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A grizzly Super Bowl prediction

Willie the grizzly cub picks the Philadelphia Eagles as the Super Bowl winners
ZooMontana
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ZooMontana
Willie the grizzly cub picks the Philadelphia Eagles as the Super Bowl winners

Another wildly unpredictable Super Bowl prognostication Wednesday morning by a pair of Billings brothers.

Despite the single digit morning temperatures nearly a dozen very cold humans gathered outside the grizzly bear enclosure at ZooMontana for the zoo’s annual big game prediction.

Grizzlies have special meaning in Montana, although Willie and George are unfamiliar with offense and defense--quarterback sacks for loss or yards per carry, especially in this, their first year doing Super Bowl picks.

But they do like the homemade banana cakes with peanut butter. In their enclosure were two displays with cakes--one decorated with the Philadelphia Eagles logo and one with the Kansas City Chiefs logo.

The humans present reacted as the cubs wandered near the display:

“ There it is….The Eagles…he picks the Eagles!”

It was Willie who waddled over to the Philadelphia Eagles display and made his pick official by biting into the Eagles cake. George ended up picking the Chiefs cake but too late.

For those looking for an edge in a Super Bowl bet, Zoo Executive Director Jeff Ewelt says their animal predictors have been pretty accurate, with Ozzy the elder grizzly the most accurate before his retirement.

“Ozzy was the best. He was accurate. He missed one time. I think he did it 7 times. Did he miss twice? His last year maybe he did,” explained Ewelt.

Ewelt says of their other prognosticators the past few years, Sid the wolverine was two for two and Pabu the red panda was one and one.

Kay Erickson has been working in broadcasting in Billings for more than 20 years. She spent well over a decade as news assignment editor at KTVQ-TV before joining the staff at YPR. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, with a degree in broadcast journalism. Shortly after graduation she worked in Great Falls where she was one of the first female sports anchor and reporter in Montana.