Montana State Ends 41-Year Title Drought in Final Seconds

When Illinois State lined up for a 38-yard field goal with under a minute left, Montana State's championship dreams looked crushed. The nearly 20,000 Bobcats fans in Nashville's FirstBank Stadium felt the familiar sting of disappointment creeping back after four decades without a title.

But on January 5, 2026, everything changed. Montana State pulled off what many are calling the most exhilarating victory in Football Championship Subdivision history, ending a 41-year drought that stretched back to 1984.

The win meant even more for veteran sportswriter Thomas Stuber, whose personal timeline wove through the Bobcats' journey in unexpected ways. His sister Suzy was born on January 5, and he'd been thinking about her before the championship game.

Suzy passed away from cancer in 2007, but not before Stuber brought her a Montana State stocking cap during one of his visits. She loved it so much she wore it running on cold Chicago mornings, and when she died with her sisters by her side, she passed the cap along to keep the tradition alive.

The number 41 held another quiet significance. Stuber's mother was born on April 1, 1925 (4-1-1925), exactly 100 years before Montana State would snap its 41-year losing streak.

She raised six kids in northeastern Montana and sparked Stuber's love of sports by playing one-on-one basketball with him in a spare room with makeshift hoops. She painted life-sized pictures of his favorite players and took him to get Tony Oliva's autograph at his first baseball game in 1970.

She died on her 59th birthday in 1984, nine months before Montana State won that last championship. The driver who struck her was never found.

Why This Inspires

Sports have a way of connecting us across time and loss. For thousands of Montana fans, this championship erased decades of coaching changes and disappointments with one incredible finish.

But for those who've loved and lost, victories like these carry extra weight. They become threads connecting past and present, weaving memories of people who taught us to love the game into moments of pure joy.

Montana State now holds a unique distinction as the only program with national titles in three different divisions. This latest win proves that no drought lasts forever, and the people we've lost cheer alongside us in ways we might never fully understand.