A few of our favorite things…
Montanans’ football obsession goes far beyond storied college programs. From Baker to Zurich, even the tiniest towns in Montana have sent players to the NFL. One of the most dominant offensive linemen of the 1940s was Anaconda’s own Francis Cope, who earned All-Decade honors as a New York Giant. Elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991, MSU alum Jan Stenerud was the league’s first soccer-style kicker. Pat Donovan, who earned a Super Bowl ring with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s, was named by Sports Illustrated as the fourth-greatest Montana athlete of the twentieth century. Griz Doug Betters was a member of the Miami Dolphins’ famed Killer Bees and the 1983 NFL defensive player of the year. From the obscure to the prominent, author Brian D’Ambrosio celebrates Big Sky Country’s rich connections with America’s favorite professional sports league.
Here is your first-ever guide to the best athletes from more than 260 Montana communities. These athletes—men and women, historic and contemporary, Olympic champions and hometown heroes—are the best in more than a dozen sports, including football, basketball, rodeo, track, and more. Included are well-known “greats” such as World Series pitcher Dave McNally, but did you know that:
At one time the world’s fastest human was a Montanan?
Muhammad Ali said the hardest he was ever hit was by a “Montana cowboy?”
Football’s “hidden-ball trick” was performed to perfection by a speedy Sioux Indian who lived in Wyola?
All these treasures and much more are revealed in Montana Greats, a winning book for sports fans, historians, and all Montanans.
“What I love about Montana Greats is how it memorializes the small towns in Montana [where] the identity of the community is strongly connected to their teams. Thank you, Jeff Welsch, for honoring their best athletes and for ensuring we never forget their legacies.”
—Joe Puckett, Peerless native and author of The Dream
“Growing up in northeastern Montana, our sports heroes were not from the pros or college, but they were high school stars from each and every small town. Thanks, Jeff, for telling this amazing story!” —Rocky Erickson, veteran Montana sportscaster and Vida native.
“As a native Montanan (Class C Belfry) who has avidly followed Montana sports my entire life, Montana Greats is like a walk down memory lane.” — Sherm Weimer, Miles City
Author Jeff Welsch is the Executive Sports Editor for 406mtsports.com and Lee Montana newspapers.
Friends of MT Football Hall of Fame, Ty and Sarina O’Connor own and operate Montana Legacy Ranch as well as OCC- O’Connor Crops & Cattle and OCC Legacy Cuts processing facility. Ty and Sarina O’Connor strive to provide a lifestyle on the ranch for their 8 children that is entirely family centered. They thrive on teaching their children how to take care of God's creation. Whether it be, checking and or moving cows, or showing them signs of sickness in the livestock, it’s a daily part of life for the O’Connor family. Feeding chickens, gathering the eggs for breakfast, milking the cows, or helping Ty work the soil and plant the fields, has helped engrain in each of the O’Connor children the important role they have on the ranch. Moreover, for Ty and Sarina, this lifestyle helps them instill in their children, valuable life lessons.