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2006-2007 News

MSU Billings to Unveil Bust of Nels Christiansen (2/25/07)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State University-Billings will honor former coach and teacher Nels Christiansen with a bust in the main lobby of the Physical Education Building.  The unveiling will take place Friday, March 9, 2007, at 10:00 a.m.  Christiansen’s bust will be the third placed in the P.E. Building lobby.  Busts of Bob Lee and Mike Harkins have been placed in the building in the past three years.  All three busts were created by Billings sculptor T.J. Starr and were commissioned with funds raised through a grass-roots fund-raising effort by former MSU Billings student-athletes.

Christiansen is a native of Red Lodge, Montana, where he was a high school basketball star in the 1940s.  After graduating from Red Lodge, he received a scholarship to play basketball at Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska.  Bill Bruer, Christiansen’s high school coach, was a Chadron State graduate and guided Christiansen to Chadron after his senior year.

Christiansen was a four-year star for the Eagles, averaging double-figures in scoring in each of his four seasons.  He set the Chadron State freshman scoring record in 1948 when he averaged 12 points per game.  Over his four-year career, Christiansen scored 1,375 points in 92 games for a 14.9 points-per-game average.  He graduated from Chadron State in 1952 as the school’s all-time leading scorer.

The Chadron State basketball team posted a 58-34 record during Christiansen’s career, including an 18-8 mark in his senior season when he averaged 16.3 points per game.  That Eagles team captured the conference championship and went to the NAIA National Tournament, where they lost to eventual national champion Southwest Missouri State University. 

Christiansen had a lasting impact on Chadron State College, just as he would later have at Eastern Montana College and Montana State University-Billings.  Christiansen’s first teaching and coaching opportunity in Montana came in 1956 when he was hired by Harlowton High School.  He spent two years at Harlowton before moving to Billings to become a graduate assistant coach at EMC.  Christiansen finished his master degree in 1960 and immediately became a fulltime faculty member in the Department of Health and Physical Education. 

After working as an assistant track and field coach from 1958-1960, Christiansen took over the track program in 1960 and was the Yellowjackets’ head coach until 1972.  He also served as an assistant basketball coach from 1960 until 1974 under Mike Harkins, the Yellowjacket record-holder for career wins.  In addition to coaching track and basketball, Christiansen was also an assistant football coach under Bob Lee from 1965-1972.

The 1961-1962 season saw the Yellowjacket basketball team win its first conference championship in school history when the team captured the Montana Collegiate Conference title.  That championship signaled a new era for the Harkins and Christiansen-led Yellowjackets.  They followed the school’s first-ever championship with conference titles in 1962-63, 1963-64, 1964-65, 1966-67, 1967-68, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1971-72, 1972-73, and 1973-74.

After winning the MCC championship in 1963-64, the Yellowjackets went on to win the District #5 title and advance to the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City where they lost to eventual national champion Rockhurst.  The 63-64 season witnessed another first in school history as KULR televised three of the Yellowjackets’ home contests.

In 1964-65, Eastern Montana College won its second-straight NAIA District #5 championship and advanced to the National Tournament for the second year in a row.  The Yellowjackets defeated Central Washington in the first round for their first National Tournament victory.  During Christiansen’s time with the Jackets, they would advance to the National Tournament a total of seven times.  In addition to the ’64 and ’65 seasons, EMC went to the National Tournament in 1966-67, 1967-68, 1969-70, 1971-72, and 1973-74.

After finishing his coaching career at EMC, Christiansen continued to teach for another 20 years, retiring in 1995.  In addition to his teaching and coaching at EMC/MSU Billings, Christiansen has also served as a valuable volunteer for the athletics program.  Since the first season of women’s basketball in 1973, Christiansen has been the crew chief of the official score crew.  As most Yellowjacket fans know, that service continues today.

During his 35 years of service to EMC/MSU Billings, Christiansen was also involved with athletics throughout the state as a football official.  That officiating career that began in 1948 spanned six different decades.  Christiansen became a member of the Montana Officials’ Association in 1956 and officiated high school and college football games until he retired in 1991.  Over that time Christiansen worked 10 state championship football games at the high school level.  In the last few years before he retired, he officiated numerous Frontier Conference football games and served as the liaison between the conference and the officials’ association.

The placing of Christiansen’s bust in the MSUB PE Building will be the latest of several honors he has received over the years.  He is a member of five different halls of fame, including the Eastern Montana College/Montana State University-Billings Athletics Hall of Fame into which he was inducted in 1992.  In addition to his place in the EMC/MSUB Hall of Fame, Christiansen was a charter inductee into the Chadron State College Hall of Fame in 1983 and was also inducted into the halls of the Montana Officials’ Association in 1991 and the Montana State Golf Association in 1999.  He has also been inducted into the National Football Foundation’s Hall of Fame and was awarded the Bob Chilton Award by the NFF for promoting football officiating.

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