On This Day: Griz Football Wins The National Championship

December 16 is a historic date in Montana Grizzly Football history. One special occasion in 1995 and the other occurred just last year in 2023. Let's go down memory lane, Griz fans.

1995 FCS National Championship: Montana 22, Marshall 20

The Griz rolled into Huntington, West Virginia and defeated the Marshall Thundering Herd for the D I-AA National Championship game in front of 32 thousand fans.

The Legend of the Fall Dave Dickenson slung two touchdowns and outdueled future NFL quarterback Chad Pennington. Marshall took the lead with 4:45 to play but Dickenson led the Grizzlies on a game-winning drive leading to a 25 yard field goal by Andy Larson with 39 seconds remaining.

It was the first National Championship in Grizzly Football history, with the other coming 6 years later in 2001.

The full broadcast of the 1995 D 1-AA FCS National Championship is on YouTube if you have 3 hours to kill this week.

2023 FCS Semifinal: Montana 31, North Dakota State 29 (2OT)

In a matchup of titans, North Dakota State gave Montana everything they could ask for and then some as the game finished in 2OT. The game was 10-9 in favor of Montana with 11:39 to play before both offenses/special teams went bonkers. Junior Bergen ignited the crowd with ANOTHER punt return touchdown, his third in two weeks.

It goes down as one of the best games and finishes at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.