Rob Stark, a three-sport star from Polson High School and the University of Montana, was also a legendary MSU track and field coach. His illustrious history was recently honored when Montana State University named its new athletic facility after him.  

As a Polson Pirate, Stark played football and basketball with his first coaching role model, Darryl Dupuis. He also was on the track, competing in pole vault, high jump and 4x400 meters relay.  

“He played all the sports. His senior year, they went all the way to the state championship game in Butte,” said his brother, Andy Stark. “He comes from a family of seven boys and we all played sports and he was probably one of the more outstanding of our brothers.” 

After his tenure as a Polson Pirate, Stark headed to the University of Montana where he played football from 1970-73 and ran track for another two years, along with playing one year on the freshman basketball team. In 1976 he joined the Grizzly track and field program as a coach.  

He was let go after one year as coach for the Grizzlies according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle but that didn’t stop the young athlete. Stark then applied for the athletic director position at MSU and was hired.  

“Probably the most impactful person in my life is head coach Dupuis,” Stark said in an interview with the Leader. “He impacted me back then in grade school and high school and I kind of modeled my coaching after him.” 

Stark prevailed and took on the position of athletic director at MSU, where he would then coach men’s track and field for 24 years.  

“I'd say i It's fair to say he built the MSU men's track program up from basically intramural level. It was pretty much unfunded when he got here, and hadn't had any considerable success for years,” said Bill Lamberty, the sports information director at MSU, of Stark's last 10 years as coach. “He built it up to be basically a conference championship contender by the time he left.”  

The 120,000-square-foot athletic facility is also named after Dale Kennedy, who began as a women’s head track coach in 1981 and led both programs later in his career. The building features practice facilities for the Bobcat football team and a competition-ready track and field.  

With a 100-yard turf surface track there is also a six lane, 300-meter track that includes jumping pits, throwing sectors and a pole-vaulting area. This indoor facility is the only space on campus where the entire Bobcat football team can practice at the same time.  

MSU broke ground on this building, located on the southwest side of the Bobcat Stadium, in July 2024. The project was fully donor funded and Lamberty notes that some of the donors requested that it be named after Stark and Kennedy.  

Stark was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1984 and has been wheelchair-bound since 1991. Nonetheless, he told the Chronicle that he was perhaps most effective later in his career.  

"I think I did some of my best coaching from my wheelchair," he said to the Chronicle. "It really started changing my attitude about ability. I was seeing young, good looking, intelligent, athletically gifted kids never taking the opportunity to say, 'I did a good job.'” 

The facility has nets to safely host concurrent practices across track and field and it will be open during specified evenings and weekend hours for community athletics. Bobcat athletics hosted a grand opening of the Kennedy-Stark Athletic Center on Aug. 18. 

    The Kennedy-Stark Athletic Center. (Kelly Gorham / Courtesy of MSU)