Following the 1997-98 wrestling season, Jim Street stepped down as the head coach of the Butte High Bulldogs.

He made a brief comeback as head coach a few years later, but the news sent shockwaves around the country in early 1998.

At the time, I was working as a sportswriter for The Moscow-Pulman Daily News in Idaho. I heard the Street news when one of the wrestling coaches from one of the high schools I covered called me at the sports desk.

The coach knew that I was from Butte. Apparently, Butte Rats wear that fact on their sleeve like we are combat veterans or belong to a CrossFit gym.

He wanted to know if there was any possibility that the Butte School District would hire a replacement from outside the program. He was thinking about applying for the job.

He also asked me a lot of other questions about Butte, the school and the program. He eventually asked if I knew what Street’s secret to success might be. Even great coaches were impressed with Coach Street.

Not many coaches at any level enjoyed the success of Jim Street. His Bulldogs won 13 straight Class AA State championships form 1980 through 1992. His teams also won it all in 1995 and 1997.

But I had no idea what made Street so great.

At the time, the only thing I knew about Coach Street was that you did not want to have a can of chew in your pocket when you walked by his classroom at Butte High. He could snuff out a can of snuff like Smokey Bear on a fire.

I was nervous walking by his room, and I never chewed.

The only thing I knew about wrestling was that I did not want to do it. It never looked like any fun.

When I watched people wrestle, it looked painful and uncomfortable, even for the winner. Plus, your nose can end up in places where no nose should ever venture.

Seeing Butte High win the state title every February, though, was always one of the highlights of the year. Even though Butte was suffering through an economic depression under “Reaganomics” in the 1980s, that was our yearly reminder that the Mining City was still the toughest city in the state.

And there was no better frontman for that toughness than Coach Street.

It was not until years later that I got to know Coach Street and started to begin to understand his greatness.

In 1998, though, I did not have an answer for the coach asking about Street. I figured he was just a great teacher and motivator, which he clearly was and still is.

Sure, his teams were loaded with talent, toughness and knowhow thanks to all the great coaches in the Butte Wrestling Club. He was coaching a bunch of hardnosed wrestlers who were raised in a rough-and-tumble mining town.

But it takes a lot more than talent and toughness to win a state title. Winning multiple championships is something not many people ever do. Winning 13 straight is next to impossible.

For the Butte High Bulldogs, that Purple Reign all started with Coach Street, a no-nonsense coach who perfectly blended the old school with the new.

When I first started school at Butte High, I thought the wrestlers were all afraid Street. However, I quickly learned that was not necessarily the case.

Those wrestlers were afraid, alright. They were afraid to let their coach down.

There was an expectation of greatness from every wrestler who put on that Bulldog singlet, and they all felt the extreme amount of pride and pressure every time they put it on. That goes for even the greatest Bulldog wrestlers, too.

That was not because the coach placed unrealistic expectations on the wrestlers. It was because the coach, his staff and his wrestlers set the bar by winning. The people of Butte simply expected them to win a state title each February.

They knew second place was a disappointment.

The standard was set so high, and they knew it was going to be extremely difficult to live up to it. Yet, year after year, the Bulldogs did just that. When the dust settled, the Bulldog were taking a firetruck ride around town to celebrate another title.

It was a run like nobody has ever seen before or since.

Yes, Street is a great teacher and motivator. He studied the sport and the science behind it, always staying a step ahead of the competition. He lived and breathed wrestling. He still does.

That, though, was not the secret to his success.

After seeing his 14th championship team enter the Butte Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend, I think it is abundantly clear that Street’s biggest strength is how much he cares about his wrestlers. That bond between the coach and his athletes did not end when they hoisted the championship trophy, either.

It did not end when the wrestlers graduated from high school. It did not stop when Street retired. He cared about them then, and he cares every bit as much about them now.

He will care deeply about each and every one of them until he takes his final breath.

Almost every living member of the 1995 team made it to the Butte Sports Hall of Fame induction at the Butte Civic Center. They did that because they did not want to let down the coach they love and respect so much.

Coach Street did not want to let them down, either.

By the time of the Green Jacket Ceremony on Friday night, most people heard that Coach Street and his wife, Barbara, were both seriously injured in a motorcycle crash on July 17. They knew they were both hospitalized in Billings, where Mrs. Street remains.

Not a single person, however, was surprised when Coach Street walked through the front door of the Butte Civic Center on Friday night, donning his Butte Sports Hall of Fame Green Jacket.

He had a few bruises and scrapes, and he was still a little foggy from what is likely a concussion sustained in the accident just seven days earlier. But he was still Coach Street. He still owned the room.

There was hardly a dry eye in the place when Street walked down the aisle as one of the returning “Green Jackets” to start the ceremony.

I could hardly see through teary eyes as, in my duties as the master of ceremonies, I welcomed the coach with the following words:

“He was an outstanding football player and wrestler at Butte High. As a coach, he is a legend well beyond the Butte city limits. His Bulldogs wrestling teams won 13 straight Class AA State titles and 15 overall, all while showing off a toughness and grit that could only come from the streets of the Mining City. Please welcome Jim Street.”

Later that night, Street led his 1995 state champions down the aisle to a thunderous applause.

Everyone was blown away to see him there. Some wondered if he should have been making the trip. Not a single person was surprised.

Coach Street showed up for his wrestlers. Even though they are all in their late 40s, the coach did not want to let them down. He simply had to be there for them.

Those wrestlers knew he would crawl over broken glass for them in 1995. They know he will still do it 31 years later.

You want to know the secret of Coach Street’s success at Butte High School? Well, there you have it.

In Butte, though, that was never much of a secret.

— Bill Foley 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.