The Hall of Famers:: Marc Mariani

All Marc Mariani ever needed was a chance to prove himself.

As a skinny kid from the Hi-Line who played tennis in the offseason, he got that chance as a Havre Blue Pony. He later got that chance at the University of Montana, and then he got it in the NFL.

The opportunity to prove himself was never a given though. It was earned. Along the way it became a need to prove himself time and time again, and it carried him to the highest echelons of the game.

With a chip on his shoulder, Mariani became one of the most unlikely success stories in Montana football history. The quintessential walk-on who worked his way up the depth chart and into a starting spot. But from there, the trajectory was exponential.

Some of his moments on the field will go down in Grizzly lore as nothing short of legendary. The touchdown catches, the kickoff and punt returns, the wins. Pure electricity.

What followed were accolades most walk-ons only dream of. All-conference and All-American honors, getting picked in the NFL Draft, earning a spot on the roster and a place among the elite in the Pro Bowl.

He's the perfect example of a guy who bet on himself and overcame the odds, fueled only by the will to win, the need to prove himself, and the perseverance to chase the dream.

Mariani will receive Montana's highest honor for the perseverance that led to an improbable career on Friday when he is officially inducted into the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the incoming class of 2023.

It's the ultimate story of stick-to-itiveness. Proof of what's possible when you bet on yourself to win. Life lessons for anyone aspiring to be good at anything.

And to think, it almost didn't happen.

As a kid, Mariani listened intently as his Grizzly heroes battled it out each Saturday over the airwaves, Mick Holien painting the picture as ever, from left to right on your radio dial.

"Growing up in Havre, I was just a die-hard Griz fan," said Mariani. "All I ever wanted to do was play for the Montana Grizzlies. That was my dream."

When his career as a Blue Pony took off, interest from Montana's college programs followed. First the NAIA schools, then a walk-on offer from Montana State. Then came the call he'd been waiting for his whole life.

"As soon as Montana offered me, I was done. I knew exactly where I wanted to be. So, I decided then and there I was going to go down to Missoula and prove myself," he said.

So, in the summer of 2005, he packed his bags and made the five-hour drive southwest to begin his college career as a preferred walk-on at UM.

But with too many numbers on the squad, he soon found out his walk-on spot wasn't available for fall camp. Finding himself in limbo, he consulted with his parents who said they'd support him while he tried to get his spot back. He enrolled in school and waited.

"The first little bit of my career was miserable. I didn't even get through the door and start practicing until November. I was number 100 on the roster, I even had a blank jersey," Mariani recalled.

"I had a very short amount of time to prove to the coaching staff that I was worth getting a 90-man spot on the roster for spring ball. That was my only goal when I finally got on the field was to get invited back for spring ball because if I didn't do that, it was really over for me at the University of Montana."

Motivation is a funny thing. It was those long three months of waiting in football purgatory that would light Mariani's fire, and he'd never look back.

"When I finally did hit the field, that's where a lot of my competitiveness, drive, and frustration was released, because I had a huge chip on my shoulder. I felt like I had to earn every single ounce of respect to get invited to spring ball."

Sure enough, in that short time he did enough to impress the Grizzly coaching staff to earn an invite back for spring ball after the 2005 season ended with a loss to Cal Poly in the playoffs.

But he found himself in the same position: produce or be cut. It is the nature of college football after all. So, while he was happy to get the invite back, he never rested on his laurels.

"There was definitely relief, but I don't think I ever lost the feeling of needing to prove myself over and over. I was still just a walk-on. I still had to go earn reps and make plays. I needed to find my way into special teams. So, I was running down as a gunner on kickoff and tackling, doing those kinds of things just so I could get on the field and stay on the team. And every day I just started trying to stack chips, get faster, get stronger, and work my way up," he said.

"So that was my mentality. That was my focus every single day, and truthfully, I don't think I'd be here today if I didn't have that mentality because I knew at any moment, they could send me home."

Soon the opportunities came on the practice field and it wasn't long before head coach Bobby Hauck knew he'd found a diamond in the rough from the Hi-Line.

In his redshirt freshman season of 2006, Mariani did the dirty work on special teams, totaling eight tackles on the year. But he was also showing promise on the practice field.

"He was a high school tennis player, so we really didn't know how fast he was because he didn't run track. But about a year and a half in it was apparent he was going to be a really good player," said Hauck.

"He was a playmaker and he really showed up at practice. He had great hands. He had great speed. He had the ability to make people miss, I mean it really showed up. So, he started getting into team periods and scrimmage periods and he was just always the guy that was making a lot of plays."

As a sophomore in 2007, Mariani got his first shot on offense, catching 15 passes on the year for 231 yards and a score, which, incidentally, came against Northern Colorado, the same team the Griz will face this weekend after the Hall of Fame banquet.

He also led the team in punt and kick return to finish the year with 991 all-purpose yards, second only to the great Lex Hilliard.

As a junior in 2008, he helped lead the Grizzlies to a national championship appearance with a breakout season, catching 69 passes for 1,308 yards and 15 touchdowns. He dominated the return game too, posting a school record 2,265 all-purpose yards, still one of the top eight seasons in Big Sky history.

Even then, with everything going right and making big-time plays on a championship team, he didn't rest on his laurels.

"When you get those reps, when you get that job, when you earn that returner spot, when you get your reps at receiver, whether it's in college or in the pros, every year they bring in some guy to push you out and try to take your job. So, you never feel safe. Anybody that feels safe on a football roster is kidding themselves," said Mariani.

"That just kept me motivated my whole career was having that mentality of, 'I just got to keep going. I'm not going to look forward'. I didn't have big individual goals at that time. I just wanted to win, and I wanted to be on the team, and I wanted to make plays on Saturdays."

Make plays is exactly what he continued to do.

By the time it was all said and done, he helped the Griz reach another FCS title game his senior year. He set school records for single-season receiving yards (1,479 in 2009), and career records in receiving yards (3,018), receiving touchdowns (29), yards per punt return (15.01), punt return TDs (3), kick return average (27.57) and all-purpose yards (5,441).

He also tied a school and Big Sky record for the longest punt return in league history at 94 yards and returned a kickoff 98 yards against South Dakota State in 2009 that sparked one of the greatest comebacks in college football history.

He went on to become a two-time All-American pick by The Sports Network, as well as being named an All-American his senior year by the Associated Press and the Walter Camp Foundation.

He was also a two-time first-team All-Big Sky pick, unanimously selected among the league's coaches following his senior season and was named Big Sky Player of the Week five times in two years.

After that 2009 season he turned his attention to the NFL, where he brought the chip on his shoulder with him to Tennessee, selected by the Titans in the seventh round of the draft by Jeff Fisher at pick number 222.

Guys selected in the seventh round don't have it easy in the NFL. Many never make the squad or even the practice squad let alone earn a starting job. So Mariani did what he'd always done at Montana: put the nose down and grind.

"I knew I could get cut at any time. So, I just had to show up every day, earn my stripes and try to get better, and really, it was the exact same mentality I had when I walked on as a freshman. Just, every day, getting better, every day, go prove yourself, every day, earn some respect," he said.

Soon enough, his perseverance again paid off. Damian Williams, a third-round pick out of USC and the man ahead of Mariani on the depth chart, turned the ball over on a Titan kick return. The rest, as they say, is history.

"They threw me in there and once I had that opportunity I was never looking back. I was not going to let that moment slip and I didn't. I knew when they gave it to me, I was never going back down the depth chart."

Mariani went on to a six-year NFL career where he earned an invite to the Pro Bowl. He set two Pro Bowl records in 2011 for number of returns and total return yards for a game. Records that still stand today.

He was also a two-time AFC Special Teams Player of the Week and was named to The Sporting News All-Rookie Team and the PFWA All-Rookie Team in 2010. He finished his NFL career with 5,041 return yards and three touchdowns to go along with 27 catches for 324 yards.

Not bad for a walk-on from Havre.

On Friday Mariani will officially be inducted into the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame alongside some of the greatest to ever do it at Montana.

On Saturday he'll return to Washington-Grizzly Stadium where he created so many memories for so many fans for an on-field celebration of his place in the Hall of Fame. For Hauck, there are few who are more deserving of the term "Hall of Famer."

"He had an unbelievably great career. But on top of all the football stuff, he's a great ambassador for the University of Montana and our football program because he's such a great guy. He's smart, he's friendly, outgoing. He's a good father. And he's just one of those guys that has it all," Hauck said.

Now, if there are any other youngsters up in Havre, or in any other small town in Montana, Mariani wants them to know that they too can live the dream. All it takes is perseverance.

"From Blue Pony Stadium to the big show was quite the ride. I got to live my dream. The University of Montana was everything for me and was all I ever wanted to do," he says.

"Always dream as big as you can. Always chase your dreams. Always work and take every day as a chance to get better.

"My motto was always 'win the day', and I always competed with myself. I used practice as a tool to sharpen me as a player, mentally and physically. I think if you just start stacking day after day after day and just stay focused, work hard, and dream bigger than you could possibly imagine, you can achieve great success in anything you want to do."

University of Montana Athletics

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