The University of Montana will add three of its most decorated names to the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame, the school’s athletic department said Tuesday, naming basketball guard Will Cherry, sprinter Loni Perkins-Judisch and longtime tennis coach Kris Nord to the class of 2026. The three will be honored at a banquet on Sept. 11 in Missoula and recognized on the field the next day during Montana’s home football game against Utah Tech.
The three share a thread of longevity. Cherry still holds Montana’s career steals record more than a decade after his final game, and Perkins-Judisch finished with more Big Sky Conference titles than any track athlete in program history. Nord coached Grizzly teams for 42 years before retiring in 2024.
A 2026 Class Joins 87 Grizzly Greats
The Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame was founded in 1993 to recognize the athletes, coaches and teams who brought distinction to University of Montana athletics. With the class of 2026 added, it now counts 87 former athletes, coaches and teams. The full membership sits on the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame roster of inductees.
The entry rules explain the gap between a career and the honor. Athletes become eligible 10 years after their Montana careers end, while coaches qualify as soon as they retire or leave the school in good standing. Perkins-Judisch last competed in 2008 and Cherry in 2013, so both cleared the decade-long waiting period before this nomination. Nord, who left in 2024, qualified right away.
| Inductee | Discipline | Years at Montana | Signature mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will Cherry | Men’s basketball | 2009-13 | All-time program steals leader |
| Loni Perkins-Judisch | Track and field | 2003-08 | 12 Big Sky titles, most by a Grizzly track athlete |
| Kris Nord | Tennis and golf, coach | 1982-2024 | 42-year tenure across three programs |
All three competed or coached inside the Big Sky Conference, the league Montana has called home for decades and where these careers were built. Their numbers still anchor parts of the school record book.
Will Cherry Still Owns Montana’s Steals Record
Will Cherry arrived in Missoula from Oakland, California, and left as one of the better mid-major guards in the country. He played on some of the most successful basketball teams in school history, and his fingerprints remain all over the program’s career leaderboards.
A Backcourt Leader on a 93-35 Run
Over Cherry’s four seasons the Griz went 93-35 overall and 55-11 in the Big Sky, including a school-record 14 straight wins during the 2011-12 campaign. They went 6-2 against in-state rival Montana State, the program that recently won the FCS football crown, and 8-1 in the Big Sky Tournament. Montana captured two regular-season titles and three tournament titles in that span, reaching three NCAA Tournaments. In his junior and senior years the Grizzlies went a combined 34-2 in conference play.
Cherry remains the program’s all-time leader with 265 career steals. He ranks 12th in scoring with 1,484 points and sixth in assists with 397, one of only five players in school history to record 1,000 points, 300 rebounds and 300 assists. He was a three-time First Team All-Big Sky pick and a two-time Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year. His teams ended Weber State’s season three years running, twice in the conference title game, during the stretch when Damian Lillard, later named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, starred for the Wildcats. You can check Will Cherry’s Montana career statistics on the school site.
From an NBA Cup of Coffee to a Dozen Years in Europe
Cherry earned a communications degree in four years and became the first male in his family to graduate from college. He then played eight games for the Cleveland Cavaliers and appeared in 46 G League games for Santa Cruz, averaging 9 points and 4.2 assists. The longer chapter came overseas. He won a Lithuanian League title in 2015 with Zalgiris Kaunas, a German Cup in 2016 with Alba Berlin, an ABA League Supercup in 2017 with Gaziantep, and a Croatian League title in 2018 with Cedevita Zagreb, where he was named Croatian Cup MVP. He recently finished his 12th European season with Boulazac in France, a run documented across his EuroLeague professional player profile.
Loni Perkins-Judisch Won 12 Big Sky Titles
Loni Perkins-Judisch, from Conrad, dominated the 400 meters and the sprints for Montana across the middle of the 2000s. She left with 12 Big Sky Conference titles, four more than any other track athlete in program history. Her eight individual titles are the most ever by a female Grizzly and tie her with Jas Gill and Doug Brown for the most across the entire program.
Her championships came in waves, indoors and out:
- Five indoor Big Sky titles, three in the 400m plus the 200m and the distance medley relay
- Four outdoor Big Sky individual titles in the 400m, including seven straight 400m crowns across the indoor and outdoor seasons
- Four outdoor Big Sky 4x400m relay titles
At the national level she reached the West Regional in the 400m four times and made the final in 2008, placing eighth. That same year she was named both the Big Sky Indoor and Outdoor Championship Athlete of the Meet, one of a handful of Grizzly women to claim either award. Her marks held up too: she sits second all-time in the indoor 400m at 53.48 and held the school indoor 200m record at 24.39. She now lives back in Conrad, where she runs the family ranch and a photography business.
How Kris Nord Built Two Tennis Programs Over 42 Years
Kris Nord, a Missoula native and Montana alum, spent most of his life around the Grizzly athletic department. His 42-year coaching career covered both tennis teams and women’s golf, a span few coaches anywhere match at a single school.
From Sentinel High to the Adams Center
Nord graduated from Missoula Sentinel High School in 1976, winning the Class AA state tennis title as a senior and earning all-state honors in football and basketball. Recruited to play football for the Grizzlies, he chose a tennis scholarship to UNLV instead, then transferred to Boise State, where he won the Big Sky title at No. 3 singles and was named the school’s Big Sky Scholar-Athlete in 1981. He later earned a degree in health and human performance from Montana in 1986.
Hired in 1982 to coach UM’s two tennis teams, Nord took sole charge of both in 1986 and was named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in women’s tennis that year. He guided Montana men’s tennis to its first Big Sky regular-season title in 2012, taking Coach of the Year honors that season and again in 2014, when the Grizzlies won the conference tournament and reached their first NCAA Tournament. He also ran the golf program twice, pulling triple duty from 1993 to 1996 and returning as golf coach from 2018 until his retirement.
A Family Name in Grizzly Athletics
The Nord name runs through generations of Montana sports. His late father, Ron, was the head men’s basketball coach from 1962 to 1968 and an assistant football coach from 1969 to 1974. His brothers Jeff and Mark both played basketball for the Grizzlies. Few individuals have a connection to the athletic department as wide or as long as the one Nord built. Montana’s tennis programs, the recruiting pipeline he helped sustain, and the homegrown talent the school keeps landing, including recent Missoula commit Evan Pyron picking the Griz, all sit downstream of coaches who stayed.
When the Three Will Be Honored in September
The class will be celebrated at the induction banquet on Sept. 11, with banquet details and tickets set to be released soon. The following day, the three will be recognized on the field during Montana’s football game against Utah Tech. Athletic director Kent Haslam, who worked alongside Nord and watched both athletes compete, framed the group as record-setters who shaped the department.
It is an honor to welcome another outstanding class to the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame. I had the privilege of working with Kris and watching both Loni and Will compete for the Grizzlies. All three had record-setting careers and left their personal mark on Grizzly Athletics. This department is better off because these three spent time at the University of Montana.
Those words came from Kent Haslam, Montana’s director of athletics, in Tuesday’s announcement. The banquet is set for Sept. 11 and the on-field recognition for Sept. 12.
