28 | Prime September 2016
Tom Parac
The Team Player Who Led MSU Skyward
F
or former Montana State University Head Football Coach and Athletic Di rector Tom Parac, life has pretty much been a team sport, and he’s had a good run. He credits his success to his Lewiston High School football coach, Dale Bohart, who gave him the tools and motivation, and to former MSU Football Coach Tony Storti, who had a major impact on his university career. As a player at MSU, Parac was All Conference in football and basketball and a pitcher on the baseball team. As he was preparing to graduate and move on to Officer Candidate School, his transcript came up short. “I needed a life and water safety certification, and I couldn’t swim. So I enrolled in beginning swimming and spent that extra quarter at the bottom of the pool,” he chuckled.
He served with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division for two years, then returned to MSU for a master’s degree in education administration. His thesis was one of the first computerized football scouting analyses. The Dallas Cowboys later used it to computerize their scouting system, becoming the first pro team to do so. While studying, he ran the freshmen football players for Coach Storti, then the backfield offense and defense for the team. “After that, you try to keep your job by doing the best you can every day, and getting better every day. But more important than that is helping student athletes get better every day of their lives, whether it’s in the classroom or on the field. That’s the really rewarding part.” In 1968, he became head coach. The Bobcats earned a share of the Big Sky Conference title, and Parac was named Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year. In 1971, he was named athletic director. “That’s when I fired the football coach — that was me — and focused on administration.” He hired Sonny Holland to succeed him, and the Bobcats won the NCAA Division 2 national title in 1976. In 1984, the year before Parac retired, the team won the title again, as a Division 1-AA school. He was a driving force in the construction of MSU’s Reno H. Sales Stadium, now Bobcat Stadium. Parac, though, gives more credit to Athletic Director Gene Bourdet and the booster groups that raised the money. “I just got the construction part put together,” he insisted. He was instrumental in the first remodel of the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, and in the growth and prosperity of MSU’s Athletic Scholarship Association, now the Bobcat Club. In 2012, the Montana State University Foundation gave him its highest honor, the Blue and Gold Award. Parac’s teammate in life has been his wife, Arty. They’ve operated businesses together and raised two children. Daughter Kimberly lives in Bozeman. Son Wade has worked for many years as a human resources manager for the U.S. Forest Service in Arizona. As a teenager, Wade was paralyzed in a car accident. “We saddled up and met the challenges of the day, and Arty had the bigger role in that,” Parac said. “Wade’s had to adjust every day of his life too, and I admire his tenacity and strength.” Being a coach and a teacher has been great, being part of a team has been better, he figures. “Being part of a team brings out the best in people, because you have to give up something of yourself for the benefit of a family or a team.”