By Mick Holien
When you have been hanging around sports teams as long as I have it is certainly bound to happen.
Team rosters begin to fill with familiar names of the kin whose fathers or even mothers in some cases played on teams for whom I broadcast games.
And of course when you watch a pair of stellar athletes saddle up to each other in college the first thing that comes to my mind – after that they of course live a happy life – is I wonder if their offspring might possess a similar athletic skill set.
While I am sure that I will overlook a duo, the first that comes to mind is Wayne Tinkle and his wife Lisa McLeod.
Matched up while they both were playing UM hoops was there really any doubt of the athletic potential of their offspring.
And look at how it worked out with one daughter at Stanford, a second with Gonzaga and son Tres now playing for his Dad at at Oregon State.
Even prior to that were the Golden Girls, a quartet of Hall of Fame UM tracksters all of whom married excellent athletes the kids of whom still are sprouting athletically some even remaining in high school.
Of course how can we forget All American hoopsters Shannon Cate and her Bobcat athlete husband Brian Schweyen, now UM track coach whose daughters have already been heard from one of which who will play for her mother at UM.
We can’t forget hoopster Nate Covill who married a Lady Griz and I know there are countless others where maybe just one of the parents were good players and now it is the youngsters turn..
And here’s the rub, the lead that I buried so to speak until the tenth paragraph:
The football roster is about to make my point: Early signees include Colton Curry from Valier, whose Dad Scott was a heck of a player and drafted by Green Bay; Nick Germer of Missoula, another son of an offensive lineman Chad who currently is the Griz offensive line coach; and Billings Senior’s Gabe Sulser, the son of receiver Mark who played from 1988-91.
They join wide receiver Colin Bingham, a third relative of a dad who played center and in Guy’s case also snapped for more than a decade. Colin played for UM last season.
So there you have it. More passing of the torch and even more potential and just an added note the early football class signing includes more sons of past players than any class in history, Just sayin’
