Rosenberg never banked on pro career

But when he was cut by Cincinnati and there was talk of trying to hook on with a different team, possibly Kansas City, the Whitefish native opted to take a different path.

He went back to UM as a graduate assistant in the fall of 1975 to complete his degree and then try to hook on with the new NFL expansion team in Seattle.

But having been married since after his sophomore year and with finances and school hanging over him, Rosenberg decided it was time to give up dreams of pro football and get back to real life.

While he was at UM pro scouts had come through and there had been other contacts from NFL teams indicating he was under consideration.

Oddly enough the first pro football game Rosenberg ever saw in person was the 1975 Hall of Fame Game that he played in.

"It was an eye opener," Rosenberg recalled. "My recollection . . . was that it was a whole different ball game. The college game was a real lack of finesse and everything was played with high emotion.

"The pro game . . . was more of a finesse game and people kind of protected themselves a little bit in an effort to prolong a career since they were making a living out of it," he added.

It was 34 years ago that Rosie - as he was nicknamed probably even before his college days - finished playing for the Montana Grizzlies. For the past four-plus years the president of Valley Bank in Kalispell, Rosenberg said in some ways it seems like yesterday.

"Other than the loss of hair I still feel like I could go out and strap it on weekends out there," Rosenberg quipped.

He's been in the banking field for almost 25 years. Rosenberg says being a bank president has been challenging but certainly has had its rewards.

After finishing school Rosenberg worked as a sales person for Earl's Distributing and Zip Beverage companies in Missoula. Then he covered Montana and eastern Washington for a liquor brokerage firm based in Seattle.

Following a management training program he entered the banking business in Kalispell in about 1985.

Rosenberg and his family had been living in the Bitterroot Valley, and he said he hadn't really appreciated his home area until he had been away from it for awhile.

When their first child was born asthmatic the Rosenberg's were advised to move away from Missoula's poor air quality. Their doctor said eastern Montana would be preferable, but Ron and Karen decided to give his old home country a shot first.

Fortunately, he said, it worked out for their daughter and them.

Rosenberg said he had several opportunities to go to schools other than UM, but at that point he looked at athletics more as a game than a possible livelihood.

"I didn't really have any desire to leave the state," he recalled. "I was from a close-knit family and Missoula gave me the opportunity to play close to my home and allow my parents to be at every game."

It also helped that he had a lot of friends going to UM, not just from the Flathead Valley but from teams he had played against throughout the state.

The Grizzlies had just come off back-to-back 10-0 regular seasons and a pair of Camellia Bowl appearances and were viewed as extremely competitive.

And he liked the coaches.

Even though Rosenberg felt he could compete at the Big Sky Conference level there were still elements of the unknown for a young guy coming out of a small high school.

"I was being recruited with the idea that I could compete as a freshman," Rosenberg remembered, noting that 1971 was the first year freshmen were eligible under NCAA rules to play varsity football.

Besides, Montana had trips to Hawaii on both the 1971 and 1972 schedules. That also got Rosenberg's attention.

"I went down with the intention of somehow making the traveling team as a freshman," Rosenberg laughed, "so I could go to Hawaii."

Rosenberg worked to convince Grizzly coaches that he could play both ways. He started out the 1971 season at third-string linebacker and second-strong offensive tackle and also made special teams.

By the ninth game of his freshman season, again Montana State, Rosenberg was the starting middle linebacker for the Grizzlies.

Rosenberg was about 225 pounds when he arrived at UM in the fall of 1971. By the time he finished his career he weighed 245 and that, along with his speed, helped attract the pro scouts.

Rosenberg was honored with the Golden Helmet Award as UM's hardest hitter in 1974 and was All-Big Sky first team at linebacker in 1972 and 1974. He capped his career by being named an Associated Press All-American after the 1974 season.

"We didn't have the greatest success as far as the won-loss record (the Grizzlies were 16-25-1 when he played)," Rosenberg said, "but defensively, as a team, we did well, and individually it did amount to some post-season honors."

Looking back at things now, Rosenberg said he always has regretted not dedicating himself more to trying to make it in pro football.

"I look back and know that physically and mentally . . . I was capable," he said. "I was the largest linebacker (in) both height and weight. I was the fastest linebacker in Cincinnati."

The Bengals said the only way they would have kept him would have been on the taxi squad because he had come from a run-dominated conference while the pros were more into passing at that time. He simply needed more seasoning.

"I guess there was a lack of a burning desire to fulfill that," Rosenberg lamented, "and that influenced my decision."

Rosenberg said close to 50 percent of the Grizzly football team was married during his time at UM. Karen hailed from Kalispell but the two actually met at school in Missoula.

Their daughter is now 30 years old and an educator. She and her husband recently moved back to the Flathead from Portland, Ore. along with their two young children.

Son Joel is 28. He also played for the Grizzlies including their 2001 national championship team. Joel also went into the banking business, also in the Portland area, and joined his father at Valley Bank about three years ago.

Asked how it felt to watch his son play Grizzly football, Rosenberg said, "It made me extremely envious to go down into that facility and see the caliber of competition that they were playing, the support of Missoula, the filling of the stadium, all the opportunities that they were given.

"I wish that I'd have been born 25, 30 years later," he added.

Rosenberg really liked the idea that the majority of his fellow Grizzly players were Montana kids whose names he had been reading in the newspaper box scores for years before he came to Missoula.

"So these are friendships . . . that really started in high school that you were able to carry on through college," Rosenberg pointed out. "And once you become an empty nester the university really attracts those people back . . . and you get an opportunity to re-establish those old friendships."

As a result Rosenberg has rekindled his relationship with Walt and Candy Brett and continued his relationship with Jim and Liv Leid. And there are a number of ex-Grizzly players living in the Flathead Valley to boot.

A number of people had a strong influence on the young Rosenberg, starting with the "life lessons" he learned from defensive coordinator Jack Elway.

"I thought we lost an awful lot when Jack left during my career down there," Rosenberg said. "Just everything he was about - the intensity and knowledge - I think he stabilized that staff. I learned an awful lot from him."

Others were head coach Jack Swarthout ("There's probably not too many finer human beings") and athletic trainer Naseby Rhinehart ("a wonderful influence on everyone that attended the university").

The arrival of Jud Heathcote to coach men's basketball starting in 1971 added some fire to the campus atmosphere as well.

Team doctor Bob Curry also drew praise from Rosenberg as a "calming influence around (the) athletic program," as did longtime equipment manager Rupert Holland as a "true character."

During his short time with the Cincinnati Bengals Rosenberg developed a huge amount of respect for team owner and coach Paul Brown.

"That was a human being that has added value to my life as well," Rosenberg noted.

"There are some people that you'll remember forever."