The death of a Bobcat cut to the heart of one Grizzly.
Cliff Hysell, a Montana State player and the ‘Cats’ head coach from 1991-1999 died on October 26. He was 72.
Two hundred miles to the West, University of Montana head coach Mick Delaney received the news. The Butte native was devastated. Hysell and Delaney first coached together at Great Falls High in the late 1960s until Hysell took a job on Sonny Holland’s staff in 1971. Sonny Lubick was also on that Holland staff and eventually earned the MSU head job. Hysell served as the defensive line coach, then as MSU’s defensive coordinator from 1977 until 1981. Delaney was an offensive assistant and in-state recruiter on Lubick’s staff until they were fired in 1980.
Hysell and Delaney’s paths crossed often for more than 40 years and Delaney said there wasn’t a week that went by when the two didn’t talk. The old fishing buddies cast a line often until health problems began to limit Hysell’s mobility.
So when the news reached Delaney that his dear friend was gone, it made the 71-year-old examine his own future.
“The passing of Cliff Hysell was something that I really, really took to heart and it bothered me,” said Delaney, who had a brief stint as UM’s head wrestling coach and an assistant on Jack Swarthout’s staff in the late 60s. “That one was really tough to take. I’m not sure I’ll get over it. We were such close friends and to see him retire (in 1999) and struggle like he did…I have nine grandkids who are all involved in things, athletics, dance, music etc. and I thought it was time that I made sure to do some things with them. It’s time to play a little more golf and stay on the outskirts and still help wherever I can to keep Montana where they belong.”
Seven days before the 114th Cat-Griz game, the 11th of Delaney’s career as a coach including his third as Montana’s head coach, the Grizzlies’ leader announced he would retire at the end of the season.
“He’s been so awesome to all of us and I know in my life, he’s done so much for me and countless other players and coaches,” said UM captain defensive end Zack Wagenmann, a Missoula native who was recruited by Delaney and given a partial scholarship out of Sentinel High in 2010. “He’s given so much to this program and the sport. We want to send him out the right way.”
The right way, if you’re the Grizzlies, would be to defeat your fiercest rival. Montana needs a victory over the 12th-ranked Bobcats to secure an FCS playoff berth and win for the second time in three tries against MSU with Delaney at the helm. A loss would assure UM would miss the playoffs for the second time in Delaney’s tenure and the head coach would finish with a 22-15 record.
Montana State head coach Rob Ash said he has “a lot of respect” for Delaney, but the Bobcats would love nothing more than to spoil the going away party.
“I’m excited for him,” Ash said. “I know he plays a lot of golf and he’ll play a lot more in the future, so I’ll be envious of him. I have a lot of respect for Mick. He’s a great coach, a great Montana man. His whole career here, he’s coached at so many different places and he’s done a good job in Missoula. I would love to be able to say that I would like to send him off nicely, but I’m not going to do that. We are going to try to win in that last game against him, but I know he would expect nothing less.”
A Bobcat victory would be a third straight for Ash and company at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, an unprecedented win streak. It would also mean a 9-3 record, a share of MSU’s fourth Big Sky crown in five seasons and a certain playoff berth. The Grizzlies, a team that made the playoffs every season between 1993 and 2009, would be left out for the third time this decade.
“The only motivation we need is this is Cat-Griz and it’s the next game up,” MSU senior captain Cole Moore said. “It’s the last game of the regular season for us. That’s enough motivation for us. The Big Sky title is still on the line. Throw in that we can get that trophy and bring it back to Bozeman, that’s what we are shooting for.”
In 1977, Mike Kramer was a new assistant on Mick Dennehy’s staff at Helena High. Delaney was in his fourth and final season as head coach at Great Falls High. Dennehy, a Butte native himself, introduced his new assistant to Delaney.
“He talked to me for a good 15 or 20 minutes,” Kramer said.
Delaney took a job on Lubick’s staff the next year. When Lubick was fired in 1980, Delaney, for a time, went into the bar business. Before the staff got fired, they left a parting gift that would pay huge dividends in the near future.
Delaney, Lubick’s primary Montana recruiter, helped MSU sign one of the most prolific recruiting classes in Treasure State history. Among the Class of 1980: Hall of Fame tight end Joe Bignell, Hall of Fame defensive end/linebacker Mark Fellows along with standouts that led MSU to the 1984 national championship like safety Doug Kimball, safety Joe Roberts, defensive Troy Timmer, defensive tackle Lonnie Burt, linebacker Clete Linebarger and defensive end Tex Sykora.
“Eight of the 11 defensive starters came from Montana and five of the eight were partial scholarship guys,” said Kramer, the inside linebackers coach for the ’84 ‘Cats and the school’s head coach from 2000 until 2007. “That was all orchestrated by Mick Delaney as part of the Bobcat coaching staff. He was able to get to those guys and show what the greater goal can be. It just goes to show you that not only is a he a good coach and a great person, but he’s an agile-thinking recruiter because he was able to get guys to play for him.”
In 1983, he took over as the athletic director at Montana Tech. Between 1995 and 1991, he was self-employed before taking over as the athletic director for his alma mater, Montana Western. By 1993, Lubick had become a national championship-winning defensive coordinator at Miami, leading him to landing the Colorado State head job in 1993. One of his first calls was to Delaney, who’d spend 15 seasons on his staff at CSU.
In 2008, Kramer was a freshly fired former head coach of the Bobcats. Delaney was a first-year running backs coach on Bobby Hauck’s staff.
“I go to a game in Missoula and Coach Delaney is there and it’s 41 years later and he hasn’t changed an inch,” Kramer said. “Not one inch. He was still humble, well spoken, kind. He asked me questions that were genuine. You knew this guy wasn’t fake. I think a lot of college coaches are fake. They are just fake. They try to hide who they are behind some sort of facade and act like they are supposed to. Coach Delaney is not like that at all. What you see every day is the same good man. The way he talks to the media is the same way he talks to his players is the same way he talks to his friends. I bet it’s the same way he talks to Cheri, his wife.”
By 2010, Delaney was Robin Pflugrad’s assistant head coach and still the in-state recruiter for the Griz. He helped mentor Chase Reynolds to one of the greatest Grizzly careers of all-time. The Drummond product rushed for more than 1,500 yards and 22 touchdowns in each 2008 and 2009. Reynolds finished as the school’s second all-time leading rusher with 4.067 yards and his 52 touchdowns are the most ever at UM.
Following a run to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs in 2011, Delaney announced his retirement. He and Cheri moved to Wyoming. But in the spring of 2012, Pflugrad was abruptly fired among a myriad of controversy centered upon player behavior and a sexual assault scandal that resulted in the implication or charging of eight current Grizzly players, including star quarterback Jordan Johnson. The much-publicized trial culminated in Johnson’s acquittal, but Montana was still in need of someone to right the ship.
UM athletic director Kent Haslam, who took over for a fired Jim O’Day, talked Delaney out of retirement to take the first Division I head coaching job of his 44-year coaching career that began at Butte Central back in 1964.
“He took that job in challenging and complicated times and he’s handled it with integrity and dignity,” said longtime Northern Arizona head coach Jerome Souers, a UM assistant for 12 seasons before taking the NAU gig in 1998. “He has been a great ambassador for our conference and he’ll certainly be missed among the ranks of our coaches.”
Delaney’s head coaching career got off to a rocky start as Montana stumbled to its first losing season since 1985 that included a 16-7 loss to Montana State in Missoula. Last season, UM got back on track, winning 10 games and defeating MSU in Bozeman, 28-14. The Grizzlies qualified for the FCS playoffs, but lost in the second round to Coastal Carolina.
Now the Griz are knocking on the door to the playoffs once again. But Delaney will have to knock off Montana’s fiercest rival to get there.
“It would mean everything in the world to the program,” Delaney said. “It never has been and never will be about me. It’s about the young men who are on the field playing for the University of Montana. I really believe if we win, we are in and if we lose, we are out. You never know what could happen, but it would be hard for me to fathom them taking a five-loss team. We would certainly be out, for positive, sure, if we lose.”
The timing of the announcement might look like a ploy to motivate his team to avoid such a season-ending loss, but Delaney said he’s been discussing the inevitable change with UM’s administration since the summer. The death of a friend was the sign he needed to know his time in Missoula was drawing to a close.
“Through my whole career, I’ve always prayed to the lord that he would let me know it’s time. After Cliff, I knew it was the right time,” Delaney said.
“I certainly hope it’s not the last one.”
