SPOKANE, Wash. — Long before he was winning a pair of national titles as head coach of the Miami Hurricanes, Dennis Erickson was suiting up at quarterback for Montana State under head coach Jim Sweeney in the late 1960s before working as a graduate assistant with the Bobcats in 1969.
Those years in Bozeman served as a launching pad into a five-decade coaching career that saw him spend time as head coach with 10 different college programs while also making a pair of stops in the NFL as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks from 1995-98 and the San Francisco 49ers from 2003-04.
HEAR FROM DENNIS ERICKSON:
And Bozeman played a big part in that remarkable coaching career.
"I had the opportunity to play at Montana State," said Erickson. "If it wasn't for Montana State, who knows where I'd be?"
Erickson, who also served as head coach of Idaho from 1982-85 and then did another stint with the Vandals in 2006, was honored by the Big Sky Conference as he was inducted into its fifth Hall of Fame Class during the league's football kickoff media event at the Northern Quest Resort & Casino.
"I've been coaching for 50-some years, and to be honored by the Big Sky is huge for me because it's where I started," he said shortly before the induction ceremony. "I'd love to see it continue to be where it's at, one of the best leagues in the country right now."
It's been a long time since Erickson was guiding the Bobcats' offense, but he said he still has plenty of fond memories of his time playing for MSU.
"We beat the University of Montana more times that we lost," he recalled. "We went some different places and had some success. Winning the Big Sky, playing Montana, Weber, all those different schools. It was fun. I felt like I was lucky to be there."
And he had a lot of fun watching his alma mater claim its first national championship since 1984 back in January.
"Coach (Brent Vigen) has done a great job and they just have a great tradition," he said. "They got a football team that knows what they're doing. That's always been a great program, and now it's at the top."
