BILLINGS — So much of Joe Glenn’s impact as a coach and leader has always come from the way his mind worked.
Famously, the former head football coach at Montana never forgot a face or a name. Whether you were a player, a member of the staff, a fan, a journalist ... Glenn made people feel seen.
He personified how sports are meant to be coached.
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"He loved coaching football," said current Montana coach Bobby Kennedy. "That's how I’ll always think of Joe Glenn.”
Now 77, Glenn is in a difficult place. In February, his son Casey shared through social media Glenn's Alzheimer's diagnosis, a cruel twist for a coach whose recall was as reliable as a Montana victory at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Glenn's tenure as the head coach at UM was short — just three seasons. But it produced a 39-6 overall record (.867), a 20-2 mark in Big Sky Conference games, three league titles and a national championship in 2001, the last time the Grizzlies scaled the mountaintop.
Glenn was previously an offensive assistant at Montana under Larry Donovan from 1980-85. He then went on to Northern Colorado, which included a run as head coach from 1989-99 that included back-to-back Division II national titles in 1996 and 1997.
The wins and losses paled in comparison to the way Glenn built relationships.
Kennedy, who was named Montana's head coach in February after the sudden departure of Bobby Hauck, played quarterback during Glenn's tenure as an assistant at UNC. Kennedy remembers Glenn as a sincere, energetic coach who made everyone feel valued, a man whose attention to people left a bigger mark than any single game.
"Coach Glenn has had such great impact on me," Kennedy said during the Big Sky Kickoff media event in Spokane, Wash. "I played for him at Northern Colorado, and even though I wasn’t the best player he always took such a great interest in me, and I think all of his players would tell you that.
"There's no doubt he's going through a tough battle. But I'll say this about coach Glenn: the times that I've talked to him since I became head coach, boy, it was like we were talking when I was playing for him. He was sharp. He was engaged. He asked about my family. Just such a sincere person and a great man."
Glenn's arrival in Missoula was met with high hopes. The Grizzlies had won a national championship in 1995 in Don Read's final season and returned to the title game in 1996 in Mick Dennehy's first. Dennehy's four-year tenure was strong — UM's offense in 1999 was ridiculous — but the team never got out of the first round of the playoffs in 1997, '98 or '99.
Montana was on the championship cusp when Glenn got to Missoula ahead of the 2000 season. They got back to the title game that season and then won it all in 2001, a 13-6 victory over Furman in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Glenn's smiling, piano-playing persona captivated the state.
"I saw a tweet the other night of him playing 'Up with Montana,' and that's Joe Glenn," Kennedy said. "That's how we want to remember him because he had such a dynamic and energetic personality. And he loved the University of Montana."
Yeah, "The Streak" ended under his watch, but by 2002 Glenn was most definitely a hot commodity. He left Montana to take the head job at Wyoming before the 2003 season, and in his second year he led the Cowboys to victory over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl, the school's first postseason win in 38 years.
In June of 2005, Glenn was featured on the cover of the Sporting News with the headline:
Meet the coach who could fix
-Alabama
-Colorado
-UCLA
-Penn State
Hyperbole? Not really. Glenn's Wyoming tenure included signature wins over Ole Miss (twice), Tennessee and Virginia, and in 2003 the Cowboys beat both of their top rivals — Colorado State and BYU — which hadn't happened in the same year since 1988.
Ultimately, Glenn was let go following the 2008 season. He dabbled in football broadcasting for a few years before returning as head coach of his alma mater, South Dakota, from 2012-15.
With 200 victories and national titles at two separate levels, there is now an active push to put "Cowboy Joe" in the College Football Hall of Fame. He is on the ballot for the first time for consideration for the 2027 induction class.
Ed Lamb, the head coach at Northern Colorado who is in the midst of a challenging rebuild with the Bears, also talked about Glenn's impact during the Big Sky Kickoff.
"He always struck me as a leader of men that did it in his own style," Lamb said. "He wasn't a caricature of a coach. He was himself. He had a great personality. He could speak to anybody.
"I was a young coach at the time coming up, and he talked to me. He had some great philosophies. I remember him talking about building programs from the ground up, and it's still something that I use. He he would say it's a huge task. 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.' And I know that he didn't invent that, but that was a big thing for him that he always talked about with building his programs.
"He left a tremendous legacy with the alumni and the fans in Greeley. They saw him and still see him as as one of them. Approachable and friendly and always full of energy. He loved Greeley, he loved UNC, and he left it in a better spot."
Alzheimer's may now be stealing a piece of Glenn, but it can't touch the way he made people feel. And the sentiments that have poured in for a coach whose sincerity and ability to make those around him feel valued is the absolute proof.
