January 5, 2026 — A very special day to very many, as you all know. It marked the end of a 41-year drought between national championships for the storied and sometimes troubled Montana State University football program. MSU is a program that holds the unprecedented distinction of being the only one with national titles in three different divisions – NAIA, NCAA Division II and the Football Championship Subdivision, previously known as Division I-AA.
Since winning their last title in 1984, the Bobcats have had to endure numerous coaching changes due to their miserable on field performance, illness, and classroom performance.
After Monday, those things are a distant memory buried in the elation of perhaps the most exhilarating victory in FCS, if not all of college football, history. The Bobcats hopes of exorcising what had pained them for so long looked all but lost Monday night in Nashville. When Illinois State set up to kick a 38-yard field goal that would give the Redbirds the lead with under a minute to play and with MSU struggling mightily to move the ball, the feelings of despair were creeping back into the souls of the nearly 20,000 Montanans in the stadium.
Like everyone, I had given a lot of thought to what would happen that night. I poured through all the stats looking for an edge, wrote five stories and rarely had my mind off the game. It was promising for the Bobcats. They had edges all over the field. It seemed destined.
January 5, 1949 – I had been thinking about other things going into the game as well. Like my late sister Suzy, who was born, coincidentally, on the same date of the 2025 FCS title game. The second of my parents’ six children, Suzy would marry right out of high school and have two wonderful children. They were my first niece and nephew. Suzy would travel the country working in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and New York City before settling into her favorite place – Chicago. She passed away from cancer in 2007 at the age of 58 years and 10 months.
I went out to visit her twice after she had become sick. I brought her a Montana State stocking cap the week the Bobcats were at Northern Arizona, who they had lost to in Flagstaff 12 straight times. She loved it and wore it running on cold days. I was so proud of that, not to mention that MSU surprisingly and convincingly beat the Lumberjacks that night, 60-14. When she passed away with my other two sisters – Mary and Teresa – by her side, she gave the stocking cap to Mary, and it carries on.
Normal, Illinois is about 100 miles from Chicago and two of the top players on the team – quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse and wide receiver Daniel Sobkowicz – grew up on the west side of Chicago. It washed across my mind a couple times that maybe she would be okay with it if Illinois State won.
April 1, 1925 (4-1-1925) – A total of 100 years before MSU would snap its 41-year losing streak, my mother was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on April Fool’s Day – that’s 4-1, kind of like the “41” the Bobcats have made their legacy number. She would write letters to my father during WWII and when he returned from the War, he swept her off her feet and away from the hustle and bustle of the Twin Cities to his family’s homestead in desolate northeastern Montana to the town of Thoeny, named after his mother’s side of the family.
She would have six children with yours truly being the last. She named me after her favorite doll she had while growing up. It was supposed to be the name of her first son, but her sister had a boy about the same time and named him Tom, so she had to hold off. She loved sports and that’s how I became an avid Minnesota Vikings and Twins fan. We moved to Helena when I was 10 years old and I would insist on going with her to the public library almost daily after she told me they had newspapers from all over the country there. I especially loved box scores and knowing the Billings Gazette, Great Falls Tribune, Pioneer Press (St. Paul) and Minneapolis Tribune were on the racks every day, I looked forward to going. A sports nerd was born.
When we lived in Hinsdale, she nailed two boxes up on either side of a large spare room that used to be a café. She cut holes in the bottom of the boxes, and they became makeshift basketball hoops. She played games of one-on-one and HORSE with me for as long as I wanted. She painted larger than life sized pictures of then Vikings’ quarterback Gary Cuozzo and Twins slugger, and her favorite player, Tony Oliva to hang in my bedroom. She loved Tony-O for making the sign of the cross before he’d step into the batter’s box.
The first baseball game I’d ever been to was in the summer of 1970, and I wouldn’t go to another until 1984. My mom took me to the railing in the hope of getting Tony-O’s autograph. Just as he was getting close, we were thwarted as it was time for him to go back to the club house. She yelled, “Hey Tony-O!” as he trotted away. He turned and yelled, “Hey!”
Tony-O had just said “hey!” to my mom! That was better than an autograph, I was certain.
April 1, 1984 (4-1-1984) – Nine months before MSU would win the ‘84 national title and 41 years before its most recent title, my mom was struck by a car while walking down the street. She would die later in the hospital on the same day she was born – 59-years-old to the day. The driver was never located. I was 22 years old. I was absolutely crushed when I got the news from my best friend.
January 5, 2026 – Sitting in the press box at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville as time wound down and the Redbirds methodically moved the ball closer and closer to field goal range, the memories of my mom and sister were right there, albeit briefly, because just then I could hear them.
“You’re just fooling yourself, Tom,” I thought they’d be saying to me while laughing shamefully at me. “We have more important things to do besides grant some kind of intervention – divine or otherwise – to help a football team.”
MSU cornerback Jhase McMillan blocks the go-ahead field goal; Seth Johnson scoops it up and MSU is about to get into field goal range and win. Until it didn’t. Hunter Parsons then blocks the ISU extra point, leaving room for MSU to simply score and win the game with the point after touchdown. Julius Davis blew through the Redbird’ defense for 11 yards and then another three and it’s second-and-seven from the 11-yard line. It’s happening.
False start. Second-and-12.
Two-yard gain. Third-and-10.
Incomplete pass. Fourth-and-10.
The incomplete pass was to a wide open Jabez Woods, yet it was still catchable and would’ve given the Bobcats a first down. It seemed the best chance MSU had to score since the third quarter and it sure didn’t seem likely they’d get another one like that. McMillan’s and Parsons’s blocks appeared to have made it inevitable that the Bobcats were going to win this game somehow after it seemed all but lost. MSU’s bag of tricks must be empty now. It’s not happening.
The Redbirds’ blitz came and the ball left Bobcat’ quarterback Justin Lamson’s hand seemingly in desperation. It would either flutter to the ground or sail far out of bounds.
Until it wouldn’t.
The ball was caught. It was in the end zone in the hands MSU’s Taco Dowler. The extra point by Myles Sansted was good. It happened and the 41-year drought that started in 1984 was over.
