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Bobby Hauck and Bruce Barnum Article

get'em_griz

Well-known member
DONOR
This was a fantastic read. :clap:

https://helenair.com/sports/college/big-sky-conference/university-of-montana/barny-friend-tales-from-a-burgeoning-friendship-between-montana-coach-bobby-hauck-portland-state-coach/article_f4c92d1b-bbd1-5498-a887-518aa821d1ac.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_&fbclid=IwAR1IzlfHnOhxWGL5pnNMKUe06QUji4Wi8hgd2U-odYIj1wx3Wz0qSh-IgMg

MISSOULA — Portland State coach Bruce Barnum thought he had a rather simple request when he texted Montana coach Bobby Hauck last week.

“I said, ‘Hey, two things: No. 1, did you get the pretzels at your house, and No. 2, do you want to give us the Central (Washington) film since I am a 27-point underdog right now next Saturday. Love Barnum,’” the Vikings coach said, reading off the text thread from his phone.

“He says, ‘Yeah, I got the pretzels. I will send you the film because I know you’ll get it somehow anyways, but it’s going to cost you another case of pretzels, and don’t tell me you’re an underdog, you blankety-blank.’ He says, ‘It’s a deal if you send pretzels and an accurate two-deep.’”

Wait, hold on? What’s all this talk about pretzels?

Montana’s game contract with Portland State includes normal things like the date and kickoff time, the payment to the visiting school and all the required legalese. But also included in there is a provision that PSU will provide UM three cases of Dot’s Pretzels.

“I wanted some pretzels. That’s what it was,” Hauck said matter of factly. “I wanted some pretzels, so we wrote it in the contract. We’ll be loading up on Dot’s Pretzels while we’re preparing this week.”

The connection to Dot’s Pretzels is that Barnum has become an official spokesperson of the North Dakota-based pretzel company. He’s helped promote and popularize the pretzels on the west coast through TV, radio and by word of mouth in recent years after he stumbled across them by accident while on a road trip.

As far as football, Barnum was waiting to get the game tape before sending Hauck yet another box of pretzels. He even said he had a trick up his sleeve with the two-deep.

“I’ll send him two,” Barnum said. “The first one is not going to be accurate. I’m going to make up a bunch of names. There’ll be (UM offensive coordinator) Timm Rosenbach at quarterback, (UM O-line coach Chad) Germer at O-line. Then I’ll send him the real one later.”

That’s the way a typical conversation between Hauck and Barnum can go. The fun banter is sure to be abound when the two of them exchange texts or calls or meet up at coaches meetings.

They know they can joke with each other as they’ve become closer in recent years since Hauck returned to the Big Sky. It’s a friendship of sorts that’s developed based on mutual respect and appreciating one another’s humor.

“I enjoy Coach Barny immensely,” Hauck said. “I think he’s a great dude. I think he’s a great football coach. I enjoy my time with him.”

“Some guys you get along with and some you don’t,” Barnum said. “I respect him, his football side. I respect who he is. I think egos are all over this place. I think he’s a normal dude off the field. The game doesn’t define him, and I seem to get along with those people better.”

Caught off guard
Hauck had a gift of sorts for Barnum when the Griz played at Portland State in 2019.

It was no reimbursement for the pretzels Barnum had sent Hauck over the past few years. It was a scholarship, and the Barnum he was giving it to was Bruce’s son Cooper Barnum.

Cooper was standing right next to Bruce on the field when Hauck extended the offer as the teams were preparing for their game. The elder Barnum thought Hauck had an ulterior motive.

“I’m sure he did it just to throw me off and not have me check and see if Dante (Olson) and Robby (Hauck) were over there because I always check and see, you know, you cross your fingers hoping maybe a guy twisted his ankle a day before the game, he’s not playing,” Barnum said. “Or you look at a guy and you say, ‘OK, is he really as good as we saw on film,’ but it took me away from that, I didn’t do my eval.

“Sure enough, Olson decided to eat us for lunch. He twisted my quarterback just like a pretzel. I think he tattooed 33 on my quarterback’s arm.”

Barnum was surprised at the actual offer, especially because his son had already committed to Washington State for baseball. But he was caught off guard even more by the unusual timing. He seemed to take in stride another interaction that had Hauck smirking.

“You need to have a sense of humor, and the guys that are humorless in this game are no fun to be around,” Hauck said. “Barny’s got a great sense of humor, so it’s fun. Hopefully, I do too.”

But don’t get it wrong, it was a serious offer after the Griz took their time making an evaluation. UM D-line coach Barry Sacks, who Barnum knows well, was the primary recruiter and was regularly on the phone with Cooper trying to get him to Missoula instead of choosing baseball.

“We would have loved to have Cooper,” Hauck said. “He just decided baseball was his thing. But he was a good football player. He would have fit right in with our guys.”

Cooper also had football offers from Idaho and Idaho State, as well as PSU, as other league coaches tried to poach Barnum’s son right out from under him. But it was for naught as he stuck with his baseball commitment.

Cooper had even taken a visit to UM and came away impressed with how the facilities blew PSU out of the water, Barnum recollected. It introduced a little consternation into their household

“He told me, he said, ‘I’m either going to play baseball at Wazzu or go play for Coach Hauck.’ I said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘No, you’re playing baseball, you little punk,’” Barnum recalled of the conversation, although as a father he was going to be supportive of whatever his son chose.

The game that November day was one to forget for Portland State, which lost 38-23 after blowing a halftime lead. Barnum doesn’t want to feel that again this week, so he’s tried to use his own Barnum way to make sure his coaches are ready for the challenge ahead.

“In the offensive staff room, I hung up a photo of Kent Baer,” Barnum said, referencing the UM defensive coordinator. “I said, ‘This guy is better than all of us. He’s been through more situations than all of us.’ I said, ‘This guy will not adjust at halftime, this guy will adjust that series,’ so I said we got to be on our toes.”

'Dot’s Pretzels Bowl'
When Portland State came to Missoula in 2018, true freshman kicker Cody Williams drilled a 52-yard field goal with four seconds left in a 22-20 upset win over No. 14 Montana.

It was the Vikings’ first win at Washington-Grizzly Stadium since 1987. Barnum was elated about the win. Hauck was downtrodden.

Barnum took the photo of the game winner and had the bright idea to have the ball and the path it traveled replaced with five bags of Dot’s Pretzels.

“That was funny,” Hauck said. “I told him I’m not astute enough on the computer to photoshop. You look at him and you think a guy that should have a shovel or a sledgehammer in his hand, but he’s good on the computer.”

It turns out Barnum had a younger staff member do the photo editing, but that didn’t take away from the humor produced.

“It’s always fun banter with him,” Hauck said. “He’s terrific.”

But that wasn’t it; Barnum sent Hauck a box of pretzels as a get-well present.

“I said, ‘You probably took a lot of frickin’ heat, Hauck, losing to me at Washington-Griz,’” Barnum recalled. “I understand, so that’s why I gave him the initial pretzels. I said, ‘I’m going to send you a thank you.’

“So I sent those to him, but now he thinks I just opened the door to unlimited pretzels. Shit, they’ll be in his staff meeting going up against Montana State, he’ll call me from the staff room and say, ‘Hey you got any more pretzels?’ I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ guys, I’m in game week.’”

And Hauck is still asking for those pretzels. UM even made them an obligation in the contract, which there normally isn’t one because it’s a conference game during a regular fall season.

“Bobby’s taken advantage of the friendship,” Barnum said in his own joking way. “All the resources you have at Montana and you need my damn pretzels. C’mon, Hauck.”

“He texts me more than I text him, just for that reason,” Barnum added. “‘Hey, what’s going on?’ ‘What do you want, Hauck, pretzels?’ ‘Yeah, now that you brought it up.’ I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ.’”

When the Vikings came to Montana for that 2018 game, Barnum took the team on an “Americana” bus tour. He’s doing that again this week, using part of the $36,000 game guarantee UM is paying PSU to help finance a fleet of four buses.

Starting Thursday, the team will be treated to a barbecue meal in the Tri-Cities and then head to Idaho for a two-hour boat cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene. They’ll then come to Montana for a walk-through in Wa-Griz on Friday and play their game on Saturday.

If that past two meetings are any indication, it should be an exciting matchup. Barnum even had a suggestion for what to call the game between the two friends going forward:

“We’re making it the Dot’s Pretzels Bowl.”
 
tgreseth said:
Thanks for posting this GEG! That was a fun read
That is a great read but Coach Hauck asking for an accurate 2-Deep makes me laugh. The last one he released for CWU had a position he used only once (FB) and the back-up FB was a kid who didn't even dress for the game. :lol:
- and that's only the most obvious of at least three bits of misinformation.
 
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