The Little Brown Stein is a rivalry trophy awarded to the winner of the college football game between the University of Idaho Vandals and the University of Montana Grizzlies, both members of the Big Sky Conference. The trophy is, as the name implies, a large stein mug with the results of all the games between the two painted on. The game was not played for fourteen seasons (2004–2017), and Montana retained the trophy. The series resumed in 2018, when Idaho rejoined the Big Sky for football.

History

Idaho and Montana first met in football in 1903 and have played 88 times; the stein was introduced in 1938 at the 25th meeting. Idaho has dominated the overall series at .640, which also includes two Division I-AA playoff wins at home in the 1980s. Montana has had the upper hand since 1991, winning twelve of the last fifteen (.800). While Idaho was in Division I-A (FBS), from 1996 through 2017, the teams met only five times, with Montana winning the last four. The schools are about 200 mi apart; Moscow and Missoula are on opposite sides of the lower Idaho panhandle, separated by the Bitterroot Mountains over Lolo Pass (U.S. Route 12). Idaho hosted the game in southern Idaho at Boise in 1961, and in nearby Pullman, Washington, in 1970 and 2000.

Conferences

Both were members of the old Pacific Coast Conference (the forerunner of today's Pac-12); Montana departed after the 1949 season, and the PCC disbanded in the summer of 1959. In most years, the loser of the game was last in the PCC standings. Montana was in the Skyline Conference from 1951 through the 1961 season. The universities were two of the six charter members of the Big Sky Conference in 1963, (although Idaho remained an independent in football until 1965) and their final season as conference opponents was in 1995. While Montana has been in the Big Sky since its inception, Idaho changed its conference affiliation multiple times from 1995 to 2018:

Results

Coaching records

Since 1945; Idaho led the first 29 meetings (through 1942) at .700).

Idaho

Montana