MISSOULA — Missoula lit up for yet another home football game Saturday. At the center of all the action is 'hall of famer' mascot, Monte!
The person behind the mask now remains a mystery, but the one who helped kickstart it all can be found over at the tailgates.
WATCH CYNTHIA CARRANZA'S FULL REPORT BELOW:
"I was Monte from 1993 to 1998."
Little did Scott Stiegler know, those years at the University of Montana were the start of establishing a Montana icon.
"I had the license to kill," Stiegler said. "Monte got away with a lot of things just because he was Monte. People would hand their babies over the rail at games and just say, 'Take my baby for a walk' and I did that. I took a lot of babies for walks."
Launching UM's mascot did not come easy. In fact, it was a family effort. "I watched five years of football and basketball with one eye, and the other eye was in the video camera taking lots and lots of footage of Scott when he was Monte," Louise Stiegler, Scott's mom, said.
Louise remembered how excruciating football games were during hot weather. "He would get quite dehydrated and I've heard him say he could lose 10 pounds during a game because of how hot it was in the suit," she said. "He would even try to cool off at halftime and go behind in a room and drink lots of fluid and try to stay healthy, but you know it was a workout for him."
Despite those demands, Louise shared that it was also enjoyable for everyone.
"It was also lots of fun for us to watch him and all the antics that he would come up with and how imaginative he could be when he interacted with the crowd," she said.
"I didn't get to go to the games and socialize with my friends because I had a job to do and so I did miss out on that," Scott told MTN. But he said the role made the tradeoff worth it as it was a role with high social demands and a secret identity with high stakes.
"We were so proud and he was so well-known that it was hard to keep it a secret," Louise said. "It really was."
"Even friends of mine that I knew didn't know it was me and I would see them and they didn't know it was me," Scott added.
Monte's social life did not just impact Stiegler. It was a household commitment, especially when it came to the suit.
"I had to wash it because obviously it kind of smelled after all that hard work and at one point I actually even mended it on my sewing machine," Louise said.
Eventually it was time to hang up the suit, but Stiegler found something great he could keep for a lifetime.
"The takeaways, well, I met my wife, she was on the dance team," Scott said.
"He met Melissa because she was one of the dancers and, of course, he was Monte so they were at games together, both working technically, but yes that's how they met so that was a match made in heaven as far as we're concerned," Louise said.
Now Stiegler keeps the Griz spirit alive by never missing a tailgate, a tradition he's continued since 2003.
To read more about Monte's induction into the Mascot Hall of Fame, click here.
