Monday night was a great night for Butte sports. A nice crowd showed up for the Butte Sports Hall of Fame public forum at the McQueen Club.

The public forum gives members of the public the chance to make a case for nominees in front of the selection committee. Twenty-six people took that opportunity in a forum that lasted about 3 hours.

It started with Pat Ryan telling stories about his fellow Butte High wrestler Kevin Parvinen, and it ended with Butte Sports Hall of Fame 2024 inductee Steve Schulte putting on a comic routine as he spoke for Jay LeProwse and Colt Anderson.

In between, we heard form Butte Sports Hall of Famers like John Thatcher, Bernie Boyle, Jon McElry, Bruce Sayler, Deann Johnson and Ron Collins Jr. It is long, but it is well worth your time — especially when we get to the women lobbing for their Racetrack softball team from 1981.

The Hall of Fame will induct its 20th class July 24-25 in the Butte Civic Center. After a couple of weeks to digest all the materials of from more than 100 nominees, the committee will vote and the class will be announced next month.

The public got a glimpse of the difficulty of the committee’s job. It also got another reminder of why Butte is the greatest sports town in America.

If you could not attend the meeting and would still like to make a pitch to the committee, you can send me a letter of support to foles74@gmail.com. I will make sure the committee members see it.

Today’s episode is presented by Thriftway Super Stops. Download the TLC app and start saving today.

Here is 1984 State championship game talked about last night: