Here is your Mount Rushmore of Montana Sports
After two weeks of voting, thousands of words written, hundreds of emails and messages received, we are pleased to announce the four athletes who will be etched into our very own Mount Rushmore of Montana Sports: Dave Dickenson, Larry Krystkowiak, Dave McNally, and Evel Knievel.
The final vote count from just over 2,500 votes cast can be found at the bottom of the article.
A few observations on the results:
The winners all represent different sports and different hometowns: Dickenson (Football/Great Falls), Krystkowiak (Basketball/Missoula), McNally (Baseball/Billings), and Even Knievel (Stunts/Butte).
Montanans favor the nostalgia vote: Dickenson is the youngest winner at 43 years of age. Only one athlete in the top 8 is under the age of 40 (Brock Osweiler was seventh).
People were willing to forgive Dickenson not making it into the NFL, but were not willing to give the same leniency to Josh Huestis, who despite being drafted in the first round, has not made it out of the NBDL.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Brock Osweiler. A few more seasons as a starter and he seems like a good bet to jump into the top 4.
When it comes to Ryan Leaf, Montanans are not even a tiny bit forgiving. Frankly, we were blown away at how terribly Leaf did. His personal problems are well documented, but he was an undeniable athletic freak. Our very own Z-Train made a solid case that he should be in the top 4, because of his athletic ability and as a tool to teach young athletes how far you can fall. He’s also been on somewhat of a redemption tour – speaking publically about his problems with addiction and his concerns for Johnny Manziel. Despite this, Montanans are not ready embrace him. He took dead last with just 4.8 percent of the vote.
A few observations on who is missing from the list:
We heard from a LOT of fans about who was not included in the top 16. People were upset rodeo, track and field, and skiing weren’t represented in the top 16. These are fair points. These athletes were certainly hurt by the fact their sports aren’t as broadly popular as many of those represented on this list.
We also heard from many of you that women weren’t well represented in the top 16 –the 1904 Fort Shaw team was the lone representative. This was an oversight on our part. We had more female athletes in our internal top 30 list, but only the 1904 squad made the final 16. If we were to run the competition again, we’d probably replace Laser with Shannon Cate, who played basketball for the Girz and was named the top female athlete in Big Sky Conference history back in 2014.
Marc Mariani (WR for the Chicago Bears), Pat Donovan (former LT for the Dallas Cowboys), Tim Hauck (former NFL safety), Shannon Cate (see above), Marvin Camel (boxing), and Dan Mortenson (rodeo) all received a considerable amount of write-in votes. All were in our original 30 and could have been included in the top 16. It is unlikely any of them would have cracked the top 4.
Overall, Montana seems to be in good hands. Dave Dickenson, Larry Krystkowiak, Dave McNally, and Evel Knievel had great careers, provided us with many great moments, and represented Montana well. What is even more exciting is that there is a group of young athletes climbing up just behind them in the standings – ready to move up the mountain and provide our great state some more memories.
Thanks to everyone who voted.
Final Standings:
| Athlete | Score | |
| 1 | Dave Dickenson | 47.4 |
| 2 | Larry Krystkowiak | 46.5 |
| 3 | Dave McNally | 37.6 |
| 4 | Evel Knievel | 32.7 |
| 5 | Zadick Bros | 30.8 |
| 6 | 1904 Fort Shaw Team | 23.2 |
| 7 | Brock Osweiler | 22.1 |
| 8 | Todd Foster | 21.1 |
| 9 | Kroy Biermann | 18.3 |
| 10 | Dwan Edwards | 12.9 |
| 11 | Colt Anderson | 12.6 |
| 12 | Dan Carpenter | 12.3 |
| 13 | Dane Fletcher | 9.5 |
| 14 | Laser | 9.4 |
| 15 | Josh Huestis | 7.0 |
| 16 | Ryan Leaf | 4.8 |
Don’t forget to signup for the Montana Mint’s Sports Email list. It is awesome. Comes out weekly during the Cat/Griz football seasons, and sporadically the rest of the year. Sign up here.
(cover photo credits: Krystkowiak – Image via http://basketball-nba-us.blogspot.com/; Dickenson – via YouTube; and Knievel – via teadrinker on Flickr.)
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