Just An Idea or Two

By Mick Holien

The third day of your weekend and what a beautiful scenario it has been. And from this veteran to you Happy Birthday and please take just a just moment to reflect.

I am quite a traditionalist and recognize such in myself at about every corner.

And as I write this just after the first wreck at Indy, the race while certainly greatly entertaining especially when you see horrific wrecks where the safety compartment has completely protected the driver from substantial injury, for me isn’t as enjoyable as the wrath of pre prepared material and crack research staff formulates hours leading up to the start of an event.

Even hearing someone besides the ailing Jim Nabors singing Back Home in Indiana didn’t fall on deaf ears.

I guess it is because I have built so many of those intros for myself over the years that I settle back, await the barrage of my own tears, and open myself up for segment after segment.

And today I recalled my initial Grizzly road football game in Eugene where I was summoned to their pre-game location in the midst of the tailgates for an interview that was quickly interrupted because of a high-speed chase on interstate 5 after a robbery.

It detracted little from their flow as the football guys bounced back and forth from the stadium to studio to their helicopter etc for oh maybe 20 minute before the inevitable spike-strip caused wreck and capture.

Having started the Don Read show at the press box a few years earlier even though we were not the Griz radio voice at the time it took me minutes after station opening to pitch our own pre game show to management who was doubtful of the possibilitility.

Up went the chalkboard and pie circle as he asked me off the top of my head to describe how I would fill the length of a half hour before the kickoff.

He was a bit more than skeptical and I was excited of course but unprepared but Montana had just rebounded from a 38-7 deficit the previous home game against South Dakota State so positivity was the order of the day.

As I neared the end of a 30-min segment I turned to veteran Dave Solum and said you’re right and he nodded until I continued “I need an hour. I can’t do it in half an hour.”

Thus against Idaho State, a two TD loser and the start of a 9-game winning streak before the one-point Delaware loss, came the birth of Griz pre-game leading into the coach’s interview.

I’m proud to say there’s a few such imprints … just sayin’.

By Mick Holien

The third day of your weekend and what a beautiful scenario it has been. And from this veteran to you Happy Birthday and please take just a just moment to reflect.

I am quite a traditionalist and recognize such in myself at about every corner.

And as I write this just after the first wreck at Indy, the race while certainly greatly entertaining especially when you see horrific wrecks where the safety compartment has completely protected the driver from substantial injury, for me isn’t as enjoyable as the wrath of pre prepared material and crack research staff formulates hours leading up to the start of an event.

Even hearing someone besides the ailing Jim Nabors singing Back Home in Indiana didn’t fall on deaf ears.

I guess it is because I have built so many of those intros for myself over the years that I settle back, await the barrage of my own tears, and open myself up for segment after segment.

And today I recalled my initial Grizzly road football game in Eugene where I was summoned to their pre-game location in the midst of the tailgates for an interview that was quickly interrupted because of a high-speed chase on interstate 5 after a robbery.

It detracted little from their flow as the football guys bounced back and forth from the stadium to studio to their helicopter etc for oh maybe 20 minute before the inevitable spike-strip caused wreck and capture.

Having started the Don Read show at the press box a few years earlier even though we were not the Griz radio voice at the time it took me minutes after station opening to pitch our own pre game show to management who was doubtful of the possibilitility.

Up went the chalkboard and pie circle as he asked me off the top of my head to describe how I would fill the length of a half hour before the kickoff.

He was a bit more than skeptical and I was excited of course but unprepared but Montana had just rebounded from a 38-7 deficit the previous home game against South Dakota State so positivity was the order of the day.

As I neared the end of a 30-min segment I turned to veteran Dave Solum and said you’re right and he nodded until I continued “I need an hour. I can’t do it in half an hour.”

Thus against Idaho State, a two TD loser and the start of a 9-game winning streak before the one-point Delaware loss, came the birth of Griz pre-game leading into the coach’s interview.

I’m proud to say there’s a few such imprints … just sayin’.

By Mick Holien

The third day of your weekend and what a beautiful scenario it has been. And from this veteran to you Happy Birthday and please take just a just moment to reflect.

I am quite a traditionalist and recognize such in myself at about every corner.

And as I write this just after the first wreck at Indy, the race while certainly greatly entertaining especially when you see horrific wrecks where the safety compartment has completely protected the driver from substantial injury, for me isn’t as enjoyable as the wrath of pre prepared material and crack research staff formulates hours leading up to the start of an event.

Even hearing someone besides the ailing Jim Nabors singing Back Home in Indiana didn’t fall on deaf ears.

I guess it is because I have built so many of those intros for myself over the years that I settle back, await the barrage of my own tears, and open myself up for segment after segment.

And today I recalled my initial Grizzly road football game in Eugene where I was summoned to their pre-game location in the midst of the tailgates for an interview that was quickly interrupted because of a high-speed chase on interstate 5 after a robbery.

It detracted little from their flow as the football guys bounced back and forth from the stadium to studio to their helicopter etc for oh maybe 20 minute before the inevitable spike-strip caused wreck and capture.

Having started the Don Read show at the press box a few years earlier even though we were not the Griz radio voice at the time it took me minutes after station opening to pitch our own pre game show to management who was doubtful of the possibilitility.

Up went the chalkboard and pie circle as he asked me off the top of my head to describe how I would fill the length of a half hour before the kickoff.

He was a bit more than skeptical and I was excited of course but unprepared but Montana had just rebounded from a 38-7 deficit the previous home game against South Dakota State so positivity was the order of the day.

As I neared the end of a 30-min segment I turned to veteran Dave Solum and said you’re right and he nodded until I continued “I need an hour. I can’t do it in half an hour.”

Thus against Idaho State, a two TD loser and the start of a 9-game winning streak before the one-point Delaware loss, came the birth of Griz pre-game leading into the coach’s interview.

I’m proud to say there’s a few such imprints … just sayin’.

v

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