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The best college football game I ever watched in person was played Dec. 3, 1994 at a snowy Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula.

With injured superstar quarterback Dave Dickenson on the sideline with an ankle injury, Montana’s Andy Larson booted a 37-yard field goal with 8 seconds left. That lifted the Grizzlies to a 30-28 win over McNeese State in the NCAA Division I-AA quarterfinals.

The win came a little more than a year after Delaware beat the Grizzlies 49-48 in a first-round playoff game on the snowy Washington-Grizzly turf.

McNeese State had the lead and the ball late in the game, and Griz Nation was feeling a sense of déjà vu. The Griz fans in the crowd — and those watching on television — were collectively scared to death.

Griz coach Don Read called a late time out, and the Montana band jumped to its feet. For the first time of the game — and perhaps the season — the band played the song “Montana.”

No, it wasn’t the school’s fight song. Rather, it was the old official state song.

Montana, Montana, Glory of the West
Of all the states from coast to coast, you’re easily the best
Montana, Montana, where skies are always blue
M-O-N-T-A-N-A
Montana I love you

I will never forget that moment, which came when the skies were, by the way, gray and white. Neither will most of the fans who packed the stadium, which had not yet been expanded to include seats in the end zones.

I will never forget how forceful the band director was when he stood up and signaled for the playing of that song. It was almost as if the band said, “No, we are not losing today.”

Did the band play a part in that win that day? I would say so. It definitely changed the attitude of the entire stadium, maybe even players included.’

We went from worried to cautiously optimistic.

Shortly after the band played that song and the entire stadium sang along, the Grizzlies stopped Henry Fields, McNeese State’s all-time leading rusher, on a fourth-down-and-1 at the Grizzly 12-yard line.

Then, backup quarterback Bert Wilberger and tiny receiver Matt Wells led the Grizzlies into field goal position for the win.

The next week, the Griz went on the road and fell 28-9 to Youngstown State in the semifinals. Still, that McNeese State game was one of the highlights of my years as a student at the University of Montana.

That game came back to mind when I saw the recent shameful treatment of the school bands of Montana and Montana State by the universities. The MSU band was not allowed to attend the Cat-Griz game in Missoula earlier this month because the two schools reached an agreement that will mean a little more money for the schools.

When the Griz go to Bozeman next year, their band members will have to buy a ticket if they want in.

Even worse, though, was that the Montana band saw its use greatly diminished by the school’s administration for the Cat-Griz game. It was not even allowed to play the school fight song, “Up With Montana,” after Grizzly touchdowns.

Instead, the public address speakers blasted “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex. The Swedish music group released its catchy version of the old folk song in 1994. 

The song has nothing to do with the Grizzlies or Montana, but it became a staple of Griz games when they started playing it during Dave Dickenson-led blowouts in 1994 or 1995 at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. To many Griz fans, that song immediately brings back memories of the best football days in school history.

The song, though, is not the school’s fight song. “Cotton Eye Joy” is a ditty about the American South in the days before the Civil War. While its lyrics seem equally silly, “Up With Montana” was written specifically for the Montana Grizzlies.

Up with Montana, boys, down with the foe,
Good ol’ Grizzlies out for a victory;
We’ll shoot our backs ’round the foeman’s line;
A hot time is coming now, oh, brother mine.
Up with Montana, boys, down with the foe,
Good old Grizzlies triumph today;
And the squeal of the pig will float on the air;
From the tummy of the Grizzly Bear.

This, of course, is not about which song is better. This is about the students of the two Montana universities. These football games are supposed to be all about the students.

When I was a student at UM, it used to enrage me when the student section for basketball games was cut in half when Boise State came to town. The school took away from the students so it could sell more tickets.

That is exactly what the move to eliminate the visiting band from the Cat-Griz game is all about, too. To hell with the students, let’s make a few more bucks.

As if the 3-hour commercial that is a Montana Grizzly football game doesn’t bring in enough revenue for the suits in the luxury boxes.

If a school administer makes a decision to put the sale of a small number of tickets over the students who pay tuition to the school, then that administer should look for a different line of work.

The No. 1 job for any of the higher ups at universities should be to enhance the student experience, not detract from it.

Also, you don’t have to be a student playing an instrument to see the value of a band at sporting events. Can you imagine watching a USC football game without hearing the band play?

It is important to have the visiting bands at games, too. That only adds to the already great atmosphere of college sports.

As long as we have two bands, there is hardly any need for someone to play music over the speakers — even if it is a fun song like “Cotton Eye Joe.”

In 1997, I sports editor the school paper at UM, The Montana Kaimin, and I made fun of the band in columns because the members usually weren’t paying attention to the game.

One time, Josh Paffhausen, of Butte, America, scored a touchdown on a broken play right before halftime. As Paffer dove for the pylon for the score, you could see band members — oblivious to the action — doing the Hokey Pokey and turning themselves around in the background.

A few weeks later, an opposing band made a grand entrance from the tunnel in the northwest corner of the stadium. The band members marched in single file up to their seats. Then each band member marched in place until the all the members reached their seats.

After that, the band played the school’s fight song, and the entire stadium — including the UM band — gave that band a standing ovation.

At the next home game, the Grizzly band made an entrance of its own. Seeing the way that other band performed during the game made the UM band a better band.

It didn’t make the members better musicians, but it made the band members better participants in the game.

A few years later, I returned to my alma mater for a basketball game, and I couldn’t believe how into the game the band members were. They definitely played a huge role in the Grizzlies’ overtime win over Northern Arizona on that Saturday in February of 2004.

As much as fans around the state want to fight over the Bobcats and Grizzlies, the games are not just about the fans. They are not about the profiteers poisoning the waters with FTC and FTG hats.

The games are supposed to be about the students first. That is something that the administrations of both schools have seemed to lose sight of, and that is too bad.

If those administrators who made these awful decisions need proof that they errored by hamstringing the bands, all they have to do is put on the tape of that McNeese State game from 1994.

— Bill Foley, who can’t carry a tune in a bucket, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.