You will have to excuse me for not being old enough to remember it, but Dougie Peoples is not the only Butte player to hit a buzzer-beating shot on the University of Montana court in Missoula.

Peoples, of course, hit his 27-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Butte Central a 61-58 win over Lewistown in the Class A State championship game two years ago today.

On Friday, March 3, 1978, Butte High senior Brad Williams was the man of the hour for the Butte High Bulldogs.

Williams buried a 20-foot shot as time expired to give the Bulldogs a 67-65 win over Kalispell in a loser-out game of the Western AA Divisional tournament in the Harry Adams Fieldhouse, which is now called the Adams Center.

The shot, which came nine years before the 3-pointer was adopted in Montana high school basketball, sent the Bulldogs to the third-place game. They beat Missoula Hellgate 54-53 for the third-place trophy.

More importantly, Williams’ buzzer-beater sent the Bulldogs to the Class AA State tournament for the first time since 1973.

Williams was listed as 5-foot-8 on the Butte High roster, just like current Bulldog junior Tocher Lee, who hit an NBA-range 3-pointer March 2 in the Butte Civic Center to send the Bulldogs to the Class AA State tournament.

Curiously, Lee and the Bulldogs didn’t get a chance to play for third place of that Western AA Divisional because the Class AA administrators decided to no longer play the consolation game.

Unlike Lee, who played most of the game, Williams didn’t have much time to warm up. Bulldog coach Larry Ferguson sent Williams into the game with just 36 seconds left to play. That is when Butte Sports Hall of Famer Jim Anderson fouled out.

“I knew I had to shoot,” Williams told the great sportswriter Ed West, then a scribe for The Montana Standard. “Barry Sullivan was driving, and I hollered at him. I knew I just had to shoot.”

Williams then took a pass from Sullivan, also a Butte Sports Hall of Famer, in the right corner and launched a shot that swished as the buzzer sounded.

It wasn’t the only time Williams, not to be confused with the comedian and actor who shares his name, was clutch for Butte High. He hit two free throws with 16 seconds left to help Butte High seal its opening-round win over Libby two days earlier.

Like with the 2024 Bulldogs, Williams and the 1978 Bulldogs went on to finish fourth in the Class AA State tournament in Missoula. They fell 68-66 to Billings Senior in the third-place game.

But Williams’ legacy remains. Even after 46 years, he is still reminded of his heroic shot all the time. For those old enough to remember, Williams is still a hero,

Later, Gary Kane, Brianne McClafferty and Lee joined Williams with game-winning shots that advanced the Bulldogs in the postseason. 

The late, great Ryan Murphy hit a 15-foot jumper as time expired to send the Maroons to the 1990 Class A State championship game in Bozeman. As a player, it is hard to imagine a moment better than that.

There must be more big-time postseason buzzer-beaters for the Bulldogs and Maroons, I’m just not old enough to remember them all.

It is those moments that make high school basketball so great. We will remember the shots we have seen like that for the rest of our lives, and we will toast the players who made them.

Forty years from now, we will still tell others where we were when Peoples hit that shot in Missoula. We will talk about the many videos that we watched over and over for at least a month after the Maroons won that classic game.

If you don’t believe that, just watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade this Sunday. On the 40th anniversary of Butte High winning the Class AA State title in Missoula, the 1984 Butte High Bulldogs will once again take a victory lap.

It was on St. Patrick’s Day in 1984 when the Bulldogs beat Great Falls High 53-50 in the Class AA State championship game in Missoula. 

A Butte crowd made up a good portion of the 5,000 fans or so in the Harry Adams Fieldhouse — a disappointing turnout. The rest of Butte, America, though, watched at home or in bars as the game was broadcast live on television.

They got to listen to the Butte High students taunt broadcaster Steve Jahnke, who made some disparaging remarks about Mining City athletics. He didn’t like that Montana Standard sportswriter Jim Edgar called Butte the “City of Champions,” and the Butte High students had a good time pointing out to Jahnke that Edgar was right.

The AA championship tilt came one week after Butte Central beat Billings Central in a 76-73 Class A overtime thriller in the Butte Civic Center. Like the Maroons, the Bulldogs fell behind 9-0 before prevailing by three points.

That marked the first time two teams from the same city won State basketball titles in the Montana in the same season.

Those titles, which came about a month after Coach Jim Street’s Butte High wrestling team won its fifth straight crown, were so much more than basketball championships. At least they were to some of us.

The United States wasn’t technically in an economic depression then, but Butte sure as heck was. Our mines closed down earlier in the decade, and so many of our parents were out of work.

Butte was also in morning following the deaths of Butte High seniors Greg Pelletier and Paul King. They were killed in an automobile accident west of town on March 9. As they played, the Bulldogs wore black and green patches in honor of St. Patrick’s Day as well as Pelletier and King.

At the time the Bulldogs and Maroons cut down the nets, my house was definitely in a depression because my dad lost his job with the Anaconda Company, and he was forced to work out of town for most of the 1980s. 

I worried more than most kids who were about to turn 10 years old. My worries were always comforted by the steady hand of leadership of Chief Executive Don Peoples, who called Butte the “Can-Do City.” 

Watching the Bulldogs and Maroons win the title also gave me some validation that I still lived in the greatest city in America. Seeing the “City of Champions” in the newspaper made those economic worries disappear, at least for a little while.

That is why after 40 years, guys like Marc Murphy and Tom Kenney of Butte Central and Chris Rasmussen and Mickey Tuttle of Butte High still walk on water in my eyes.

In Butte, we remember champions. We celebrate the boys and girls who hit the big shot like Pawnee, Indiana residents remember “Pistol” Pete Disellio for his last-second dunk to beat Eagleton in 1992.

Just ask Jake Dennehy, whose last-second field goal gave the Bulldogs a win over Bozeman in the 2012 Class AA State championship football game at Naranche Stadium.

Thank heavens I am old enough to remember that one.

— Bill Foley, who was never on the court for a last-second shot, 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.