MISSOULA — Brian Toone and D.J. Colter met each other with hearty smiles Friday night inside the Adams Center on the University of Montana campus.

The former Grizzlies football players saw their separate dreams come to fruition nearly 30 years after they had last played together. The result was the newly launched Grizzly Football Players Association putting on its first event as nearly 250 former players, coaches, personnel and fans gathered together.

Toone had been looking for a way to recognize the 30-year anniversary of Montana's first national championship team. The Butte native who played defensive line for the 1995 champs got a consensus from former teammates that they should honor Read's entire 10-year run at UM after he died in 2024.

Then came the hard part: Tracking down 10 yea

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