Brian Toone was a state champion with the Butte High Bulldogs and a national champion with the Montana Grizzlies.

Toone moved to Butte in the middle of his junior year in high school, and he was a star linebacker on Coach Jon McElroy’s 1991 Butte High Class AA State championship squad. That Bulldog team outscored its opponents 396-112, giving up just 9.3 points per game on its way to a 12-0 record.

In 1995, Toone was a junior defensive lineman for the University of Montana. He combined with fellow Butte lineman Randy Riley to force Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington into an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone in the third quarter of the NCAA 1-AA national championship game in Huntington, West Virgina. That safety proved to be the two-point difference in the Grizzlies’ 22-20 victory over the homestanding Thundering Herd.

Toone, who was listed as 208 pounds when he started in the Class AA State championship game in 1991, bulked up in a big way while playing for the Griz. He ate so much that he would set an alarm to get up and eat in the middle of the night. His goal was to be 300 pounds, and he played at more than 290 pounds.

To look meaner, he shaved his head and grew a mustache and a patch under his mouth. He said the look was inspired by the movie Tombstone.

Toone at least had a shot to play professional football when his college career ended, but he decided keeping that weight on would be just too much of a chore. By the time he finished the spring semester after his final season with the Grizzlies in 1996, Toone was much closer to his high school weight. He also shaved the stache and grew his hair back.

Today, Toone owns and operates the Jewelry Design Center, which opened a store in Missoula in 2023. That store is the third location for the business that was started by Toone’s father, Doug, in Spokane.

Toone is also very much still a Bulldog and Grizzly. Last week, I wrote a column about Brian intently cheering on the Bulldogs from the sideline during the 2012 Class AA State championship game.

He is also working on a couple of things to bring former Grizzlies together. On Sept. 12, Toone and some former Grizzly players are hosting a celebration to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1995 national championship team. That event will also include a reunion of all the players who played for Head Coach Don Read, who passed away in January of 2024.

Read coached the Grizzlies from 1986 through 1995, and he forever changed the Montana football landscape.

The event, which will be held at the Adams Center in Missoula, is open to the public. It will include a steak dinner and a meet and greet with the former players. 

It will be a night of storytelling as players, coaches and fans reminisce about events that they remember well or have never heard before.

(Click here for more information and purchase your tickets.)

Toone is also starting the first Grizzly alumni organization. He got inspiration for that from the Butte High Silver B’s. He plans to use it to help former Grizzly players stay in touch.

Toone is married to his high school sweetheart, Beth (Murray), and the couple has two grown daughters. Life appears to be going quite well for the Toone family, which is about to grow to include a University of Idaho lineman.

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