Sunday will mark the 40th anniversary of what might have been the greatest game in the history of Montana high school basketball.

That anniversary reminds us that the game is still larger than life, and for so many reasons.

On March 16, 1985, the Park High Rangers from Livingston beat the Butte Central Maroons in a 99-97 double-overtime thriller in the Class A State championship game at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman.

The anniversary will also mark 40 years of me being mad at my uncle Melvin D’Arcy. He didn’t have room for me to ride in his silly, little truck. He took his girlfriend and my brother, and I had to stay home to watch on TV or listen to the radio.

That leads me to why I’ve been mad at KXLF for 40 years. The television station did not broadcast the game, which was played 364 days after I watched KXLF and saw Butte High beat Great Falls High in the Class AA State championship game in Missoula.

Also, the KXLF radio station did not carry the game that night. The station employee who was supposed to “run the board” for the game suddenly walked off the job, leaving radio silence for Butte sports fans.

The game pitted the 1983 champion Rangers against the 1984 champion Maroons, and television and radio cullieded for the perfect storm of fan disappointment.

Bruce Sayler, then a sportswriter at The Montana Standard, said the lack of television and radio coverage paralyzed the newsroom that night, too. Jim Edgar was in Bozeman covering the game, while just about every other paper employee was answering phone calls from people looking for the score.

Every 5 minutes or so, Sayler would call Bruce Parker, then an employee of the Montana State athletic department. Parker, who was sitting at the scorer’s table, would shout the score of the game into the phone. Sayler would then relay the score to everyone in the newsroom, which included revelers who stumbled in off the streets while celebrating St. Urho’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

It must have been kind of like how fans followed the World Series back in the days before television and radio.

The lack of television also helped lead to four decades of misconception about the game officials. For 40 years, some Butte Central fans have blamed Mike Anderson for the loss. Anderson, a Butte High graduate, refereed that game with Pete Waylett of Dillon.

So many BC fans told me about the “phantom call” that led to Livingston senior guard John Moran shooting two free throws with 1 second left in the second overtime. It turns out the call was not phantom at all, and it wasn’t even made by Anderson, who is at least one of the best officials this state has ever seen.

A couple of weeks ago, Miles City scribe Zach Austin sent me a YouTube video he dug up about the game. It was from the pregame show for the broadcast of the 1986 Class A title game between Glendive and Lewistown from the Billings Metra.

The video came from a news cameraman who covered the game.

The late, great Pat Kearney took a look back at that legendary 1985 game, and his highlight videos clearly showed the foul that that broke the 97-all tie.

Butte Central guard Martin Ferriter crashed into Moran as he crossed half court and got ready to launch a desperation shot. Ferriter then put his arms up, as if to say he didn’t touch him.

You see players do that all the time when they know that they just committed a foul. It is like an admittance of guilt.

Moran might have leaned into the contact slightly, but it would have been an injustice to call anything other than a blocking foul on the play.

Had Billy Madison or Ron Hasquet described the play, they’d say, “That’s assault, brotha.”

After Moran drained two free throws, Pat McHugh threw an incredible inbound pass the length of the court. Central’s John Sullivan was able to tip the ball up. It hit backboard and rim before falling to the floor.

It was almost a miracle to send the game to a third overtime.

On that play, by the way, there was no foul that should have been called. That is also a legend that is not true. Anderson and the camera had a perfect angle.

For decades, I have also heard how Anderson decided to not call a fifth foul on Livingston star Shann Ferch. I just find that to be completely unbelievable.

Since it was a two-man crew officiating the game, I have no doubt that Ferch got away with a foul or two during the game. I also have no doubt that you can say that about Butte Central star Tom Kenney if you were cheering for Livingston. You could probably say that about every other player who stepped on the floor that night, too.

There are just so many blind spots for officials when there is only two on the floor. That is why they now use three officials for all varsity games.

Ferch finished with 37 points that night. It would have been closer to 50 had the 3-point line been in play that season. Kenney scored 41.

“It certainly was the greatest two-man dual in championship history,” Kearney said in his story a year after the game.

For years, that is how I viewed the game that I could not see or hear. After recently looking at the boxscore from the Standard, though, I realized that the game had to have more than two standouts.

For one thing, the boxscore tells us that Sullivan’s performance has been undersold. Sully, who was a 16-year-old junior, scored 22 points and grabbed 23 rebounds. Yes, 23 rebounds. Marc Murphy finished with 16 points and five assists for BC.

For the Rangers, Randy Petrich scored 17 points, while Mike Kokot finished 14 and John Perry tossed in 12.

Kokot and Perry, by the way, were among four Livingston players to foul out. That, too, should dispel the myth that the fix was in for the Rangers.

Pat Prendergast, the coach of those Maroons, recently told me that he only disputed one call in game, and that was when Sullivan was fouled on a putback. The officials ruled that the foul was before the shot, and Prendergast thought the bucket should have counted.

That’s it. One call. That is pretty incredible for a two-man crew. That would be amazing if the game had 10 officials.

Make sure to check out the video, and you can see for yourself. Check out the video even if you still want to believe in the conspiracy theories.

The video is great for so many reasons. For one thing, it is awesome to hear the voice of Kearney again. In my mind, Pat will forever be the greatest television/radio man in Mining City history.

“The real winners that night were the fans of Montana,” Kearney said in his voice that was a cross between Brent Musburger and Kermit the Frog. “It was a dream matchup that turned into a dream game.”

At least the 7,147 fans lucky enough to attend were the real winners. Those of us let down by television, radio and uncles, though, were left to imagine how great the game was. We were left to believe that the officials might have somehow helped determine the outcome of the game.

“It will be a championship game that will be long remembered,” Kearney said.

Pat is certainly right about that.

But I just know that I would remember that game a whole lot better had Melvin had the decency to buy a bigger vehicle.

 — Bill Foley, whose Honda Ridgeline can comfortably drive five people to Bozeman to watch the Butte High girls play in the Class AA State tournament this week, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.