When Arie Grey handed Tommy Mellott the Montana state flag before Mellott carried the symbol onto the field as part of MSU’s pre-game runout before MSU’s decimation of Idaho in mid-October, it caught my attention like a bolt of lightning.
Back in December of 1980, I was in Marine Corps boot camp. Boot camp, officially known as basic training, is also a big competition between four platoons of 50-60 recruits that make up one battalion. My platoon wasn’t exemplary by any stretch of the imagination. We literally took last place in every competition: the rifle range, physical training. Even shining brass. But it was especially painful to lose at marching.
Marching, or ‘drill’ as it’s more commonly referred to, is the No. 1 “game” in boot camp. If you can’t march, you’re under constant heat from the drill instructors. Everything is focused on the final drill inspection by the battalion commander and judges, which takes place just a couple days before graduation. It’s the Super Bowl of boot camp. My platoon, Platoon 2094, was under intense pressure as we hadn’t even finished second-to-last in anything during the 12-week session.
Upon completion of that final day of drill by the four platoons, our platoon was called into the squad bay and our senior drill instructor Sgt. Holguin wrote the numbers of each platoon on the chalk board. He looked upset and the place got really quiet. He erased each platoon after announcing what order they had finished starting with No. 1. It wasn’t 2094.
“Twenty-Ninety-Six.”
Then No. 2, that wasn’t 2094 either.
“Twenty-Ninety-Three.”
Only two left and if he didn’t announce 2094 this time, it was going to be crushing.
“Twenty-Ninety-Four!!!”
Absolute chaos ensued as fifty-eight men from ages 18 to 25 began screaming, hugging, and tackling each other. It was a moment that I’ll never forget, because from then on, every time I see a team with a winless record going into their final game, I can’t help but follow them that day feeling like I know just what they’re going through.
So, when an 0-10 MSU was getting ready to play its final game of the 2000 season against arch-rival Montana, I couldn’t help but think that the game was almost 20 years after that magic moment my fellow recruits and I experienced. I’d thought about the players on that team, especially since only five seniors were left after new head coach Mike Kramer took over the previous spring. How jacked up were those guys? Could they possibly will their team to victory?
Arie Grey, along with just 3-4 other seniors left from the previous season strode into Washington-Grizzly Stadium that day to do the next-to-impossible. The Grizzlies were at the pinnacle of their success. They had been in the playoffs seven years in a row and had claimed five of the previous seven Big Sky Conference championships. They were in the midst of a season that would take them to the national title game and just a year away from winning their second national title in seven years.
No, the Bobcats wouldn’t pull off one of the biggest upsets in college football history that day. MSU would fall 28-0 and finish the season 0-11. They did, however, make the game a lot closer than anyone expected.
The post-game press conference started out and followed the format of many of the previous 14 Cat-Griz post-game press conferences. The Griz would win, the Bobcats would enter the press room first and offer a few excuses and a couple we’ll-get-‘em-next-years and be on their way as the media anxiously awaited the victors from Missoula.
This time, it would be a little bit different.
After Kramer gave a few of his quips, it was Grey’s turn to sit behind the microphone. He would answer the ever-innocuous and ever-present “What are your thoughts on the game?” question in typical fashion, saying how important it was to hit the weight room. But then, just as someone was about to ask the next question, he continued talking.
“I’m sure they’re going to work hard…,” Grey said his voice trailing off slightly, yet remaining stern. Kramer went from about ready to stand up with a friendly, ‘please let us go now’ smile to a cold, deadpan expression as he stared at Grey, seemingly worried about what this young man would say next. “…because I know this coaching staff will not let them not work hard. Because as a team that goes oh-and-whatever, early in the year to 0-3, 0-4, 0-5 we didn’t give up because our wonderful staff did not let us. We could’ve given up quickly, but we said ‘no.’
“We got our butts chewed by the coaches, guaranteed, but you know what? They’d chew our butt then a few minutes later they’d have their arms around us telling us how much they love us. And that’s what our program, and that’s what Montana State football, is all about. And it’s going to be a force to reckon with in the few years to come.”
Grey, who played his prep career at Powell County High School in Deer Lodge, wasn’t focused on himself or how hurt he was or getting out of the press conference as soon as possible. He wanted to make it public that he recognized how much his coaches cared and how much he believed in them.
Just two years later, Grey proved prophetic. The Bobcats went from 0-11 to Big Sky Conference champions for the first time in 18 years as they fulfilled the potential of everything Grey had predicted. Over the next five years, MSU would win three Big Sky titles and win its first playoff game in 22 years.
I left that room realizing that you don’t ever have to win, or not finish last, to be a champion. Arie Grey was a champion that day. And a few years later, when he became the head football coach at Butte High, I was telling anyone who would listen that Arie Grey is going to bring a state title back to Bulldogs, who hadn’t had many winning seasons since the 1990s.
He wouldn’t disappoint.
The Bulldogs, who have won more state football titles than any team in Montana, won the AA state title in 2012 – its first in 21 years – beating a stacked Bozeman filled with future stars. Grey has consistently reached the playoffs and again got to the championship game in 2019 with Tommy Mellott at quarterback, falling to the Hawks this time.
So, Mellott would run onto the field with the Montana flag and go on to lead the Bobcats to an impressive 38-7 win over No. 7 Idaho. Mellott, as is often the case, was the star that day. He would run for 140 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
Recently, MSU running back Adam Jones described Mellott’s presence.
“It’s seriously the most important thing on the team, it’s Tommy,” Jones said. “He’s a guy that does everything the right way. He’s not going to get too high or too low. When he’s in the huddle with us, he gets us all grounded. We all look to him as our leader and I think just having him out there raises everyone’s level. I think his importance is…I can’t really explain it.”
After the game Mellott would coincidentally address the media.
“It was emotional for sure,” Mellott said of the pregame ceremony. “Coach Grey is one of my biggest role models. He’s taught me so much; he’s been there by my side, and he’s supported me. I love that guy, and it was a very special moment that I’ll never forget.
“When I heard about it, it was a pretty big deal, so I’m very thankful that they gave that situation to us.”
So many things can be a big deal. Thanks, Arie Grey, for adding to that list.
