The last time Appalachian State University came to Missoula for a football playoff game, Jack Wade pulled a Mountaineers sweatshirt over his head and ventured – either bravely or foolishly, he’s not sure which – into Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

It was 2000, and the loyalties of Wade – a 1996 Appalachian State graduate who came to Missoula to attend graduate school at the University of Montana – were firmly entrenched with his alma mater back then.

“I’d only been here a couple of years,” he explains.

Now, nearly a decade later, the Mountaineers return to face Montana on Saturday with another berth in the national championship on the line, and Wade with a wardrobe decision to make.

“I may have an Appalachian State T-shirt on,” admits Wade, a broker with Lambros Real Estate, “but if I do, it’ll be under a Grizzly jacket. I’ve grown to be a bigger Griz fan over the years.”

The Dec. 9, 2000 game – the only time Montana and Appalachian State have ever met before – was a classic between schools that would come to own the pre-eminent FCS programs by the end of the decade.

The Mountaineers rallied from a 13-3 deficit in the fourth quarter to send it into overtime, where Montana quarterback Drew Miller’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Farris propelled the Grizzlies into the 2000 national title game with a 19-16 victory.

“Everyone talks about Drew Miller throwing the winning touchdown in overtime,” Wade says, “but what I remember was Appalachian State throwing (what would have been) the winning touchdown, and (Montana’s) cornerback knocking it down in the end zone.”

That came with about 20 seconds to play in regulation, and Appalachian State threatening from the Grizzlies’ 8 yard line. The Mountaineers settled for a tying field goal, got the ball first in OT, and took their first lead of the day at 16-13 on another Mark Wright field goal.

Miller’s pass to Farris followed.

“It was a riot that day,” Wade says. “I was in my Appalachian State sweatshirt, and I almost got my butt kicked several times.”

Wade attended the 2000 game with a friend from Appalachian State who also made her way west to Missoula for graduate school, Elizabeth Fricke. The two dated during their days at Appalachian State, Wade says, and have remained friends during their years in Missoula.

“In fact,” he says, “I introduced her to her eventual husband.”

Wade and Fricke are two of 72 Appalachian State graduates between 1969 and 2008 who now make their homes in Montana, according to the Appalachian State Alumni Office.

Fricke, who admits she’s not much of a football fan, period, remembers the last game mostly for the people from Boone she ran into who she knew.

“I went over to where our fans were sitting,” says the Boone native, “and I thought it was so funny that I knew people. But Boone is a small town.”

Fricke, now UM’s Outdoor Program manager, won’t be at Saturday’s game. She has an avalanche transceiver course to teach.

“But the class is on campus, so I’m sure we’ll hear the game,” she says. “I just think it’s neat that my hometown is coming to Missoula again.”

While she wasn’t much for attending Mountaineers games when she lived in Boone, and doesn’t frequent Grizzly games in Missoula, Fricke says it’s impossible to live in either place and not be well aware of what’s going on with their respective football teams.

“Whether you go to the games or not,” she says, “it’s what everybody all around you is talking about all the time.”

Wade, meantime, is a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who stumbled on Boone and Appalachian State after joining the Navy after high school.

“I was stationed in Virginia, I liked the mountains, and I ended up going to Boone a lot,” he says. “Boone is an amazing place. I really liked it, and liked all the outdoor opportunities there.”

Wade worked with the Outward Bound program while at Appalachian State and served on the ski patrol at nearby Sugar Mountain Ski Resort. When he went looking for a graduate school, outdoor opportunities were probably more important to him than the school itself, and Missoula was an easy choice.

He worked the ski patrol at Montana Snowbowl during the winters, and returned to North Carolina in the summers to work for Outward Bound while he pursued a master’s at UM in environmental studies that didn’t happen.

“My hard drive melted before I’d finished my thesis,” Wade says, “and by that time I knew I’d be going into a different field anyway, so I didn’t finish it.”

Missoula – and the Grizzlies – have turned him into much more of a football fan than he was the last time Appalachian State came to town, Wade says.

His four years in the Navy coincided with the Buffalo Bills’ four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, so he wasn’t around his hometown to get caught up in that. And the Mountaineers weren’t quite as successful when he was in college as they are now, so game days weren’t always must-goes.

“My love of football has blossomed since then,” says Wade, who is not a Grizzly season-ticket holder but does attend three to four games a year.

“I’m grateful, I have business partners and friends who do have season tickets, and I always seem to get to go to a few games,” he says. “I’ve taken my 3-year-old son, Avery, and have pictures of him waving at the jets flying overhead. He just loves it.”

Like Wade, Avery has Appalachian State as well as Grizzly gear to wear. Dad remains an ASU alum, after all, and Wade’s made sure his boss at Lambros, Dan Worrell – the Grizzlies’ kicker from 1968-70 – has seen Avery in it.

But unlike 2000, Wade will be pulling for the Grizzlies on Saturday, although he’s excited to see Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards in action, too.

“I think the Grizzlies, in their last few games, have really raised hopes around here,” he says, “and it’s going to be a treat to see Edwards play. I guess this is probably the first game I’ll have ever been to where I’m guaranteed not to be totally upset at the end, no matter what happens.”