COLUMN: Bobcat lacrosse champs

Jun. 12—Griz fans, Velcro down. Preferably with your favorite adult beverages clutched in your hand.

This is Montana State University Bobcat news of the highest order. This isn't on a par with winning the NCAA 1-A football championship, but it's not like beating Chardon State either.

The Cats, unbeknownst to many sports fans even in their home state, are national champions.

Say what?

Yup, the Bobcats from Bozeman, one of the institutions of higher learning I attended early in life, are the best in the collegiate world of ... lacrosse.

MSU won the title last month with what was described as a major, if not stunning victory.

The Bobcats only recently granted recognition as a school sport, even though it is actually a club venture, won the crown with a 12-7 win over St. Thomas in the championship game of the Men's Division II Collegiate Lacrosse Association.

Now, what I know about lacrosse you could put in one of those sewing thumb protector thing-a-ma-bobs and still have room for a few more molecules of whatever.

Lacrosse, for those of you unfamiliar with the sport, is that game where players with helmets and face protectors, along with thick gloves, run up and down a field with a hockey stick with a basket on one end.

That basket is what you catch and shoot the ball, often with the skill and grace of members of the Bolshoi Ballet. The object is to whip the ball past the goal tender who sits in front of a small net that is similar to a hockey net. This is kind of like hockey, but it's played on grass or turf, outdoors, and there are no skates involved. But it is a tough sport with non-stop action.

This was the first appearance in the MCLA championship game for the Bobcats.

Over the course of six days, the Cats played and won four games which were played on a field in Round Rock, Texas during a Spring Texas-size heat wave. During that stretch, MSU beat Tulane, Rhode Island, and the Air Force Academy, which had beaten the Bobcats a few days earlier in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference final. The Cats outscored their finals opponents by 35 goals prior to the championship game.

Beating Air Force was sweet revenge for the Cats, who then put away St. Thomas to win the championship. The "Tommies" from St. Thomas (can you imagine the board meeting where that team nickname was chosen?) were making their 11th appearance in the championship tourney, which they have won six times.

What is most stunning to me, other than learning MSU has a lacrosse team, was that it was not blasted over the ESPN airwaves. The Bobcats win national championship! Let's go to Steven A Smith for comment!

Crickets.

But as a former student at Moo U (not to be confused with Hippie State, our name for the Griz way back when), a national championship is a national championship.

I would probably be happy if a group of Bobcats won the national marbles title.

Cat pride is a minority thing around these parts. Go to an adult watering hole on the day of the Cat-Griz football game and check out how many people in the bar are wearing Bobcats gear.

I walked into a Plains bar when I first moved here and was one of two people wearing a Bobcats hat or shirt (I had both).

So give me my moment of glory and gloating. It will have to do until this fall when the Bobcats win the national championship in football.

Tighten that Velcro boys, tighten that Velcro.