Montana State Northern Lights & Skylights Athletics

Though NMC's participation in football from 1965 to 1972 was short-lived, under first-year coach Tom Reynolds' leadership the team won a divisional championship in 1965 and five Northern Lights were named to the Montana Collegiate Conference (MCC) championship team. The teams' overall record was 5-2 and conference record was 4-1. The team won the second MCC divisional championship that year, the only two grid titles in the school's history. Later that year, Tom was named MCC football coach of the year. In 1971, the NMC baseball team under coach Reynolds shared the Frontier Conference championship with Eastern Montana College and advanced to the Northwest regional baseball play-offs ultimately winning a berth in the Regional NAIA play-offs. In 1976, he developed a booster club for athletics and initiated an annual fund drive, an effort which has grown today to include institutional fund raising activities as the Northern Foundation. He was named Director of Development in 1979 and following his retirement form the MSU-Northern faculty, was hired by the Foundation as executive Director.