Playing Like A Girl: The House That Rob Built

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer

Published March 13, 2026 at 10:50 AM PDT

Robin Selvig stands on the court named for him, at the University of Montana's Dahlberg Arena. Missoula, Montana.

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In an era when gender discrimination in sports was the norm, Coach Selvig built a "house" of inclusion and empowerment by recruiting female athletes from the ranches, farms, small towns and sprawling Native reservations of picturesque Big Sky Country.

Basketball and other sports offer fun and opportunity for girls growing up in small-town and rural Montana, where it can mean hours of driving just to get to a mall or a movie. Living where buffalo might be roaming on your ball fields, an athletic scholarship to go to the University of Montana represented a dream come true for many girls, including those on Native reservations.

Underfunded and sidelined by men’s athletics, the Lady Griz bloomed under the fresh Title IX regulations that brought equal funding, scholarships and facilities to women’s collegiate sports. Selvig’s hard-driving style took the team from humble roots, playing before empty stands, and built them into the preeminent women’s basketball program west of the Rockies.

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When the Lady Griz of the University of Montana took on California's Stanford Cardinals at home in round 2 of the NCAA Division I Midwest regional tournament in March of 1988, an overflow crowd packed Dahlberg Arena to the rafters. A heart-stopping play at the buzzer would determine whether Montana could extend its hopes for a victory into overtime.

Coach Selvig drilled his young charges in the fundamentals, with an inclusive, barrier-breaking philosophy new for its time: he expected the women to play just as hard as men.

When Coach Rob Selvig took over the Lady Griz at the University of Montana in 1978, the NCAA didn't even recognize women's basketball. The release of the Title IX regulations, starting in 1975, meant that female athletes had access to playing time, uniforms, facilities, publicity, and scholarships -- and the Lady Griz could finally move out of their tiny weight room under the stairs.

Flanked and empowered by his female assistant coaches, drawn from the ranks of his former players, Selvig created a home, a family, leading generations of athletes to conference championships and NCAA appearances.

Leann Montes, Chippewa Cree, 1999-2003 (left)

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Credits: Directed by Jonathan Cipiti, Megan Harrington. Produced by Megan Harrington, Catherine Fowler Sample. Written by Megan Harrington, Catherine Fowler Sample, Matthew Donlan.

Playing Like A Girl: The House That Rob Built

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