Grizzly Statue

In 1968, Rudy Autio sculpted the grizzly statue that marks the University of Montana's oval, and today Cooper is riding his balance bike around it. The statue is one of the city's better known landmarks -- I've met Craigslist vendors here as well as friends; I bike by it most days on the way to work. The grizzly is seven feet tall and weighs several thousand pounds and took a year to create. Most everyone who comes to campus eventually gets their photo taken in front of it, with Mt. Sentinel soaring behind and the clock tower in the foreground. But today, Cooper's happy to ring it a few times on his Strider, angling around students pausing at the statue for a break.