Ronnie Counts calls me “Guy.”

That’s what he calls all men and boys when he knows that he knows us but doesn’t know our name. I fall under that category.

Ronnie knows me pretty well. He knows my son, and he knows that he had some health issues a few years back. When Grady isn’t with me, Ronnie asks, “How’s your boy?”

You can tell that he genuinely cares about him. You just can’t fake that kind of sincerity, and Ronnie is nothing if not sincere.

Ronnie knows legendary sportswriter Bruce Sayler by name. Bruce is one of the lucky few, and he knew I worked with Bruce. After Bruce suffered a heart attack and was severely injured in the crash the attack caused in 2002, Ronnie would come up to me to ask, “How’s Bruce?”

Of course, just about everybody in town knows Ronnie. Most of us call him “Coach Ron” or “Coach Ronnie” or simply “Coach.”

Ronnie is a Special Olympian, and he has been a part of so many teams. He has “coached” with the Butte High Bulldogs, Butte Central Maroons, Montana Tech Orediggers and countless other teams around town.

He used to direct the band at every school in town, and he often dressed up as an umpire at local softball games when he was younger.

I have known Ronnie for as long as I can remember. When I was in junior high school, I used to work the concession stand at the Stodden Park softball fields.

Ronnie would come to the counter and say something like, “I’d buy a hotdog and a pop, but I have no money.”

Or, he’d throw a handful of pennies, nickels and dimes on the counter and say, “What can I get for this?”

Of course, Ronnie’s money was never good at the concession stand when I worked. He got whatever he wanted for free, and he was not shy at all about taking advantage of that.

Ronnie, who can eat more hotdogs than Joey Chesnut, truly is a Butte legend. He has been at the heart of so many great Butte sports moments that it is hard to even begin to count them all.

When he addressed a packed Butte Civic Center full of athletes before the Special Olympic State Basketball tournament in 2019, former NFL player Colt Anderson told the crowd that Ronnie was his favorite coach of all time.

We all have our favorite Ronnie story, and mine is one that has been going on for about eight years now. It started when I took a photo of Ronnie holding up a BC towel while he was sitting on the end of the team bench during a divisional basketball tournament at the Maroon Activities Center.

It was a pretty cool photo that I put in the photo gallery inside the game story on ButteSports.com.

Not long after I took that photo, my computer crashed. Luckily, I still had all the all the photos on the website. Or so I thought.

For reasons I will never understand, the guy redesigning ButteSports.com decided to trash all the photos that we had on the site from 2012 into 2016.

Sure, I have all the photos somewhere on laptops of that have long since crashed. But getting them off the computers is above my technological savvy.

I believe I have three computers like that in my basement because PC laptops, in my experience, only last two years.

Not long after the ill-advice decision to trash our ButteSports.com photos, Ronnie started to ask me for copies of the photos I took of him.

“Hey guy,” he will say when I see him. “You get those photos for me?”

He has literally asked me that more than 100 times. I feel like I am disappointed him every time I see him. He does not understand the reason I do not have the photos.

He kept asking even after I gave up the job with ButteSports.com and started officiating basketball games. Ronnie will see me standing in the officials costume across the court and walk over. “Hey Guy,” he will say. “You got those photos yet?”

Ronnie is never disappointed that I don’t have the photos. He always laughs at me, and I tell him I will work on it.

Ronnie showed up in uniform to coach the Butte Muckers during their June baseball tournament in Butte. During one game, he came up to the press box, where I was working as the public address announcer, because it was an unseasonably cold day.

“I’d buy one of those sweatshirts,” Ronnie said, “but I didn’t bring my money.”

It was like I was at the concession stand again. I knew exactly what Ronnie was getting at, but he would never flat-out ask me to buy him a hoodie. But he did ask me to drive him home so he could get a sweatshirt.

So, my wife and I bought Ronnie a “Muck Show” hoodie, and he was happy as could be as he pulled it over his head. He was also very grateful.

“Thanks guy,” Ronnie said. “You get those photos yet?”

This weekend, I will have more than a photo for Ronnie. We will have a plaque for him during the Green Jacket Ceremony of the Butte Sports Hall of Fame induction. Ronnie will get to take that plaque home, while a replica will forever hang on the wall with the Butte Sports immortals of the Hall of Fame in the lobby of the Civic Center.

Ronnie wasn’t voted into the Hall of Fame as a Green Jacket, but he will be the recipient of our first Special Olympics Lifetime Achievement Award. We are inviting every Special Olympian in town to walk down the aisle and go on stage with Ronnie as he receives the special honor.

We plan honor a Special Olympian every time we induct a Hall of Fame class moving forward. It is something that is long overdue.

“Special Olympian” is not just a clever term. Those athletes truly are special. If Special Olympians ran the world, it would be a much better place. There would be no war, and everyone would be happy to take care of everyone else.

None is more special that Coach Ron. Not in these parts.

This honor, though, is not an attempt to stop Ronnie from asking me for those photos. I know that will never happen.

I know that because Coach Ron was in uniform as the Butte Miners won the South A District American Legion baseball tournament in Butte in July of 2022. Of course, the team went on to win the Class A State title and the Northwest Class A Regional title, and Ronnie was on Cloud 9.

After the District championship game, I took a picture of Ronnie with a handful of Miners players. Ronnie was happy as could be in the photo.

The next day, I got a print of the photo and put it in a nice frame. I brought it by Ronnie’s apartment to give it to him. While I did not have those other photos, I knew Ronnie would be thrilled with the photo I gave him.

He might even forget about the other photos, I figured. I figured wrong.

When I handed Ronnie the photo, he looked at it and beamed. I could tell that he was really happy with the picture.

With a big smile on his face, he held it out and stared at the photo for what had to be 30 seconds.

“Thanks Guy,” Ronnie said as he turned to look at me. “You got those other photos yet?”

— Bill Foley, who answers to Guy, Bill, Billy, Mac or Buddy, 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.