It was so stirring as to make us all, well, Stand Up and Cheer.
Though they gave us a heart palpitation or two along the way, the Montana State Bobcats — those Cardiac Cats — have had chests in the city, valley and state puffing with pride since winning a national football championship Jan. 5.
Is it our imagination or are there are an unusually large number of blue and gold flags fluttering in the breezes these past few weeks?
What a season it was.
Cat-Griz is widely recognized as Montana’s Super Bowl, and MSU won it twice — first in Missoula on Nov. 22 to clinch another Big Sky Conference title, then again Dec. 20 in Bozeman in the national semifinals in an event matched in state history only by Shelby’s 1923 Dempsey-Gibbons heavyweight title fight for sheer magnitude.
Never wanting to make fandom too comfortable, the Cats rolled to a big lead over Illinois State in Nashville only to see the Redbirds roar back and put MSU on the brink of a third title-game disappointment in five years.
Hearts from Absarokee to Zurich were in throats when ISU lined up for what seemed a chip-shot game-winning field goal.
We needed something akin to a Music City Miracle — and got it when the Bobcats blocked the kick for new life.
And then, down six in overtime and facing fourth-and-10, disappointment was again at our doorstep.
But this has felt like a team of destiny, especially after perennial FCS Goliath North Dakota State was slain (by Illinois State), and definitely after Justin Lamson’s 3rd-and-20 87-yard-touchdown scramble and pass to Taco Dowler completely flipped a nervous script in the Cat-Griz semifinal showdown.
And so, Lamson made it Taco Time once more, finding him from 14 yards out for a TD. After the extra point, delirium.
And history.
The Cats became the first team from the Big Sky to win three national titles, adding to crowns in 1976, when MSU was an NCAA Division II program, and the lightning-in-a-bottle 1984 season, when what is now the Football Championship Series (FCS) was Division I-AA.
For your next trivia night: MSU is the only program anywhere to win championships at three levels: Division I, Division II and, in 1956, NAIA.
Take that, Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State and You Know Who.
Perhaps most satisfying about this latest crown is that in an era of NIL and players moving like mercenaries through the transfer portal, it always felt as if these Bobcats played more for the name on the front of the uniform than the names on the back.
Most Montanans are savvy enough to realize neither the Cats nor the Griz can seriously chase a national title without players from out of state — non-residents are embraced throughout MSU’s student body — but it’s certainly easier to connect with a team when 44 of your players are homegrown, notably stars such as the Dowler brothers, Adam Jones, and Bozeman’s own Kenneth Eiden IV.
If ever there was a symbol for this program and its fan base it’s Bryce Grebe, the Melstone (pop. 147) Cowboy himself, wearing his black Stetson above his golden locks and legacy No. 41 jersey (a number commemorating not only Montana as the 41st state but the 1941 Bobcat team that lost 13 members in World War II).
These guys even go to class.
Sure, the portal giveth and the portal taketh away.
We fretted when “Touchdown” Tommy Mellott graduated last year, yet Lamson arrives from Stanford and a prolific offense doesn’t skip a beat.
On the flip side, teams don’t win titles with bad players, and just as the Cats lost some stars to bigger programs a year ago so has a mini-exodus begun this winter.
Small matter. What the Cats proved to us again is they don’t rebuild — they reload. Already, Lamson and Dowler have announced they’re returning. And this year’s squad was so dominant it’s easy to forget how young they were.
In any event, we can start to contemplate 2026 once spring ball rolls around. Today, join us as we Stand Up and Cheer.
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