Frank Montague, Sr. (1968) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Frank Montague, Sr.

Induction:
1968

There are some athletes who become legends with their exploits on the playing fields. Who provide magical moments that teammates, opponents, fans and coaches remember as long as they live.
   But in sports there is one thing that is almost always true and that is those legends never can do it all by themselves.
   They need someone there who is equally as important and just as responsible for the accomplishments of the team and the school.
   Frank Montague, Sr. was one of those athletes that might not ever go down in history as one of the school’s all-time greats, but his contributions to the school and to the athletic department should not be minimized.
   Playing on the school’s first football and baseball teams Montague had a hand in laying the first bricks in the solid foundation that now supports one of the nation’s finest athletic programs.
   Montague is the only member of the first Southern Miss football team in 1912 to be inducted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame and that in itself is a testament to how school’s athletic administration and his contemporaries felt about his contributions to the school and its athletic programs.
   When the school then known as Mississippi Normal College first opened its doors on September 18, 1912 and a little more than three weeks later played its first football game, Montague was there as a part of both historic occasions.
   When he was inducted in 1968, in the fourth Hall of Fame Class, those that could remember having watched him play, remembered that he was a tough as nails player, who went full out from the opening whistle to the final gun.
   Playing a variety of positions as players did back then, Montague seemed to excel wherever Coach R. J. Slay elected to play him. Whether it was on offense or defense, Montague always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, and made the play.
   That first team in 1912 played the school’s first game that year on October 13 at Kamper Park in Hattiesburg, where they roughed up the Hattiesburg Boy Scouts 30-0. Although Montague didn’t score any touchdowns in that game, chances are that he was responsible for several, by either throwing a block or forcing the opposition into a mistake.
   That team would go on to play two more games in that inaugural season of football at Southern Miss and begin a wonderful history of football at the school.
   Montague’s contributions to Southern Miss and the athletic program would not stop there. Throughout his lifetime he contributed and supported the school and its athletics with gifts of money and land, and gifts of his time and through service.
   A Hall of Famer in more ways than one, Frank Montague, Sr. was also a pioneer in Southern Miss athletics, and his contributions given so long ago, still reap benefits today.