Scott Richter Interview, November 18, 2024

Scott Richter discusses growing up in Missoula where his dad worked for the University of Montana. He discusses his early love of sports, particularly basketball, and how his competitive edge against his older brother eventually led him to play for the College of Great Falls (now, the University of Providence). Richter shares his process transitioning to University of Montana to finish his undergraduate studies, selecting athletic training and sports medicine as his academic focus, and his career path following his time at U of M. Richter shares about attending Oregon State University for Graduate School before working professionally for the university, coming back to Montana to work at MSU, and then eventually making his way back to UM as an athletic director, a position he held for over 32 years. Richter discusses influential figures in shaping UM sports and the culture of our sports community, including Dennis Murphy, Jud Heathcote, Don Reed, Gary Nygaard, Valarie Moody, and Naseby Rhinehart. Richter shares insight about UM’s incorporation of female sports following Title IX, and briefly discusses the impact of the UM Football scandals that deeply affected the UM sports community and the university’s reputation as a whole. Concluding his interview, Richter shares what it means to him to be a Griz and what sports and athletics are all about. Interviewer Arizona Duff was a graduate student working on the Griz Nation Oral History Project as part of the Griz130 History Initiative.