Billings, Montana

From Butte’s The Montana Standard of October 10, 2007

Athlete recovering from mauling

A Carroll College student is recovering from a severed hamstring and other injuries suffered when he was mauled by a grizzly bear while bow hunting over the weekend.

Roman Morris, who is a freshman wide receiver on Carroll’s football team, said he was crouched on a hillside north of Gardiner at dawn Saturday when a female grizzly bear walking by turned and attacked him.

‘‘It charged down the hill and just drilled me,’’ said Morris, 21, of Whitewater.

Over the next 30 to 45 seconds, Morris fought with the bear as it bit and clawed, severed his left hamstring, punctured his shoulder, chomped at his head and tossed him around.

‘‘I thought the whole time, This is so messed up. I’m going to die, I’m going to die,’’’ said Morris, a pre-med major.

The bear ran off after a friend fired a pistol. Morris underwent surgery at a Livingston hospital and was recuperating Monday at his brother’s house in Helena.

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