Loss To Um In ‘94 A Painful Memory

REPLAY: 10-19-96 Dozens of University of Montana fans called, faxed and sent e-mail to make sure we didn’t repeat Friday’s page 1 mistake in their lifetime. The Montana Grizzlies of Missoula are defending national football champions, not the archrival Montana State Bobcats of Bozman.

Saturday’s homecoming game against unbeaten Montana has every ingredient necessary to qualify as one of the most important in Eastern Washington’s recent history.

The defending Division I-AA national champion Bobcats come in ranked No. 2 in the country and riding a 12-game winning streak. They are 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big Sky Conference, just a half-game behind league-leading Northern Arizona.

And they’re bringing a legion of fans.

EWU, likewise, comes in on a roll albeit of a much more unexpected nature. The Eagles (5-1, 2-1) have won five straight and have climbed into the I-AA rankings at No. 20, which is unfamilar territory for a team that has won only seven games the past two seasons.

A victory would do wonders for Eastern’s image in the eyes of the I-AA playoff selection committee and would assure Mike Kramer of his first winning season.

Yet Kramer insists he is not approaching the 1:05 p.m. kickoff any differently than any other in this, his third year as a collegiate head coach.

“For us, it’s not an end-all game by any means,” said Kramer, whose first coaching job came as an assistant under Montana’s Mick Dennehy at Colton High School. “It’s a game where we finally get a chance to measure ourselves against a good football team, because everybody we’ve beaten (Portland State, Cal State Sacramento and Montana State) are in the bottom three in the conference.

“It’s certainly not a program game.”

The “program game,” in Kramer’s opinion, was played against Montana in 1994 when he took a veteran Eagle team, his first ever, into Missoula for a showdown that he hoped would define his young coaching career.

It did, but not in the way Kramer had envisioned.

The Eagles, coming off a 61-7 win over Cal Poly San Luis-Obispo in their season opener, gained over 600 yards, but couldn’t contain Montana quarterback Dave Dickenson, who threw for 424 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another score in a 49-29 Grizzly rout.

“I felt like that team had enough seniors to go in there and contend,” Kramer recalled, “but Dave Dickenson took care of us in four plays. They just savaged us, and a lot of my credibility went out the window in that loss.

“To me, that game was a precursor of things to come, and I’m not sure we’ve recovered from it to this day.

“This game (Saturday) is certainly not of that magnitude.”

Sellout pending?

EWU officials are expecting a Woodward Stadium record crowd Saturday and say a sellout is still a distinct possibility.

According to Eagles sports information director Dave Cook, all 3,400 reserved seats in the 7,000-seat stadium have been sold, along with nearly half of the 1,800 general admission seats in the east grandstands.

There are an additional 1,800 GA bleacher seats on the west side of the stadium that have been purchased by Eastern students, but never filled.

“Basically, we’ve got about 1,200 general admission seats still available, along with any unused student tickets,” Cook explained.

Cook added that the largest student turnout came in 1992 when 1,100 showed for an Idaho game that drew a crowd of 6,879, which still stands as the stadium record.

Fan-tastic fans!

At least 1,500 of the tickets sold have been purchased by Montana fans.

“That’s unbelievable,” Grizzly wide receiver Joe Douglass said, when told of his own followers’ rush on tickets. “We call them the best fans in America and I think they believe they are, too.

“It’s nice to be able to go on the road and have that kind of following. Maybe they’ll even offset Eastern’s home crowd.”

Kramer doesn’t seemed concerned by the prospect.

“Heck we enjoy having them here,” he said. “Montana has rowdy, obnoxious fans who really know how to enjoy themselves.

“Hopefully, there’ll be a lot of noise for both teams. It should be a great atmosphere.”

Orange aid

Portland State safety Erik Ries is sporting bright yellow hair these days, the gaudy result of a botched dye job that was supposed to turn his hair white but left it an unsightly orange, instead.

Yellow, Ries explained, was the best alternative as far as quick fixes go.

“I felt pretty stupid,” he admitted. “I’d still like to get the hair white, but I haven’t been able to figure out the right solution.”

He’s b-a-a-a-a-c-k!

Norman Clarke spent a semester at Weber State in 1993 before leaving the program because he felt unwanted.

On Saturday, Clarke returned to Ogden, Utah, as a running back for Cal State Northridge and riddled his old teammates for 174 yards and two touchdowns in CSN’s 35-21 win.

“When I left here I told the coach (Dave Arslanian) I’d be back some day,” said Clarke, who spent two seasons at San Bernardino (Calif.) Valley College after his short stay at Weber. “Today was the day.”

Sky writings

Last Saturday’s loss to Northridge dropped Weber State’s all-time record in its own homecoming games to 15-19… . If Northern Arizona’s Archie Amerson maintains his current average of 206.3 rushing yards per game, he will break the NCAA Division I-AA single-season rushing record of 2,255 yards… . Idaho State’s Alfredo Anderson has been lost for the rest of the season after having his lingering ankle problem diagnosed as a fracture… . The five-game winning streaks currently being enjoyed by EWU and NAU are the second-longest in the Big Sky behind’s Montana’s 12-game run… . Weber State outscored it last two opponents - NAU and Northridge - by a combined total of 59-35 in the first half, but lost both games.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo