BILLINGS, Mont. – The Yellowjacket Athletics Association (YAA) announced Tuesday that the department’s Athletics Scholarship Endowment would be renamed the Bruce Parker Athletics Scholarship Endowment in honor of the late Montana athletics legend Bruce Parker ’79.
“While I had the privilege of only knowing Bruce for such a short time, his passion for EMC/MSUB and athletics was evident,” MSUB senior development officer Nick Schmidt said. “We wanted to find the appropriate way to honor him that was a proper reflection of his distinguished career, and when this idea was suggested, it was perfect. This allows Bruce’s legacy to be forever attached to all of the sports at MSUB — how we would like to think he would have wanted it.”
While Parker was a Bobcat, Saint, and a Battlin’ Bear, he got his start as a Yellowjacket. Before starting his legendary administrative career, he played tennis for Eastern Montana College for four years and served as student body president as a senior. He was inducted into the MSUB Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020.
Parker then started his athletic administration career at MSU Bozeman before serving as the athletic director at Carroll College and Rocky Mountain College until his retirement in 2018. He was selected as AD of the year of the Frontier Conference nine times and Under Armor National AD of the year three times. He has also been inducted into six different halls of fame: Montana State Bozeman, Carrol College, Rocky Mountain College, Montana State Billings, and National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
If you would like to donate the Bruce Parker Athletics Scholarship Endowment, click here or contact Yellowjacket Athletics Senior Development Officer Nick Schmidt.