MISSOULA — The University of Montana athletic department proudly announced the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025 on Monday, honoring the careers of a legendary coach, one of UM’s most prolific student-athletes, and two of the most successful teams in program history. The Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame is presented by SG Long Financial.
Montana’s historic success on the basketball court and football field will be celebrated at the Hall of Fame induction banquet in the fall.
Mike Montgomery, one of the founders of UM’s renowned basketball coaching tree, and the Grizzlies’ all-time leader in rushing touchdowns Chase Reynolds of Drummond will be inducted as individuals.
The 1987-88 Lady Griz team that won a remarkable 26 straight games and went 28-2, will also be inducted. The 2005-06 Grizzly basketball team — the last from the Big Sky Conference to win an NCAA Tournament game — will be inducted as well on the squad’s 20th anniversary.
Montana’s rich history of beloved broadcasters will also be celebrated at the banquet, with longtime “Voice of the Griz” Mick Holien and “Voice of the Lady Griz” Tom Stage named this year’s co-recipients of the Grizzly Lifetime Honors Award.
"I appreciate the hard work of the Hall of Fame committee and their focus on honoring those who made a significant impact on Grizzly Athletics. This is another outstanding group of Grizzly greats who accomplished great things during their time at Montana and beyond. I look forward to celebrating their induction in November,” said director of athletics Kent Haslam.
The Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame presented by SG Long was founded in 1993 to “pay tribute and give lasting recognition to those student-athletes, coaches, and teams who have made exceptional contributions and brought recognition, honor, and distinction to the University of Montana in the field of Intercollegiate Athletics, and who have continued to demonstrate in their lives the values imparted by their experience.” Induction into the Hall of Fame represents the highest athletic honor the university can bestow.
Established in 2018, the Grizzly Lifetime Honors Award “pays tribute and gives recognition to supporters of Grizzly Athletics who are not eligible for the Grizzly Hall of Fame, which includes athletes and coaches only.”
The Hall of Fame induction banquet will be held in the Adams Center on the University of Montana campus in Missoula on Friday, Nov. 7, with the class of 2025 celebrated on the field during the football game against Eastern Washington on Nov. 8. Ticket information for the banquet will be announced in the near future.
With the class of 2025 included, the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame is now comprised of 84 former UM athletes, coaches, and teams. Athletes become eligible for nomination 10 years after their careers at the University of Montana end. Coaches become eligible immediately upon their retirement, or departure from UM with good standing.
Holien and Stage will become the seventh and eighth all-time recipients of the Grizzly Lifetime Honors Award, respectively.
In 2024, All-American safety Colt Anderson of Butte, All-Big Sky receiver and longtime radio analyst Scott Gurnsey, and All-American offensive lineman Dylan McFarland of Kalispell were inducted as Griz football greats alongside Lady Griz All-Big Sky guard and Missoula native Kelly (Pilcher) Beattie.
Former President George Dennison received the Grizzly Lifetime Honors Award for his decades of service to the University of Montana and dedication to the betterment of Grizzly Athletics.
GRIZZLY SPORTS HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2025
Mike Montgomery
Basketball Head Coach: 1978-1986
Long Beach, Calif.
Montgomery came to Missoula as an assistant coach under Hall of Fame coach Jud Heathcoat in 1976 and two years later was promoted to head coach in 1978, where he served until 1986. In that span he totaled 155 wins for the Grizzlies, at the time the second-most ever at UM. To this day his 155 wins remain the fourth-most in Montana history.
He had four-straight 20-win seasons in Missoula, going 22-7, 23-7, 22-8, and 21-11 from ’83-’86 and led Montana to NIT berths in 1985 and 1986. He also coached two of the greatest players to ever wear the maroon and silver in fellow Grizzly Sports Hall of Famers Michael Ray Richardson and Larry Krystkowiak.
After leaving Montana, he went 393-167 at Stanford in 18 seasons, advancing to 12 NCAA tournaments. He was named the Naismith and Basketball Times Coach of the Year in 2000 and selected Pac-10 Coach of the Year four times.
As the head coach at Cal from 2009-14 he went 130-73 in six seasons, and his teams played in four NCAA tourneys. His 32-year record as a head coach is 677-318. Those 676 wins are the 22nd most (as of 2018) in NCAA history.
“Monty” was named to the NCAA College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 and was awarded the John R Wooden Legends Award legends of Coach in 2004.
Montgomery and his wife Sara have two adult children. His son John is an assistant coach at Long Beach State.
Quoting Montgomery: “Montana is a very special place to me. This brings back a lot of great memories because that’s where it all started. I met my wife there, I had my kids there, and I had as good a time as I’ve ever had in my coaching career there.
“I didn’t know what I didn’t know back then, and I thought I had all the answers. As I look back, I realized how naive I was about how things worked. But I had a great group of kids play for me and great assistant coaches. Montana was a great place to live, and I have a lot of friends there.”
Chase Reynolds
Football: 2006-2010
Drummond, Mont.
After a prolific career in 8-Man football in Drummond, Reynolds went on to become one of Montana’s greatest running backs of all time before spending five years in the NFL with the Seahawks and Rams.
At UM, he still holds school records for career rushing TD’s (52) and career total TD’s (59) and has the second-most career rushing yards (4,067), finishing his career just three yards shy of the school record of 4,070 yards held by Grizzly Sports Hall of Famer Yohance Humphery.
He was a leader on Grizzly teams that went 46-8 (.852) overall and 28-4 (.875) in Big Sky play during his four-year career including a 3-1 record against Montana State. The Griz won three conference championships in his four years and made back-to-back appearances in the national championship game.
His name remains plastered all over the Grizzly record book with the most points scored not by a kicker in school history (354) and has the third-most all-purpose yards in school history (4,958). He also owns the school record for most carries in a game (38) and two of the top five single game rushing totals (241 yards and 233 yards). He also rushed for three TDs in a single game on five different occasions.
Reynolds was a two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award for FCS Offensive Player of the Year in 2009 and 2010. He was also a two-time All-American and two-time All-Big Sky honoree. He won the team’s Steve Carlson MVP Award twice and was a two-time winner of the team’s Terry Dillon Award for best back or receiver in 2008 and ’09.
He now resides in Missoula full-time, and his son Talen Reynolds is currently on the Grizzly roster.
Quoting Reynolds: “It’s an awesome, awesome feeling to be acknowledged as a Grizzly Sports Hall of Famer. I’m excited to be included in this year’s class.
“I’m still shocked that a small-town kid with a big dream made it this far. I think back to all the guys I played with, all the coaches who coached me, my family, my wife and kids. This is really a tribute to everyone that believed in me and had a hand in helping me along the way in my football career.”
The 1987-1988 Lady Griz
The 1987-88 Lady Griz team is, to this day, the winningest team in program history with an overall record of 28-2 and a 15-1 record in Big Sky play in a season that saw UM log several impressive wins to set the standard for Lady Griz success for decades to come.
The team set a school record by winning their first 26 games before losing 58-56 narrowly at Montana State. The only other loss that season was 74-72 to Stanford in double overtime in an NCAA tournament game in Missoula, which sent the Cardinal to the Sweet 16. That Stanford team was coached by Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer and was led by a corps of sophomores that later went on to win the 1990 National Championship.
The ’87-’88 Lady Griz logged regular season wins over Oregon, Washington State, Creighton, Washington, Wyoming, Gonzaga, and Utah that year, and is credited with being a catalyst to the rise in popularity of the Lady Griz program.
Past Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame inductees on the roster include Missoula native Marti Leibenguth, who scored 499 points that season to compliment 284 rebounds as a first-team All-Mountain West pick, Mountain West Tournament MVP, and the team’s Most Valuable Player. Also on the squad was Lisa (McLeod) Tinkle of Great Falls who was a Kodak All-District VII pick and a First-team All-Mountain West selection, as well as the team’s Outstanding Defensive Player. Jean McNulty-King was also a redshirt on the squad that season.
The 1987-88 Lady Griz were coached by Grizzly Sports Hall of Famer Robin Selvig.
Quoting Coach Selvig: “They were a great bunch of players, I’m proud of them, and I’m glad they’re getting recognized. They were nationally competitive, they were record setters and were competitive in the NCAA Tournament. We’ve had a lot of great teams but to have a run of that many wins in a row makes for a lot of great memories. They played hard, they played together, they got along, and we also had a lot of kids contribute. When you win 28 games, that takes a pretty good team. They sure were a lot of fun.
“That team also helped promote the whole program because of that game (against Stanford), and the interest and excitement of women’s basketball and Lady Griz basketball just kept growing and growing because of them.”
The 2005-2006 Grizzly Basketball Team
The 2005-2006 Montana men’s basketball team was just the second in school history, and the first Grizzly program in the field of 64 era to win a game at the NCAA Tournament. The team also remains the last team in Big Sky Conference history to win a game in the NCAA Tournament and advance to the round of 32 and are one of just three teams in Big Sky Conference history to win a game in the NCAA Tournament in the last 50 years.
Coached by Larry Krystkowiak, the 2005-06 Griz won their second-straight Big Sky tournament championship and entered the NCAA tourney as the 12 seed overall. They beat the No. 5 seed (and No. 20 ranked) Nevada Wolfpack 87-79 in Salt Lake City in the first round of the Minneapolis Regional. Nevada was led by future 2nd round NBA Draft pick Nick Fazekas. The win was named one of the top 50 moments in Big Sky history.
UM then lost 69-56 in round of 32 to ACC Champion, No. 4 seed and No. 7-ranked Boston College.
The ‘05-‘06 Griz featured four 1,000-point scorers in Kevin Criswell, Andrew Strait, Jordan Hasquet, and Matt Martin. The team also produced five professional players in Strait, Martin, Hasquet, Matt Dlouhy, and Virgil Matthews. Forward Mike Chavez was the only Native American on any NCAA roster to play in March Madness in 2006.
That Grizzly team also beat eventual NCAA tourney participant Oral Roberts 88-74 in an ESPN “Bracket Busters” regular season game in Missoula. They finished the year 24-7 overall and 10-4 in Big Sky play, finishing 2nd in the league standings. They averaged 79 points per game, the 16th-most in NCAA basketball that season. Their field goal percentage of .492 was the fifth best in the NCAA and their 18.2 assists per game average was the fourth-most in the NCAA.
Krystkowiak went on to coach in the NBA and University of Utah. He was inducted into the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame in 2023 and the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame in 1993. He’s the only Montana men’s player to have his jersey retired by the school. In 2006, Krystkowiak was assisted by fellow Grizzly Sports Hall of Famer and current Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle. Also on staff were current Washington associate head coach Andy Hill and former Montana State head coach Brad Huse.
The 2005-2006 Griz will celebrate the team’s 20th Anniversary in 2025-26.
Quoting Coach Krystkowiak: “When I think about this team, I just have an awful lot of pride. Griz pride is something we always talked about, trying to do things the Griz way was instilled in me through Coach Montgomery and Coach (Stew) Morill. One of the coolest parts about it is that we were never able to go to an NCAA Tournament when I played there, but to have that opportunity as a coach and to get a win is just remarkable.
“We had a pretty good nucleus of guys from the year before who got a taste of the tournament and a pretty heavy dose of Montana kids too. The uniqueness of that made it special, but it’s all-encompassing. It’s touches so many people, so many different players and teams, but there is still that sense of pride for the program and trying to do things the Grizzly way.”
2025 GRIZZLY LIFETIME HONORS AWARD CO-RECIPIENTS
Mick Holien
For over 30 years Holien painted the picture of Grizzly football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball "from left to right on your radio dial" as a play-by-play radio broadcaster at UM from 1985 to 2016 and was behind the mic for some of the greatest moments in Montana history.
A native of Spokane, Washington, Holien began his tenure with Grizzly Athletics in 1985 as the play-by-play announcer for Lady Griz basketball. In 1993 he transitioned to play-by-play duties for Grizzly football and men's basketball.
During his time with the Lady Griz, Holien called 211 games in the early stages of Robin Selvig's legendary career, including six-straight conference titles and the 1986 NCAA Tournament win over Wisconsin.
He later called 321 football games for the Griz, including two national championships. He also called nearly 700 men’s basketball games with multiple trips to the NCAA Tourney.
He was awarded the "Montana Sports Broadcaster of the Year" an unprecedented 13 times in his decorated career, including a run of six straight years from 2007 - 2013.
Holien passed away in 2020 at the age of 76 in his adopted hometown of Polson due to complications with Multiple Sclerosis and will receive the Grizzly Lifetime Honors Award posthumously.
Tom Stage
Stage is another longtime staple of the Treasure State airwaves as Montana’s “Voice of the Lady Griz” for 25 years between 1981-83 and 1999-2020, and a staple of the Missoula community for his whole life.
He called over 700 games during his two stints as the play-by-play man for the Lady Griz and witnessed nine trips to the NCAA tournament and two to the WNIT on top of 10 conference championships. He served as play-by-play man under two coaches, 18 years with Robin Selvig and four with Shannon Schweyen, and missed calling just three games in his tenure.
A native Missoulian and a graduate of Montana Western, Stage served as a teacher in local middle and high schools for over 30 years and volunteered with the Lady Griz to help run camps in the summer.
He was also a championship basketball coach, leading Sentinel High to a state title in 1985 and an undefeated regular season in 1986. He coached the Spartans for 10 years from 1980-89 before coaching at Loyola High from 1990-96.
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