The Hall of Famers :: Brian Ah Yat

How do you replace a guy like Dave Dickenson?

The short, and somewhat glib answer is: you don't. "Super Dave" had an x-factor that few college football players have ever possessed - one of the reasons he won the Walter Payton Award and went on to decades of success in the CFL as a player and coach.

But in 1996, the Montana football coaching staff was presented with that same, very real question. And they essentially had one of two answers.

The first: A Butte-tough junior QB from the Mining City named Josh Paffhausen who was a state championship signal-caller for the Bulldogs and had one year experience taking clean-up snaps behind Dickenson. He also had the athleticism to play anywhere on the field.

The other: A quiet kid from the beaches of Hawaii named Brian Ah Yat, who was still getting used to Montana winters but had a cannon for an arm and could sling the ball around the field the way Griz fans had become accustomed to.

Brent Pease – himself a prolific Grizzly QB who now serves as Montana's associate head coach and receivers' coach – was new to the coaching game back then, in his first year as UM's offensive coordinator under Mick Dennehy.

So, when Dickenson graduated it was Pease who was one of those in the unenviable position of deciding who was going to fill the "Legend of the Fall's" shoes.

"It was tough at the time because we had one of the best athletes in the state in Paffhausen, but I always knew both of them needed to be on the field. I knew Josh was a great athlete, and could play other positions. But I knew Brian was a great quarterback," said Pease.

"I knew we had a pretty good kid, and I felt once he could adapt to Missoula, to the weather, and to what had to be placed on his shoulders at that time, that he could handle it."

Like most transplants to Montana, Ah Yat would eventually get used to the wind blowing out of Hellgate Canyon on a cold November day, however begrudgingly.

"I remember I had to get on him once when he was a backup to David. I asked him, 'what are you doing out there?' - But maybe not quite that softly," Pease laughed.

"And in his genuine, quiet, Hawaiian way, he calmed me down. He just said, 'Coach. It's cold out there."

And the rest, as they say, is history.

In 1996 Dennehy and Pease handed the keys to perhaps the most high-powered and gilded offenses in school history to the quiet sophomore from Hawaii, with nothing less than national championship expectations on his shoulders.

With an all-star class of seniors surrounding him, all Ah Yat did from there was produce.

Montana's offense was all gas, no brakes in 1996, with Ah Yat passing for 5,012 yards and 53 touchdowns in a 14-1 season.

It started with a 35-14 win over Oregon State in his first-ever start, scoring on the first three drives of the game. It finished with a second-straight appearance in the national championship game, with the Grizzlies going undefeated in between and outscoring their opponents by an average of nearly 25 points a contest.

And it was a springboard for one of the greatest and maybe most unlikely careers in Montana football history.

A career that produced two Big Sky MVP seasons, over 10,000 yards of offense, and several school and conference record-setting performances, many that still stand to this day.

A career that after graduation would lead Ah Yat into the (colder) Canadian Football League, into a championship with the Hawaii Hammerheads in the IPFL, and as of October 29, 2021, into the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame.

On Friday, Ah Yat and three other Montana legends will officially receive the highest honor Grizzly Athletics can bestow on its former coaches and student-athletes as a member of the incoming Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame class of 2021.

Set to be inducted alongside him are decathlete Adam Bork, who was – at any level – one of the top-10 overall track athletes in the nation, Lady Griz guard and Big Sky MVP Skyla Sisco, and one of the greatest men's basketball players in school history-turned winningest UM coach of all time, Wayne Tinkle.

An elite class of elite Grizzlies, and an honor for one of the most unassuming superstars Montana has ever seen.

"(Being told he was into the Hall of Fame) was a shock and an honor," said Ah Yat from his home in Hawaii.

"It just makes me reflect on my past and all the great people I've been fortunate to be surrounded by. And I feel fortunate enough to attend such a great university with such a great tradition. That tradition is built on the people there."

That Montana tradition was in many ways still under construction when Ah Yat went under center, with one of its principal architects having just graduated. But even as he was working his way through the professional ranks, Dickenson kept an eye on Missoula and what Ah Yat was doing to help keep building it.

"I am excited for him, and being in the hall of fame is really well deserved," said Dickenson from his office as head coach of the Calgary Stampeders.

"I think Brian was a little underrated after we'd won it in '95, but he had some amazing years and amazing performances, and it was a pretty seamless transition from myself to him."

The son of a high school football coach (who is now a high school coach himself), Ah Yat went mostly unrecruited as a senior. In fact, Montana and its Hawaiian express pipeline started by former UM offensive coordinator Tommy Lee, was his only offer.

So he took a chance on the Grizzlies, and flew to the mountains to begin his career. And when he landed, he hit the proverbial jackpot in terms of having an opportunity to learn what it takes to win.

"Coming in, I was naive, just a young guy from Hawaii who didn't know much about Montana at all," says Ah Yat.

"So, when I got here, there was a lot of observation, but the more I got the chance to watch Dave play, watch him prepare, it couldn't help but make me a better player. Just being around him. He was so special."

Before Ay Yat ever saw the field, however, Dickenson saw the potential in his would-be protégé. Something that makes this week's hall of fame induction that much more meaningful and provides context as to why he's being inducted.

"He's a good person and was a good teammate. Quiet, yes, but he was doing still doing the tough jobs and putting in the work. I just felt like he had an inner confidence that a lot of people maybe didn't see. A fortitude or confidence that he'd die to get the job done, and obviously he did," Dickenson added.

"When he got his opportunity, he just seemed to always perform and make plays."

Indeed he did.

Dickenson had a knack for pulling off the impossible. The ability to evade one, two, sometimes three, or even four would-be tacklers and without blinking connect with a receiver down-field. Magic.

In the background, Ah Yat was watching and learning.

But "What can the new guy do?" was what the collective Grizzly fanbase asked heading into that '96 season. It was a question Ah Yat heard loud and clear, so the new guy went to work to prove himself.

"One of the biggest tools I used ahead of the '96 season with Coach Pease was to watch the whole '95 season. Every single play. Grade the film. What would I do differently? There weren't too many things I'd do different, obviously, but it really helped me," he said.

Physically, Ah Yat checked all the boxes. And with time, became known for pulling off some magic of his own.

But what COULD the new guy do?

"I knew he was someone special just with his arm, his mentality, and what he could do throwing the ball. He had really great feet, too. He could run, but he did have good feet in the pocket. And I think one of his biggest things was he was very, very, very coachable," said Pease.

In just his sixth game as a starter in '96, Ah Yat put together perhaps the greatest single-game performance in UM history, throwing for a still-standing school record 560 yards in a come-from-behind 34-30 win at Eastern Washington.

That performance on top of the season-opening upset at Oregon State in '96 took Ah Yat from "underrated" to a lock as the Grizzly starter for the next three years of his career, where he'd go on to amass 29 total wins – the most of any Grizzly starting QB to this day. Magic.

"If there's one guy that could handle following in the footsteps of David Dickinson, it was Brian Ah Yat," added Pease.

"Why was that? His personality, his makeup, his humbleness, the type of leader he was he was, all that stuff. He wasn't completely vocal, but he wasn't afraid to say anything when needed. He used his actions to say, 'I'm gonna make sure I'm a winning quarterback,' and he understood the standards of quarterbacks at this school at that time."

Ah Yat put Montana on a roll late into the season that year, beating Montana State to extend "the streak" by another year and leading UM to three-straight wins in the playoffs by a combined score of 162-24.

Then came a guy named Randy Moss and the Marshall Thundering Herd.

In his first year as a starting sophomore, Ah Yat led the Griz back to Huntington, West Virginia for a shot at the national title.

He was surrounded some of the best to ever wear the maroon and silver. Names like Paffhausen and Josh Branen, who rushed for over a thousand yards that season, and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Douglass, who nearly surpassed 2,000 yards receiving that year.

Defensively the Griz were loaded as well, with names like Jason Crebo, Mike Bouchee, and Blaine McElmurry keeping opponents at bay.

"That whole class of '96 were such great players, great leaders, and just great human beings who took me under their wing and just made it easy for me," said Ah Yat.

But on that sunny day at Marshall, it was not to be for the Griz. And not winning a national title is perhaps the only thing that Dickenson did that Ah Yat could not – bring a national title back to Missoula.

"I don't like to tell too many people this, but I think 96 was as good a team as the Griz have ever had. They really were amazing, probably better than the 95 team, but they just ran into a buzzsaw against a Marshall team that had gotten some heavy reinforcements. Probably no one was going to beat Marshall that year," recalls Dickenson.

"But Brian's performances, especially throwing to guys like Joe Douglass, were as good as any in Grizzly history."

One loss, or one win for that matter, does not cement a player's legacy. The Griz didn't bring home the '96 championship, but legends live on.

Over the next two seasons, Ah Yat became, and still is, Montana's second-leading passer ever with a playoffs-included 10,792 passing yards. He was a two-time All-American, and his name still peppers the Big Sky record books as one of the most prolific QBs in league history.

In the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Montana returned to the playoffs and kept its winning ways intact, with Ah Yat leading a different cast of characters.

He perpetuated a Montana football tradition that has since resulted in nearly 200 wins, more deep playoff runs, and a string of 11-straight Big Sky Championships.

And that's a legacy worthy of any Hall of Fame.

University of Montana Athletics

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