They had access to the head coach that most college football boosters could only dream about.

After Montana Tech home football games, they would visit with Oredigger head coach Bob Green in his office. They would get to the office long before the coach, and they would be there ready to ask questions.

I was lucky enough to cover Green’s Orediggers for The Montana Standard for a decade, and going to his office for a postgame interview was always one of my favorite things. Almost every time, I could count on seeing Chas Jeniker, Jack Ferriter and Ed Skubitz.

Sometimes other people were there to see the coach. Chas, Jack and “Skubie,” tough, there more than most. It was like a press conference in the cramped office, but I was the only member of the media present.

Sometimes an out-of-town writer would crash the party, but usually it was the four of us interrogating Coach Green about his latest win or, God forbid, loss.

I never had to ask Green a tough question after a home game because Chas, Jack and Skubie would always be there to grill the coach. 

We lost Chas at the age of 88 in the fall of 2013, and Jack passed at 80 the following spring. Skubie died at the age of 83 on Dec. 16, and news of his passing brought me back to those postgame conversations in Coach Green’s office.

Chas, Jack and Skubie were not there to harass the coach. They were three of his best friends. They loved Coach Green. If you ran into Coach Green at an establishment around town, there was a good bet that at least one of those three were with him.

Those three would have run into a burning building for the coach.

But when his team lost, they wanted answers. They wanted to know why he didn’t run the ball on that short-yardage situation. They wanted to know why the heck he would attempt a field goal that long.

They wanted to know why he deferred to the second half instead of taking the ball when winning the coin toss.

Coach Green was known for his many sayings. One of his best was about how people dealt with winning and losing.

“Victory has a thousand fathers,” Green would say. “Defeat is an orphan.”

There might not be a truer statement. After an Oredigger game, fans would proclaim that “we won.” If the Orediggers did not win, they would say “they lost.” 

Green was the exact opposite of that as a coach. He owned every loss, whether it was his fault or not. He always deflected the credit to the players, assistant coaches and even the fans when the Oreidggers were victorious, which they were way more than not when Green was coaching.

Win or lose, Chas, Jack and Skubie were there to ask why.

There intentions were always good, and they were always nice. But they wanted answers.

Sometimes Green would just humor the guys when they asked questions. Other times, he would take their questions and comments to heart and admit he was wrong.

A football coach has the option to be wrong on every play. If he calls for a play-action pass on third and short, he is an idiot of the quarterback throws an incomplete pass. If the same play goes for a big gain, then the coach is a genius.

So many play calls have the same 50/50 ration of idiot/genius. Fans do not always acknowledge that, but Green did. He would admit when he was wrong, partially because Chas, Jack and Skubie made him.

Fittingly, the obituaries of those three men each mentioned the Orediggers. Skubie’s mentioned Coach Green by name. The obituary called Skubie a “huge fan.”

That is a bit of an understatement. Skubie never missed a game when Green was in charge of the Orediggers. He never even missed a scrimmage, usually catching those practice games with his Golden Retriever by his side. He watched a lot of regular practices, too.

Skubie was always kind and gentle. He was always positive, and he was always looking out for others. He didn’t grill the coach as much as Jack, who would implore Coach Green for more “Ball control, Big Boy.”

We saw Skubie’s dedication to his community in the mid 1980s. After his 26-year career working for the Anaconda Co., Skubie was instrumental in the construction of the Our Lady of the Rockies stature.

We saw it when he served as a heavy equipment instructor at the Anaconda Job Corps for 15 years. He shared his skills and knowledge with all the students.

Skubie was known for his mastery of cranes, and he was always willing to pass that down to others.

Skubie, a 1958 graduate of Butte High School, played football for Ed Simonich at the School of Mines. The last time I talked to Skubie, he was thinking about one of his teammates with the Orediggers.

Three years ago this month, Skubie called me to tell me about his teammate and longtime friend Ray Goldsworthy. Ray passed away two days before Christmas in 2020, and his obituary was not published until Jan. 10.

Because it was in the middle of the COVID pandemic, so there was no immediate funeral service. That meant no chance for guys like Skubie to say goodbye to their old friend.

So, Skubie called me to see if I would write something about his friend, and I did.

Before he was a professor in Las Vegas, Ray was an accomplished boxer, baseball player and bowler in the Mining City. Skubie pointed out that his old pal also perfected the art of setting the pins in a bowling alley.

Back before automation took over, setting pins used to be a great way for kids to make money.

“He could set pins in two lanes at the same time,” Skubie said. “The good bowlers wanted a good pin setter, and nobody was better than Ray.”

One thing that really stood out to Skubie was Ray’s memory. Skubie said Ray was like an encyclopedia. He was Google before there was Google.

“He was just a guy who knew everything,” Skubie said. “If I wanted to know who played in the 1960 bowl game or something, he could tell me.”

Ray’s obituary started with an old, but great line: “You can take the boy out of Butte, but you can’t take the Butte out of the boy.”

“He was just a great guy,” Skubie said. “He was one of the good ol’ boys in Butte.”

Now we have to say goodbye to Skubie. We will get the chance during a summer memorial, and the date of that service will be set at a later time.

Just like he said about Ray, Skubie was unquestionably one of the good guys in Butte. He was quite simply one of the nicest men you could ever know.

He was even pretty nice during those rare occasions when Coach Green’s Orediggers lost a game.

— Bill Foley can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.