good guys,” followed by the score.

When Mick signs of from Bozeman late Saturday afternoon, it will be the final time the famed sportscaster calls a Cat-Griz game in his amazing, and long career.

And, as a fellow journalist, as someone who has had the pleasure of meeting Mick on several occasions, and someone who appreciates good broadcasting, the fact that this is Mick’s last Cat-Griz game is disappointing on a number of levels.

First and foremost, Mick wasn’t planning on Saturday’s Brawl being his last. Admittedly, Mick has probably considered retiring sooner than later. But, this being his last season as the Voice of the Montana Grizzlies wasn’t his choice. Instead, Grizzly Sports Properties, a division of Learfield Sports, which is in charge of Montana sports broadcast and marketing rights, announced back in October that Holien’s contract wasn’t being renewed, and no reason was given, only that the they wanted to go in a new direction.

And for many Griz fans, of both football and basketball, that’s too bad, and it’s hard to understand why the 31 years of Holien at the mike was the right direction, and now it’s not. It’s equally hard to understand that, after all Mick has given to the University of Montana, that he wasn’t allowed the courtesy of announcing his own retirement. He wasn’t allowed the honor of signing off when he chose to sign off.

I’m well aware that Montana Grizzly sports is a big business these days, and I don’t have a problem with it being a business. That’s the world of college athletics now, and Montana isn’t immune to it. But, some things are bigger than the bottom line, and I feel this is one of those times. And to me, the right thing for them to do, no matter what direction they want to take the broadcast of Grizzly athletics in, would have been to let Mick sign off the air on his terms.

But, no matter whose terms it’s on, the sad fact is, Saturday will be Mick’s last Cat-Griz game, and this winter, will be his last calling Griz and Lady Griz basketball. It will be the end of a brilliant 31-year career that started in 1984 and saw him call 23 seasons of Griz football.

That’s 23 seasons of not having Saturday’s off, 23 years of getting in a car to drive to place like Pocatello, Idaho, or Cheney, Washington, or on a plane and traveling to places like Flagstaff, Arizona, and San Luis Obispo, California, or anywhere else the Griz were traveling that weekend. Mick spent 23 years of his life being the Voice of the Montana Grizzlies.

He was with the Grizzlies in December 1995 in West Virginia when they captured the school's first national title and was there in Tennessee when the Griz won another title in 2001.

He has called all seven of the Grizzlies' national championship appearances and was on the radio in March 2006 when the Griz topped Nevada for Montana's second NCAA basketball tournament win.

He also called the Lady Griz's defeat of Wisconsin during the 1986 NCAA women's basketball tournament. 

And Mick loved every minute of it. Known to anyone who doesn’t love the Griz as a huge Griz homer, Mick certainly found exuberance in announcing Montana wins over the years.

"It’s about those teams and about those coaches and about all the people that I’ve been around the leagues and the non-conference all of these years, all those relationships that I never would have got to do before," Holien told the Missoulian’s Kyle Sample not long ago. "I mean, I’ve been to Hawaii seven times and I’ve never paid for a ticket, I’ve always gone with a team — it’s a hell of gig, man."

And while the gig has been special, those of us who listen to Grizzly games on the radio have really been the lucky ones. In this day and age, I’ll admit, I don’t use the radio to listen to Griz football games nearly as much as I used to. I’m either in Washington-Grizzly Stadium myself, or watching the games on television, or I’m off covering football games somewhere else.

But there was a time when, at least for Griz’ away games, the only thing that got me through those games was Mick’s voice. As a student at Montana during the glory years of 1994-1996, those were the days when only a handful of Griz games were on TV, and there was certainly no Twitter or Internet streaming. So, for Griz away games, Mick was all we Griz fans had, and Mick’s calls in those years were ones I’ll never forget.

I’ll never forget Mick’s call when the 1995 Griz came back from the dead in a late night game at the Walkup Skydome at Northern Arizona, a game the Griz needed to win badly on their eventual march to the national championship. A year later, the Griz were heading back to the national championship game, but two roads almost derailed their chances. However, thrilling wins at Cal-State Northridge and Eastern Washington kept what became a perfect regular season alive, and both of those games, I was listening to Mick on the radio, and his broadcasts of those games were legendary, and ones I’ll never forget.

And that’s why this being Mick’s last Cat-Griz game is truly disappointing, because my favorite call I’ve heard of Mick’s was the 1997 Brawl of the Wild — one of the few Brawl’s I couldn’t make in the last two-plus decades. That was the game where the Cats were going to snap Montana’s winning streak, and all appeared lost for the Griz in the muck of Reno H. Sales Stadium in Bozeman. Yet, somehow, the Griz came back from the dead again, and listening to Mick call Chris Heppner’s game-winning kick was something I’ll absolutely remember for the rest of my life.

Now, it’s not lost on me that times change. It’s not lost on me that things can’t stay the same forever, and though for a time, it seemed like Mick would broadcast Griz games forever, we all knew there would be a day when we wouldn’t hear “Touchdown Montana” any more. For me, it’s just too bad it has come so soon.

In my humble opinion, I don’t think Grizzly football broadcasts, and for that matter, Cat-Griz games on the radio, will ever be the same again. I have no doubt Montana will hire an excellent broadcaster for Griz football, and I’m sure he or she will do an excellent, professional job. Ater all, there are a lot of great broadcasts journalists out there, and like Mick said, the Griz’ job is one hell of a gig.

But, no matter who is in the booth high above Washington-Grizzly Stadium next November when the Griz and Bobcats meet in the 2016 Brawl of the Wild, it won’t be Mick Holien, and that’s a shame.

Like many other things Cat-Griz, Mick is part of the legacy and tradition of this great football rivalry in our state. Mick has been a staple for Griz fans from Sidney to Libby, and anywhere else in the state that carries the Grizzlies on the radio, for over two decades. And thinking about it now, I can picture people glued to their radios, listening to Mick call the annual meeting between the Bobcats and Grizzlies. I can picture Montanans young and old, jumping and hollering as Mick calls another Griz’ score, or, feeling the pain and sorrow of hearing Mick tell them the Bobcats just crossed the goal line.

Yes, Mick’s voice on Cat-Griz Saturday, to so many, is as much a tradition as the game itself. And, knowing he won’t be there next year, that makes the 115th meeting of the Griz and Cats that much more special to those of us who have grown to love to listen to Mick Holien, and for those of us who have had the privilege of knowing him, all these years.

So, for Griz fans all over, hopefully, the Griz ring up plenty of scores Saturday at Bobcat Stadium, so all of you can hear “Touchdown Montana” a few more times.