You could say Griz football is a family affair for the Lebsocks.
Over the years, five members of the Lebsock family have worn the Griz uniform—beginning with Ron, who played center for Montana back in the mid-70s.
As you can imagine, they are pretty excited about Montana playing for FCS national championship this Sunday.
“You can see what Coach (Bobby) Hauck and his staff was trying to do. They made some key changes I think that were very crucial. I think the biggest change was that they lit a fire,” says Ron.
Ron knows a little bit about coaching himself. He was Billings Skyview’s first football coach and led the Falcons to two state championships coaching all five of his sons along the way.
Four of the Lebsock boys, Matt, Nick, Shawn, and Connor, would follow in their father’s footsteps and play for the Griz.
“It was great. From the time I was in third grade I would go watch Matt play and from Matt right into Shawn and Nick was there too,” says Connor.
“Growing up, if we weren’t home watching the Griz game, we were listening to it on the radio on the way to one of our games,” says Shawn.
Both Matt and Shawn played in national title games with the Griz, Matt in 2004 and Shawn in 2008 and 2009.
“To live that out it was amazing,” says Matt, “I played for a lot of great coaches and played with a lot of great guys. It’s a great time.”
While the Griz came up a little short those years, they all like what they’ve seen from the team as this season has progressed.
“It is fun to see them really reaching their peak. You know they keep getting better and I’m excited to see what happens,” says Matt, who works as an attorney in Billings.
“They’ve done a really great job. Some guys have really blown up. You can tell those guys out there playing really love playing football together,” adds Connor, who is a CPA and helps coach Billings Senior’s football team.
“You see these guys out there playing and competing and they are having a lot of fun doing it. You can just see it in the way they play. It brings back good memories,” says Shawn, who is an eye doctor in Billings.
Brother Nick, who also played for the Griz, is a project manager for a company in Kalispell.
The oldest of the boys, Father Christopher Lebsock, serves as a priest in Helena.
Come Sunday they will be carrying on a family tradition cheering hard for the Griz to bring home a national title. After all, maroon and silver is in their blood.
