My Personal, Historic Link to Griz Stadium Football Food

Sometimes, it just sneaks up on you. There I was with 25,000 of my closest maroon-clad football friends at the 2023 season opener for the University of Montana Grizzlies, staring down (but not for long) a part of my flavorful past.

Lori and I spent the morning filling our wood shed so I had a hardy appetite more than building as I walked across campus with my daughter and her family. Shortly after we found our seats in the north endzone of Washington-Grizzly Stadium, I had one thing on my mind - eat!

He said: Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of stadium food. Mostly, because of how pricey it is, so I stay away from it. But like I said, I'd already spent a couple of hours stacking wood earlier so I was more than willing to fork over the bucks to get some protein. I went with a throwback from my youth - the Pizza Hutt pepperoni personal deep pan pizza. You know what you get with a Pizza Hut pizza - crunchy crust, plenty of cheese, more than enough meat and a hunger-solving bite after bite after bite. In my case, I was really hungry so I bought and ate two of them.

She said: (skipped the game)

By the way: I spent most of my youth growing up in Wichita, Kansas, which happens to be the home of Pizza Hut. Dan and Frank Carney founded, built and opened the first Pizza Hut in 1958. Today, that first brick storefront (see below) sits on the campus of Wichita State University, the school I attended during the winter semester of 1981, and a school I still cheer for.

Pizza Hut was the big dog in the fast food pizza world when I was a kid and a teenager. I didn't always eat there but my friends and I certainly spent some time there. And why not? There seemed to be a Pizza Hut on every corner as well as within every small town across the state. Even today, there are 21 different Pizza Huts in Wichita alone and 167 stores statewide.

By the way (part 2): As for the football game, It was a great, as always, atmosphere as the Griz beat Butler University 35-20. Afterwards, we went down on the field to meet a few of the players, especially a few of those Kyler met at his Griz football camp earlier that summer. They were all extremely gracious and expressed thanks for our attendance. 


My favorite cheerleaders - granddaughters Lyla & Lexi

Kyler with Junior Bergen who scored the game's first touchdown

Kyler with his own TD in the back of the endzone

Hanging with senior defensive tackle Alex Gubner

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