Why do the Cats and Griz Hate Each Other

griz8791 · Post by **griz8791** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:54 pm

For what it's worth, I see you guys as fellow Montanans first and athletic rivals second. I have a lot of good friends up here in Great Falls who are MSU alums. That pretty much rules out "hating" MSU. I wonder if the most diehard "haters" are people who can't or won't move away from Missoula or Bozeman.

Seems like there are a lot of stories here by both sides about conduct at games that can't be described as anything other than hazing. Sounds like some folks have lost touch with what's really important.

bronco · Post by **bronco** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 4:26 pm

"Anyone (yes, YOU bronco) who believes that one school is lily-white free from error and the other school is a haven for poor fan behavior is not only an idiot."

Bozone,

I sure we have our share of idiot fans. If I saw one acting like idiot I'd say something. After I was assaulted in bozeman last time i made it a point to wander around Wash Griz stadium looking to see how the cat fans were treated. I didn't see and problems and I had some good conversations with cat fans when I asked if there were any over zealous fans. Probably was some I just didn't see any problems. My problem wasn't with one or two fans it was a mob. Maybe it was because I was sitting in the cat section 101 and not the endzone. There were very few Griz fans in the area.

I would hope that fans from the other team can be ignored and allowed to wear their colors and yell support for their team with out feeling threatened.

Look up my old thread on this site called "is it possible"
I posted it after I had the problem.

I'll be back again this year.

theblackgecko · Post by **theblackgecko** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 4:30 pm

I guess I get a good perspective, considering I did undergraduate work at the University of Montana, and Montana State managed to get me for the graduate work.
I think the hatred aspect really is overblown as far as fans go. There are some Griz fans who take it upon themselves to be jerks toward anyone wearing blue and gold, but most Griz fans just want to see the team win, and there are quite a few decent Bobcat fans.
A telling incident was when we came down here for the 2002 Big Sky Men's Basketball Championship. After parking, the event staff at Brick Breeden immediately started harassing us for the Griz colors we were sporting. Go Eags was displayed on the video board, and signs had been handed out. As for the crowd, there were 500 Montana fans in the west half of the student section, 500 EWU fans in the east half, and 3000 Montana State fans in the season ticket holder section. The entire time I was there, I didn't hear a single cheer from the Montana State fans for the Eagles, and they certainly were pulling for the Griz at the end of the game. So, to some extent, a lot of the incidents are do to problems within the ADs themselves. I'm not going to claim that the Montana AD is innocent, but it is an issue that both sides really need to work on. I
To be honest, there are too many in Bozeman who are spending all their time cheering against the Grizzlies, rather than cheering on the 'Cats. Unfortunately, it has really hurt Montana State's reputation as a program (think back to the Tony Moss column of a few years ago). It further cements the reputation Montana State has of being a little brother school to Montana. With any luck, Montana State will learn to stand on its own, and find sucess in the 'Sky. I guess that doesn't explain things, but certainly puts persepctive on what the fans of the schools really think about each other.

BleedsBlue&Gold · Post by **BleedsBlue&Gold** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:32 pm

Good points all.

Perhaps Aritha Franklin put it best when she said "R-E-S-P-E-C-T"

Cats, give griz credit where credit is due. A team does not get "lucky" and fall into a national championship football game, or the bid dance for that matter.

griz fans, give the cats the credit they deserve. it is the lack of respect and credit that some griz fans show, that angers most.

Hell's Bells · Post by **Hell's Bells** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:40 am

Grizlaw wrote:A lot of you know me from other forums, but this is my first post here. I thought I'd chime in...

For what it's worth, I don't hate the Cats. I just consider it a fun rivalry. A lot of my relatives and friends went to MSU, and we have fun with it. I do have a few random observations about the rivalry, though. In no particular order:

1. There are some obnoxious fans on both sides -- you're going to get that in any rivalry. The year the Cats beat the Griz in Bozeman, some friends of mine (Griz fans) actually had to leave several bars in Bozeman after the game because they were physically threatened by groups of Cat fans. I don't deny that there are obnoxious Griz fans too, but that's just not acceptable -- on either side.

2. Because of their success, the Griz have more fans that didn't go to the school. Some of these folks are good people, but I tend to think that a disproportionate percentage of the "obnoxious Griz fans" are from this group -- I say this because I think college football fans who actually attended the school they cheer for tend to realize that their conduct reflects on their school, and they have enough pride not to be jerks.

3. For whatever reason, I definitely think that the "hatred" in the rivalry is a lot stronger on the MSU side than on the Griz side. Maybe it's because of the streak; I don't know. I definitely do think that, on average, Cat fans hate the Griz a lot more than Griz fans hate the Cats, though.

The reality is, a lot of teams' fans hate the Griz. Portland State, Idaho (still, even though we're not in their conference), and to a lesser degree, EWU, all think of the Griz as their rival. (EWU was worse when Kramer was their coach, though -- Wulff doesn't make as many anti-Griz comments in the press as Kramer did when he was there. )

I think Griz fans tend to view MSU's hatred of our team as being only slightly worse than that of all the other teams that hate us, whereas MSU fans view UM as basically their only rival. It's kind of like the New York athletic teams -- Boston is the true rival of the city, but Philly, Baltimore, and a lot of other cities also consider the NY teams to be their biggest rivals, and as a result, NY fans only see Boston's teams as a slightly bigger rival than all the other teams that hate them, whereas Boston's fans' hatred is channeled pretty unequivocally at NY. (I hope that sentence made some sense, because I'm not going back and rewriting it. )

Anyway, just my .02 worth. Sorry to be so random; it's been a long week and my mind is sort of on autopilot at this point.

hmmm nice point about the rively but i can give a few pointers about what i observed at MSU football fans:

1) a lot of the students just hate the U....lord knows why, but i just didnt get it...speaking of which if u want to get looks in a bozeman area bar walk up wearing bobcat gear and start a convo saying "I hope the griz do well in the playoffs this year" kinda easy to stir up the pot that way just make sure you are stone cold sober

2) what the F@@@ am i hearing about all these spinless fans? Grizlaw you are on egriz and you have heard stories about bad apple bobcat fans and i have heard about both schools, if anyone is heckleing a 10 year old kid kindly tell the sob to shut up and act his own age.......whoops my bad probibly was.

94VegasCat · Post by **94VegasCat** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:30 am

I know why I hate the griz. They are not BOBCATS. They are grizzlies. It is that easy for me.

Hell's Bells · Post by **Hell's Bells** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:20 am

94VegasCat wrote:I know why I hate the griz. They are not BOBCATS. They are grizzlies. It is that easy for me.

i assure all griz fans that vegascat is only the exception

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:23 am

theblackgecko wrote: ....Go Eags was displayed on the video board, and signs had been handed out. As for the crowd, there were 500 Montana fans in the west half of the student section, 500 EWU fans in the east half, and 3000 Montana State fans in the season ticket holder section. The entire time I was there, I didn't hear a single cheer from the Montana State fans for the Eagles, and they certainly were pulling for the Griz at the end of the game. So, to some extent, a lot of the incidents are do to problems within the ADs themselves. I'm not going to claim that the Montana AD is innocent, but it is an issue that both sides really need to work on. I
To be honest, there are too many in Bozeman who are spending all their time cheering against the Grizzlies, rather than cheering on the 'Cats. Unfortunately, it has really hurt Montana State's reputation as a program (think back to the Tony Moss column of a few years ago). It further cements the reputation Montana State has of being a little brother school to Montana. With any luck, Montana State will learn to stand on its own, and find sucess in the 'Sky. I guess that doesn't explain things, but certainly puts persepctive on what the fans of the schools really think about each other.

Well then you didn't hear me!..especially when David Bell flipped us off!

94VegasCat · Post by **94VegasCat** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:36 am

Hell's Bells wrote:
94VegasCat wrote:I know why I hate the griz. They are not BOBCATS. They are grizzlies. It is that easy for me.
i assure all griz fans that vegascat is only the exception

Did I type in an unclear manner?? I hate the griz because they are griz. I love the BOBCATS and not the griz. If you were a BOBCAT, then I loved ya. If you were a griz, then I hated you! Is that more clear? I am not an exception to this one. There are many many many CAT fans who feel this way.

bronco · Post by **bronco** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:48 pm

B-Gecko said..."To be honest, there are too many in Bozeman who are spending all their time cheering against the Grizzlies, rather than cheering on the 'Cats."

I agree and the perfect example is that anti Griz cheer of eat s$it Griz...go cats go.
Really dunb cheer.

The only anti-cheer that should be in either stadium is the classic Poooooor bobcats or Griz.

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:59 pm

That's really DUNB too Bronco!

bronco · Post by **bronco** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:39 pm

I agree that was (dunb) of me.

Why do the Cats and Griz Hate Each Other

Re: For what it's worth...