The very first "Cats-Griz" game

The very first Cats-Griz football game took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1897. Off field, the attitude of the teams was much more cordial than it is today.  The game was played on a makeshift field in Missoula. There was no stadium, no tailgate parties, not even bleachers. The day before the game the Bozeman team traveled by train to Missoula where they were greeted by some women students and taken to Judge Knowles home for a reception. The next day their hosts provided a tour of Fort Missoula before the game. It wasn’t even a Cats-Griz game at that point because the Bozeman team was referred to as the
"Aggies" and the Missoula team was called “Varsity”. (It wasn’t until 1912 that the Missoula team was nicknamed the Bruins, which evolved into the Grizzlies. Shortly after that the Bozeman team became the Mountain Lions, a name that never caught on. The name Bobcats was chosen by a student body vote.)

The off-field demeanor of the two teams is not the only thing that was vastly different from contemporary games. Instead of having four quarters in a game, the early games were played in two twenty-five minute halves. Touchdowns were worth only five points and there were three downs instead of four. The biggest difference in the actual game is that forward passes were illegal. The ball could be passed laterally but the only way to advance the ball was to carry. Needless to say, this produced more injuries, since the players did not have the type of safety gear that they use today.

There was no coaching staff, the coaches were teachers who volunteered to work with the teams. The “Varsity” players probably had the advantage because their coach, Fred Smith, had played football at Cornell University. They also had the advantage of having fans on the sideline since it is unlikely that many Aggie fans made the trip.

In spite of all of the differances, the game was undoubtably very exciting, and it was the beginning of one of the most intense rivalries in the country.  The final Score Varsity-18, Aggies-6