MSU Billings to Unveil Bust of Oscar Bjorgum (7/24/08)

BILLINGS, Mont. – Montana State University Billings will honor former teacher, coach and athletic director, Oscar Bjorgum, with a bust in the main lobby of the Physical Education Building.  The unveiling will take place Saturday, July 26, 2008, at 11 a.m., with a BBQ to follow.  Bjorgum’s bust will be the fourth and final bust placed in the P.E. Building lobby. 

Busts of Bob Lee, Mike Harkins and Nels Christiansen have been placed in the building in the past four years.  All four busts were created by Billings sculptor T.J. Starr and were commissioned with funds raised through a grass-roots fund-raising effort by former MSUB/EMC student-athletes.

Oscar, as he was known to most, started at Eastern Montana Normal School as a part-time coach of the men’s basketball program in 1927.  Bjorgum was able to field a team with the only nine men who were students at the time.  He became a full-fledged faculty member in 1931 and worked as coach, professor and athletic director throughout the years. 

In 1947, he launched the intercollegiate football program at EMC (then-Eastern Montana College) and brought EMC its first two gridiron championships.  In the 40-plus years Bjorgum was at the university, he also coached baseball, track, gymnastics, archery, tennis and badminton.

He coached and trained until the mid-1960s and continued teaching until his retirement in 1971, when he was honored with the title of Associate Professor of Physical Education Emeritus. 

Bjorgum was inducted into the Yellowjacket Hall of Fame and Distinction in 1990.  Bjorgum Field, which consists of Cenex Stadium (softball field), the P.E. and intramural fields and the low-ropes course (north of the P.E. Building) was named in his honor.