Montana high school football team breaks epic 2,177-day losing streak
The Cleveland Browns had nothing on Montana’s Missoula Hellgate High School. The Browns’ win over the New York Jets on Thursday gave the team its first win in 635 days. The Missoula Hellgate Knights waited over three times as long.
It took 2,177 days, but the Missoula Hellgate High School football team finally ended its 57-game losing streak Friday. The Knights defeated the Great Falls CMR Rustlers 28-20. It was the team’s first win since Oct. 5, 2012.
The team’s first win in six seasons was met with jubilation, according to 406 MT Sports:
Some parents fought back tears. Several students screamed into the night. Others laughed with glee. Dozens of Hellgate players jumped up and down in jubilation and tried to give coach Mick Morris a sports drink shower. Several others hugged anyone they could find.
There were also a couple streakers.
The losing streak lasted so long that one of the oldest players on the team was in sixth grade when it started.
In their piece, 406 MT Sports, outlined a few things that took place around the time the Knights last won a game.
• The iPhone 5 had just been released.
• Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was one of the most popular songs.
• LeBron James was a member of the Miami Heat.
• Conor McGregor had yet to make his UFC debut.
The list goes on.
The team’s 57-game losing streak wasn’t full of brutal losses, though. The team came close to ending the streak a few times over the past couple years. In fact, the first couple games of the losing streak were pretty close. Even in one of the team’s worst seasons — in which it was outscored 469-47 — the Knights lost one game by a point and another by two points. The team also forfeited two games in 2015, and the entire varsity season in 2016.
With a win finally under their belts, the Knights have no intention of stopping now. The team will look to win its second-straight game Friday. If the Knights can pull it off, it will be the first time the team has won consecutive games since 2001.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
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