Jim Bob Is True Throwback To Old-Time Football

He has a name like a Western gunslinger. He hails from a small town in Wyoming (Lingle, pop. 500) and he approaches football at Western Montana with the zeal of a 12-year-old and the mindset of a kamikaze.

He’s linebacker Jim Bob Humphrey and he is a little nuts.

If you are new to Frontier Conference college football, he is the guy with the giant rubber cast against Humboldt State or he’s the guy exhorting his teammates to well … kick butt during every game.

Jim Bob loves football and nothing like a little broken wrist is going to stop him from playing. In this age of million-dollar athletes sitting out for weeks with stubbed toes, Jim Bob can only be described as a throwback, said head coach Nels Kludt.

Let’s face it, Vince Lombardi would’ve loved this guy.

With three games left in the season last year, Humphrey broke a bone in his wrist while playing softball. It hurt, sure, but not enough to keep Jim Bob from playing.

“I just thought it was sprained,” he said, smiling.

That’s what Kludt believed as well and he was shocked at the end of the season when Humphrey strolled into his office and said nonchalantly:

“Coach, I think something needs to be done with my wrist,” Humphrey said. “I keep blacking out when I play.”

“He’s got the highest pain threshold I’ve ever seen,” Kludt said.

And while Jim Bob can handle the pain, he doesn’t mind dishing it out.

“He loves seeing the ballcarrier lying on the ground,” Kludt said. “If a receiver goes across the middle he loves hitting them so they think twice before doing it again.”

In a game earlier this season against Humboldt State, he would make a big play, say stuffing the ball carrier in the backfield, and immediately turn to the crowd swinging his casted arm to rev up the crowd.

He feeds off the crowd’s energy and it seems to feed off him, as do his teammates.

“He’s a great guy to play next to,” said fellow inside linebacker Rob Henkins. “He’s a heckuva athlete and competitor.”

That’s field leadership.

“He’s the first to tell a player they’re doing something wrong and the first to pat a freshman on the butt and say they’re doing a good job,” Kludt said. “He’s a great leader by example.”

And by threat.

At halftime of a game against Montana Tech last fall, Western was winning by a few points and Jim Bob was not about to let the ‘Diggers rally. Jim Bob announced he would personally beat up (not his exact wording) every member of his team if they let down and lost to Tech.

It must have worked. They won.

“I might have used a little motivational technique there,” Jim Bob said. “I don’t like to lose, ever.”

Jim Bob is a talker but he makes sure his points are made whether it’s by physical threat or simply raising his voice in emphasis.

“I don’t like to lose, ever,” could be his mantra.

The English major hopes to take that attitude and his 3.5 grade-point average into coaching someday.

“I guess I’d have to change my approach a bit,” he said with a smile. “I guess the school board might not go for that.”

Jim Bob comes across as modest and is easily embarrassed when praised.

He need not be. His 9.7 tackles per game and All-American honors last season give him reason to strut. But he doesn’t do it off the field.

He is also easily embarrassed when others threaten to tell a reporter things from off the field.

“There are a ton stories to tell but I can’t tell you any of them,” Hankins said of his teammate who was singing John Denver songs off-key at last Tuesday’s practice while brushing mud off his jersey. “Just look at him.”

“He’s the best known man on campus,” Kludt said.

And whether it is by singing country-folk tunes or leaving a running back’s ears ringing with a bone-crunching hit, Jim Bob’s dreams are fulfilled.

And if you haven’t figured it out by now, it doesn’t really matter anyway.