Interesting question from former Cat tracksters.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:02 am

Heard many folks upset with our track team losing our last distance runner to the midwest and one in particular is really mad because he stated part of the Huge Human's falling out of social graces within the athletic department was when he told Coach Kennedy his football team would kick his track teams ass in a dual and he voiced his displeasure with the girls basketball team being in the Bahamas for a basketball tournament and he was going to have to play not one but two play up games to support the trip and the guy was also pretty mad we were sponsoring wrestling matches for whatever reason.

I love to make run on sentences now because it pisses all the grizidiots off

The question this particular All American asked me is: "Asshole, how bad do you think our football team would beat our track team in a dual meet?" I responded with: "Numbnuts, who cares?" He kept after this subject and finally told him I thought the football team would double the track team. At least double. Sweep the sprints. Jumps. Middle Distance. Weights. Not so pretty in the distance events or relays (give the football kids two weeks to practice and they'd sweep them) and I got really upset after thinking about all the big schools so proud of their football players being track stars.

So, what is the deal here? So my question to someone like Coach Hammer would be: Why don't we see our football kids on the track team?

wbtfg · Post by **wbtfg** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 8:49 am

U been drinking, bro?

Hawks86 · Post by **Hawks86** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:46 am

You'd have to be drunk to believe that. Just wondering who on the FB team would beat Chris Wilson in the sprints ?

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:07 pm

Hawks86 wrote:You'd have to be drunk to believe that. Just wondering who on the FB team would beat Chris Wilson in the sprints ?

This was a reasonable question and in actuality, I believe Chris came to Bozo on a football scholarship so even though it was right after the Huge Human left, I doubt if there was anyone on the track team that could have beat him either

Instead of the usual "You must be drunk" crap, it would have been much easier to simply pull a grizidiot response and state something to the effect: "I don't have a clue. I have (or have not) heard anything about Coach Kennedy and the Huge Human having differences." You surely have checked out some of our football players home state track and field performances, haven't you? Including some of the defensive linemen in the sprints? Pretty impressive to say the least. Anyone else wonder how Elvis could do at the Big Sky meet? Maybe somebody on the track team has jumped 26 feet but I can't find any record of that. Guess it's better to let former Cat track folks speculate and voice concerns among themselves and tell them they be drunk...

Hawks86 · Post by **Hawks86** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:41 pm

Cat Grad wrote:
Hawks86 wrote:You'd have to be drunk to believe that. Just wondering who on the FB team would beat Chris Wilson in the sprints ?
This was a reasonable question and in actuality, I believe Chris came to Bozo on a football scholarship so even though it was right after the Huge Human left, I doubt if there was anyone on the track team that could have beat him either Instead of the usual "You must be drunk" crap, it would have been much easier to simply pull a grizidiot response and state something to the effect: "I don't have a clue. I have (or have not) heard anything about Coach Kennedy and the Huge Human having differences." You surely have checked out some of our football players home state track and field performances, haven't you? Including some of the defensive linemen in the sprints? Pretty impressive to say the least. Anyone else wonder how Elvis could do at the Big Sky meet? Maybe somebody on the track team has jumped 26 feet but I can't find any record of that. Guess it's better to let former Cat track folks speculate and voice concerns among themselves and tell them they be drunk...

What exactly is your time frame of argument ? Are you talking Kramer players vs. the track teams of those years? Do you think just because the O-line are big that they can throw the shot and discuss well ? Could Denarius throw the javelin well ? I love our football team and think we have great athletes but that doesn't always translate into track speed. I did both in high school and was friends with both football and track guys and had an offer to walk-on for track at MSU so yes I do have a clue. I'm sure mchammer could make my points alot better than I can.

wbtfg · Post by **wbtfg** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:44 pm

Additionally, I'd assume Coach Ash would prefer his players to be practicing football techniques, watching film, building chemistry with their football teammates, and adding football strength, speed, and quickness.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:18 pm

First question is: Did the Huge Human have words with Kennedy? Thought that was clear but evidently not. Bowl season just ended and several of the folks I hang out with performed a variety of Olympic Sports in Bozeman during the 50s and 60s so they obviously are fairly well informed as to our football teams overall athletic background happens to be...and they (me too) want to know why some of the the major conferences track teams are full of football players. Some are very proud of the ski, tennis and golf programs but they are justifiably upset with the track program, as they were when MSU lost out on Bob Hawke, Branch Brady, Larry Quiestadd, Pat Donovan to name a few. Very recently a kid from Belgrade went to Florida State and won the NCAA javelin and another kid from Hot Springs went to Fresno State and did likewise. We recall what our school used to be and I hate to use this term, but we're discussing our letter from Bill Miller and wondering about next fall and some are upset in that it appears there's some "dead weight" in the athletic department now. If there is a cancer, we want to know what and where it is.

Now, for what it's worth, one of our group of elder statesmen pointed out that if we were to take all the people that have worn the Bobcat football uniform since the 1950s, their kids and their kids kids and the kids kids kids, we'd need one hell of a lot more seats in that stadium and his question was pretty fair and reasonable: "If the big schools are doing it, why the hell can't we? What's the matter within our athletic department? Are we ever going to return to the 50s and 60s or are we destined to remain where we are now?"

To clarify further, that second paragraph basically is stating there's one hell of a lot of former Bobcat football players that aren't supporting their program by being members of the Bobcat Club and is the present leadership within the athletic department and their individual sports doing enough to get us back to where we were?

rollo_tumasi · Post by **rollo_tumasi** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:32 pm

Man you're completely off your rocker.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:22 am

rollo_tumasi wrote:Man you're completely off your rocker.

Not really. You just don't realize how serious sports are to some peeps: http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/2-shot ... 03564.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CPACAT · Post by **CPACAT** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:01 pm

Who the hell is the Huge Human? If it is Kramer, I thought he was referred to as the Big Human.

Could you restate your post so that people can understand what it is you are trying to say? You rambled a bit.

mchammer · Post by **mchammer** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:55 am

Jeez Cat Grad.. I don't believe that Coach K had anything to do with Kramer's departure, can't imagine that. There are some talented athletes on the football team no doubt, but they couldn't compete with us on the track anymore than we could compete with our ski team on the slopes, etc... They could sure help us, but they tend to focus on football, and might be lifting hard when we would be resting for a meet, etc... The training cycles aren't compatible, and they need to focus on school. I'm not aware of any rivalry between the teams, or opportunities to directly compare them. I suppose some people don't understand or appreciate what we do and I don't care. Track is an amazing ancient sport wherever it is, and at every level. I have always felt that it is my job to provide an opportunity to students who want to attend MSU and participate. It's mostly about personal honor, team loyalty, courage, self discipline. Anyone who has felt what the 35 lb weight can do to a back, or planted a fiberglass pole at full speed, or run without much oxygen left in their system, or faced those hurdles, or pushed to their limit through the pain against an equal competitor knows what it's like and what it means to prevail. They never forget, or lose their respect for the efforts of the team.

Mike Carignan

Post by **kmax** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:51 pm

Well put Coach, thank you.

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:59 pm

I am a little lost but I will give this a shot.

1. Several football players have joined the track team over the years. Usually only 1 each year and usually to run sprints.
2. Spring football is one deterant.
3. Football is a full time sport so it is hard to change your training. The weight lifting is totally different.
4. Almost evey track event requires years of training to master (sprints being the exception). Even distance running requires a lot of expereince to know how to manage a race.
5. We are not known as a track school. We don't recruit the world class atheletes. That being said MSU does a great job of finding top collegiate atheletes every year. We had many distance runners that made all american, some very good 400M runners and of course one of the best women pole vaulters in all of college track.
6. I honestly think that if you took the entire football team and trained them in track for six months that they would not win one single event against our men's track team.

mchammer · Post by **mchammer** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:23 pm

Thanks for the respect Gary. I can agree with everything here. Item 6 shows respect for our track team and what we do. Our program is capable of developing All-americans, and would do so more often if more of our high school athletes chose to represent Montana in college. Elli Rudy never won state in high school but won two NCAA DI titles for Montana State. That's extraordinary. Patrick Casey's progress here was equally incredible. It's odd to me when people put us down, compare us to football. MSU football is in a special league, much reduced in size. Track is in DI with 280 teams, the likes of Florida, Texas, Oregon... hundreds of them. And we compete against the best athletes from around the world, not just the U.S. At regionals one year, 17 men cleared 7-1, 13 went over 190 with discus. There were four regions in DI that year. It's really tough, and so are we. So we have some pride.

Team10 · Post by **Team10** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:56 am

I was a member of the 2005 Outdoor Big Sky Conference Championship team that won the title in Flagstaff. Reading some of the comments above about the football team being able to beat the men's track team in a meet makes me laugh. As I look at a picture of our championship team holding up the Big Sky Conference trophy, smiling and each member holding up the #1 sign, a couple things come to mind. First, I count 10 kids in that picture that CHOSE to be on the team that very well could have played football for the Cats. In fact, several of us were contacted personally by the "Big Human" himself asking us if we would like to suit up. But in order to play football we would have to give up running track as that was the agreement that was offered to us. Next, I don't think any of the football players would be caught dead running track because it's not COOL. The few times I have seen a football player run during indoors (minus chris wilson) was because they got "called out." Football players trashing talking about how they could beat all the sprinters in the 55 meter dash, not the 100 meters but a 55, which should actually fits their seasons training. Each time they line up, every time they fail to win. After their defeat they slowly walk back to the locker room to be never seen on the track again. Now I know the off season is generally for strength and conditioning, but I would think that the football coaches would do more than encourage running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks and defensive backs to come out for the team. I sure do love a receiver who gains 10 pounds of muscle in the off season, but what I don't like is when their speed doesnt increase or they actually get slower because of it. I would much rather have a wide receiver that can run by a defensive back because they worked on their speed and running mechanics...what an amazing thought.

So to sum this all up. There is NO WAY IN HELL that the football team would ever beat the track team in a meet but that doesn't mean they couldn't contribute and score some points to help win a conference championship. Finally, I have never understood why more of the "skilled" position players don't come out for track. It can only help their speed, quickness...and oh yea the track team lifts through the season so they could still build some strength too.

Interesting question from former Cat tracksters.

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