The D.A. Davidson Big Sky Classic is on its way.
This Saturday the MSU Bobcats will meet the UM Grizzlies in Missoula for the 108th time.
Although the game goes back and forth between Bozeman and Missoula, fans of the rivalry know the game has a long storied history in the Mining City. There was a time when the Brawl of the Wild was played in Butte.
On Oct. 23, 1926 the Cat-Griz rivalry came to the Mining City. It was known as the Copper Bowl.
It was the rivalry's 30th anniversary and Clark Park was the battleground.
A neutral site was 85 miles from Bozeman and 120 miles from Missoula. At the time, the Treasure State's largest crowd ever to attend a sporting event filled the bleachers, drawing some 8,000 fans. University of Montana won the game 27-0.
Three years later, in 1929 the Bobcats and Grizzlies both scored two touchdowns, but the Grizzlies couldn't convert their extra points, and the Bobcats ended a streak of 20 Copper Bowls without a win with a 14-12 victory. It was a feeling that would be enshrined in the hearts of Cats fans everywhere for the next eight years because, in that time, in eight games, MSU did not score a single point and Clark Park would never again see Bobcat glory.
A few years later, the game moved to Butte High Stadium.
In the first half the 1941 game, the Bobcats scored two touchdowns, one on offense and one on defense. But the second half belonged to the Grizzlies. Butte native and Griz quarterback Eso Naranche tied the game in the fourth quarter with his second touchdown and the boys from Missoula rolled to a victory.
Six weeks after that game, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the game was not played for another five years.
Naranche was killed in World War II and the Brawl of the Wild, as it has come to be known, was then played on the same grass, but the stadium had a different name.
The last Cat-Griz game in Butte was played on Halloween in 1950 when Montana won 33-0.
Ever since, the schools have alternated home sites at each respective campus and all the rest, as they say, is history
This year's game can be watched on Montana's News Station this Saturday. The action started at 11 a.m. with the PPL Montana's Countdown to Kickoff.
Kickoff starts at 12:05 p.m. at Washington Grizzly Stadium.
