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KC winter league starts Dec. 5
The Knights of Columbus Athletic Club’s winter basketball league will begin play Dec. 5 at the Felix Madrazo Gymnasium.
The four-man teams will play games twice a week, Monday through Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m. The league will run 10 weeks with a double-loss tournament at the end.
Cost is $125 per team, and teams can sign up at the bar or by contacting Dan Boyle at 491-2529.
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Fans of Bobcats and Grizzlies should listen to Tommy
Santa Claus’ eyes still start to well up when he talks about it.
Tommy Mellott was just a little boy sitting on the lap of Tom Beatty, who stopped by the Mellott house dressed as Saint Nicholas.
Year round, Tom has the perfect beard and physique to play the part, and this time he visited the Mellott house to meet a family he never knew before.
Tommy’s mom was in the hospital with an illness, and she was not doing well. It was very touch and go, and Santa stopped by to try to take her kids’ minds off the awful situation. (Click here for the podcast version of this column.)
Santa could not believe his ears when he asked the young boy what he wanted for Christmas.
He did not ask for a new computer or a PlayStation. He didn’t want a new bike or a Red Ryder BB Gun. All he wanted for Christmas, Tommy told Santa, was for his mom to get better.
Thankfully, she did.
Tears rolled down Tom’s face as he struggled to digest the situation. He could not believe that a little boy could have such a tremendous perspective in such a difficult time.
To this day, that Santa Claus will tell you Tommy Mellott is perhaps the most impressive boy he has ever met.
For years, we have said Tommy is wise beyond his years. For years, we thought that this kid just seems too good to be true.
For years, Tommy has proved over and over that it is not an act. He is as genuine as they come.
Whether it is in football or in life, Tommy Mellott is the real deal.
We saw that after Tommy and the Montana State Bobcats stomped the Montana Grizzlies 55-21 in Bozeman.
Shortly after the game, Tommy was interviewed on live television.
He decided to use that time to ask Bobcat fans to take it easy on the Grizzlies players.
“Quit trying to dehumanize those guys over there, trying to get in their bus,” he said. “Don’t be messing with them.”
That Tommy felt the need to say those words says so much.
“I know what it feels like. We felt it last year,” Tommy said. “Those guys work harder than 90 percent of the people just to put themselves in position to play this game. Please just respect them and take care of those guys.”
Afterwards, people talked about Tommy’s great sportsmanship. But it is so much more than that. Tommy was sounding an alarm, and we all need to pay attention.
The word that jumps out of Tommy’s comments is “dehumanize.” It is a powerful word that highlights the very worst of the Cat-Griz rivalry.
We really have been doing that to players, coaches and fans of the other side, and that is dangerous.
I have always had a hard time understanding the intense vitriol fans have for their in-state rival. I could never understand how people from Montana can be so against a team from Montana.
Maybe that is because I grew up in Butte, which is pretty much halfway between the schools.
I grew up cheering for the Cats. I loved Kelly Bradley when he played quarterback in Bozeman. I loved the Ferch brothers, Tom Domako and Alonzo Stephens when they played hoops at MSU.
I still liked the Grizzlies, though. I especially started liking them when Butte players like Lance Allen, Chad Lembke and Todd Ericson (football) and Gary Kane (basketball) played in Missoula.
I wanted the Grizzlies to win every game but one. When I realized that I would go to school at UM and study journalism, I switched allegiance.
Still, I wanted the Bobcats to win every game but one. I wanted the Grizzlies to enter the football playoffs at 11-0 and the Bobcats at 10-1.
Then, I wanted the Griz to beat the Bobcats again in the title game.
After graduation, my loyalty to the Griz slowly dwindled. I became pretty much neutral when it comes to the Cats and Griz.
I want both teams to win each week. When it comes to the Cat-Griz game, I cheer for the team with the most Butte players.
This year, I was for the Cats because Tommy Mellott, fellow Butte High graduates Casey Kautzman and Dylan Snyder and Butte Central grad Aaron Richards on the MSU roster outnumber Butte High grads Jake Olson and Tanner Huff on Montana’s.
I will always cheer for all those Butte guys.
More importantly, I never want to hear people talk about them the way I heard Bobcat fans were trashing Robby Hauck, one of the all-time great UM defensive players who just so happens to be the son of Grizzlies head coach Bobby Hauck.
Sure, Bobby Hauck might be fair game for a couple of needles from the crowd. He, after all, makes about a half a million a year.
His son, though, is just a player who is dedicating his life to being the best student-athlete he can.
There is no need for the venom to be spewed at him like it was.
The funny thing is that you do not see that out of the former players from the Bobcats and Grizzlies. In those guys, for the most part, you see a mutual respect for each other.
Rather, you see the nonsense from the fans who do not know what it is like to line up for an Oklahoma drill.
People who have no idea what kind of sacrifice and work it takes to be a college football player at such a high level are the first ones to hurl insults at the players who do.
Nobody is asking Bobcat fans to cheer for the Grizzlies, or vice versa. It would be nice, though, if you could respect both teams from your home state.
By the way, if you don’t respect your opponent, then it should not be a big deal that you beat them. The excitement of beating the Grizzlies is great for the Bobcat fans because they respect what a difficult accomplishment that is.
At least, that is what it should be.
But if you tell your opponents they suck, beating them should be no big deal.
As it is now, the Cat-Griz rivalry has boiled over to the point where it is becoming very ugly, and it seems to be getting worse each year.
Do we really want our state’s football fans to turn into a bunch of Harvey Updykes?
To save you the Google, Updyke is the Alabama fan who poisoned 80-year-old trees at Auburn because he hated the Tigers.
That is next-level nuts when it comes to being a sports fanatic, and we do not seem to be not far from it.
When the Cats or Griz advance to the national championship game, it is inevitable that a bar favoring the other rival will buy a newspaper ad supporting its opponent.
We saw Bobcat fans cheer for Villanova, and we saw Grizzly fans cheer for North Dakota State.
Really, you would rather see schools from Pennsylvania and North Dakota bring home a title instead of the team down the street? The team with players from your hometown?
While it was far from shocking because nothing Tommy Mellott ever does is shocking to those of us who know him, it was so refreshing to hear Tommy speak to the crazies taking over.
A young man of just 21 keeps things in perfect perspective when pretty much every other adult in the state has lost his or her mind over the Cat-Griz rivalry.
Hopefully fans from both sides will take his words to heart as much as Jolly Old St. Nicholas did.
— Bill Foley, who routinely dehumanizes Packers and Yankees fans, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com.Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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Podcast No. 27: Tom Roberts
Tom Roberts was inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame this past summer.
While Roberts was voted in as a coach, he could have easily been inducted as an athlete or a contributor.
Tom served as head coach of the Butte High girls’ track program from 1994 through 2012. During that time, he coached 10 individual state champions, and he led the Bulldogs to the 2009 Class AA State title.
Before taking over the program as the head coach, Tom served as an assistant from 1975 through 1993. He was part of state titles in 1984, 1986 and 1987.
Tom works as a volleyball official at the high school ranks. He recently retired from a long run as the head official of the Frontier Conference. He also worked a number of years in the Big Sky Conference.
As an athlete, Tom earned All-State in the high jump in 1968 and 1969 while competing for Butte High. He also earned All-State honors in the triple jump in 1969.
He competed for Montana Tech and won the Frontier Conference title with a league-record mark of 6 feet, 6 inches. His career-best mark was 6-7.
He then went to the University of Montana, where he helped lead the Grizzlies to the 1972 Big Sky Conference title. That UM team was inducted into the Grizzly Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.
Click here to listen in as Tom talks about his athletic career, coaching days and his many miles as a referee.
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Podcast No. 26: Arie Grey
For the past 15 years, Arie Grey has served as the head coach of the Butte High football team. He led the Bulldogs to the Class AA State championship in 2012.
Grey also coaches the Butte High’s boys’ and girls’ track teams. His boys placed second at the Class AA State meet in 2021.
Grey grew up in Deer Lodge and starred for the Powell County Wardens. He then ran track and played football for the Bobcats at Montana State.
After graduating from MSU, Grey student taught at Butte High. He then worked for five years in Kalispell before returning to the Mining City to take over the Bulldog program in 2008, replacing his friend and mentor Greg Salo.
Click here to listen as we learn the origin of Grey’s unique first name. He talks about growing up in Deer Lodge, playing for the Wardens and Cats and his coaching days at Butte High.
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Special Olympics are aptly named
For almost as long as I can remember, Larry Bird was my favorite basketball player.
I loved the way he talked trash, and I loved the way he came through in the clutch.
The story of him walking into the locker room at the NBA 3-point contest and telling the other contestants that they were competing for second place is legendary. Then, he raised his arm with the No. 1 finger as he let go of his last ball, which, of course, swished to win the title. (Click here for the podcast version of this column.)
During the mid 1980s, I lived and died with the Boston Celtics and Larry Bird. While I paid attention during Michael Jordan’s run of six titles with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, I never really cared about the NBA after Bird retired.
It just wasn’t fun anymore.
Well, move over Larry. I have a new favorite basketball player.
His name is Kip, and he plays for the Tri-County Wolves, a Special Olympics basketball team based out of Helena.
Kip is awesome. There is just no other way to put it.
He is a shooting specialist who, like me, has no interest in playing defense or rebounding. Well, unless the ball bounces right to him.
I was told Kip, a shorter player with Down Syndrome, is about 30 years old. He wears a baseball hat with a headband around it when he plays, too, so Kip looks good.
He stands in the same spot the entire time he is on the floor. He always spots up for a shot just outside the block, looking for an 8-foot jumper.
Whether his team was going east or west at the new East Middle School gym, Kip always stood on the south side of the basket, nearest the team benches, during the Special Olympics State Games Basketball Tournament in Butte.
He would stand there until someone passed the ball directly to him, or, better yet, handed him the ball. Then, Kip would knock down the shot like clockwork.
During the tournament, Kip never paid attention to the other end of the floor. He kept laser focus on his rim.
No, he isn’t cherry picking like you see some lazy guys do during the Knights of Columbus basketball league. He isn’t just looking for the easy pass and layup.
The one time a teammate got a rebound and fired a baseball pass to Kip, my new favorite player just stared at the rim as the ball slowly bounced right past him out of bounds.
Like other stars, Kip is also his own man who does his own thing.
When a woman volunteering to work the score book informed the Wolves’ coach that “No. 13 has not been in the game yet,” late in the first half, the coach replied, “I know. He’s refusing.”
Butte hosted the tournament Nov. 10-12 in seven gymnasiums around town.
I volunteered to referee, and I worked 10 games at East. I had three games with Kip’s team.
I also got to work a few games with the Butte Sheltered Workshop team, and some of the players made my day by celebrating the fact that I was their referee.
The fact that I think I only called three fouls in 10 games probably had something to do with that.
During the tournament, I received tons of high fives and fist bumps from the players. I even got a couple of hugs.
Kip led the tournament in giving me a fist bump. He also kept showing me his hand, which had a basketball sticker or temporary tattoo for the tournament.
I lost count of how many players who came up and thanked me, my fellow referees and the men and women working the scorer’s table during the two days of games.
You just do not see that in other basketball games because other basketball games do not stack up to the Special Olympics and the Special Olympians.
The best thing they did when creating the Special Olympics more than a half a century ago was name it the Special Olympics.
The world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities truly is special. There is no other way to describe it.
There is also no other way to describe the Special Olympians. They can make your heart melt with a simple smile.
I have always said that if Special Olympians ran the world, there would be no such thing as war. Everyone would love each other because the Special Olympians represent everything that is good about humanity. They are innocent to the core.
I refereed four games involving the Hornets from Great Falls.
Late in the first half of one game, the players realized that they were vastly better than the other team, even if the score was still close.
So, the players started getting defensive rebounds, and then handing the ball back to their opponents so they could shoot. On one possession, they let their opponents shoot the ball at least five times before they made a shot.
Can you imagine a team doing that in a high school game?
Several years back, the Montana High School Association implemented a 40-point “mercy rule.” That means that the clock does not stop once a team gets a lead of 40 points.
Too many teams were running the score up on their opponents.
That is something that does not happen in the Special Olympics. At least it does not happen on purpose.
When the tournament was here three years ago, I refereed and got to work with real officials like Mike Anderson, Dara (Shea) McGurk and Traci Thomas. This year, I got to work with Quinn Dennehy, Amanda Krieg, Jon Kinzle and my cousin Mike “Skinny” Foley.
Skinny let me borrow a referee shirt with a Montana Officials Association patch on it. It felt like stolen valor until Skinny called a three-shot technical in one game. That’s right, a three-shot technical.
We weren’t even in Anaconda.
The technical foul was called on no one in particular. Skinny was just making sure a player on the Butte team got a chance to shoot. The score was not close, so it did not matter.
Actually, the Olympians would not have cared if it was.
After the player missed the first two shots — from way inside the free throw line — Skinny blew his whistle and said, ‘That’s a three-shot technical.”
The player made the third shot, and celebrated like he was the hero of the game.
Later, Mike said he was ready to make it a four-shot technical if he had to. He probably would have gone to 30.
Nobody in the gym would have complained, either.
That is what the Special Olympics are all about. It is sportsmanship at its finest.
Players in every sport and at every level could learn something from these Special Olympians.
The Special Olympic State Games Basketball Tournament will move to Helena for the next three years. It will not be back in the Mining City until 2026.
When the tournament comes back to town, there is no way I will miss it. You can mark me down right now as a volunteer referee.
I really hope I get to officiate a Tri-County Wolves game or two.
Actually, what the heck? Maybe I will head to Helena next year to work some games.
Seeing my new favorite player Kip in action is definitely worth the drive.
— For more stories and podcasts from Bill Foley, go to ButteCast.com. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Contact Bill at foles74@gmail.com.
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Podcast No. 25: Tom LeProwse
Tom LeProwse, who became Butte High’s 13th Diamond B in 2019, passed away in May. He was 94.
This interview, which was for a story on ButteSports.com, was recorded in September 2019, about a month before Tom was inducted as a Diamond B during Silver B’s Night.
After staring for coach Swede Dahlberg at Butte High School, LeProwse played in the first Montana East-West Shrine Game in 1947. Then, he went on to play at Montana State before becoming a legendary coach at Bozeman High School.
He was the godfather of sports for the Hawks, and he had a profound impact on the sports scene all around the state.
In this discussion, Tom talks about playing football at Butte High and his love for his hometown. He also talks about his days playing at MSU and coaching the Hawks.
Click here to listen a true Montana treasure.
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My crazy roommate story is going to be hard to top
Unless your college roommate bilked defense contractors out more than $4 million, my crazy roommate story has yours beat.
That is exactly what Garrison Courtney did. That is why he is in prison, and that is why he is the subject of an episode of the CNBC documentary series “American Green.”
Twenty-five years ago, I lived with Garrison at the University of Montana’s Pantzer Hall. (Click here for the podcast version of this column.)
A phone call a couple of weeks before class started in August of 1997 told me that my final semester at UM was going to be anything but ordinary.
On the other end of the phone was Garrison, a Great Falls native who said he was going to be one of my roommates. He said he was a standup comedian, and I believed him because he pretty much did an hourlong routine over the phone.
Garrison could do hundreds of spot-on impressions, and he proved it to me by doing most of them on that phone call.
I knew this was going to be a fun semester for the both of us. For one thing, I am a standup comedian’s dream. I am easy to make laugh, as my teachers throughout my grade school, junior high and high school career would tell you.
Screenshot Almost every time I got in trouble at school it was because I was laughing at the funny guy in class.
Dan Piazzola was my teacher in sixth grade, and he would punish bad behavior by making us write our weekly spelling words five times each.
“That’s five,” Mr. Piazzola would say, holding up five fingers.
My friend Arren Connors is probably the best speller ever because he got five — at least — every day. One time, Arren did the five ahead of time. When Mr. Piazzola handed down his punishment, Arren opened his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“Here you go,” Arren said.
“OK, wise guy, that’s 10,” Mr. Piazzola said.
Then, Mr. Piazzola turned to me and said, “That’s five for you for laughing.”
Garrison did not disappoint. He had me laughing nonstop for the couple of months we lived together.
Every night I got back from class or working at the school paper, I would notice my outgoing answering machine message was changed. It was a different character every day, anything from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Kermit The Frog.
When he came up with a new bit, he would run it by me, and of course, I laughed like crazy.
That is because Garrison was good. Really good.
His impersonations were every bit as good as Frank Caliendo. He was funnier, too. Way funnier.
Looking back, it is hard to know what to believe out of Garrison, especially now that he is a famous conman.
Garrison’s story was told when episode 12 of the 15th season of “American Greed” premiered last week on CNBC. You can stream it on Hulu and it will eventually be available on the Peacock.
A film crew came to Butte in January to interview me at Metals Sports Bar & Grill. I don’t want to brag, but I think I stole the hourlong show.
You can also read an in-depth story about him by Justin Rohrlich on the Daily Beast.
Garrison was, as I told Justin, like living with Robin Williams during a Letterman set. He never turned it off. Never.
I cannot be sure how much Garrison worked as a standup comedian. The one thing Garrison did better than tell jokes was B.S. He was a B.S. artist.
One night he told me he was going to join the UM football team. He talked to head coach Mick Dennehy, and he was all set to become a Grizzly lineman.
He was big enough, but I was skeptical of his story because I was familiar with how players join the football team. Just randomly walking by practice and saying, “Hey, can I play,” usually isn’t how it works.
Garrison, though, was convincing.
The next day, he told me he failed a physical because of his knees and lungs, so his football plans were over. He had canceled all of his comic gigs around the state for the school year because of football, and he said they were all filled up.
Knowing that Montana is not exactly a hotbed for live comedy, that seemed suspect. But again, Garrison was convincing.
I never met anyone faster at thinking on his feet.
A few weeks later, Garrison put on a comic show at the University Center, and he showed that he had what it takes to be successful. The place was packed with a crowd that was as diverse as you will see, and Garrison absolutely murdered.
Only one joke failed to land.
Everyone left the UC with a sore stomach from laughing so much. His humor was silly, yet smart. His impressions were uncanny.
Even in the dinner hall, people just gravitated toward Garrison. He was like a magnet. That is why I believed him, briefly, when he jokingly told me he was moving out to be on “The Real World” on MTV.
With Garrison, nothing seemed to be out of the question.
Garrison joined me for the first Grizzly home football game, and he was a hit. He was dressed like the Grim Reaper, and everybody in the student section wanted to sit with him.
The cheerleaders liked him so much that they asked him to join the squad. I thought Garrison was full of it when he told me that. But the next game, there he was, standing on the sideline with his wrists taped and throwing the female cheerleaders in the air.
Midway through the semester, Garrison moved out to live in a fraternity. The frat put on the full-court press to get Garrison to move in.
They apparently needed some entertainment in the frat house.
The dorm was quiet the rest of the semester, and it was kind of sad. I missed him.
Now, Garrison is in prison because he conned millions of dollars out of defense contractors. It was a crazy scheme that showed just how smart and quick-thinking Garrison can be.
As I watched the documentary episode, I could not help but be impressed with his smarts. If only he used that high IQ to do something good.
I mean, he convinced dozens of people that he was a deep-operative spy. People who should have known better were easily fooled out of millions.
At the end, I felt sad for my old friend. It seems like he got caught up in his lies that went way too far.
I felt even worse for the wife he lied to for so many years.
The documentary shows me laughing at some of Garrison’s cons. I don’t think he was a third-degree black belt, but I’m sure he knew enough about martial arts to get by.
I also don’t think he taught a self-defense class at UM simply to meet women. Those women probably learned some valuable lessons from Garrison. But I bet he charmed a few of them into dates.
It was also funny that he was voted the best weatherman in Missoula, even though he had zero meteorologic training.
I made some comments about how much I liked Garrison that did not make the cut. Also cut were some comments about how great of a standup comedian Garrison could have been.
I wish he would have stayed with comedy. I have no doubt he would be a household name by now if he did. He really was that funny
He might have even gone on to star in his own spy movie.
A movie about Garrison, by the way, seems like a must. His story is just insane.
Garrison has some more prison time to serve. When he gets out, I really hope he goes on stage to tell jokes and do impressions.
It would be so great for people to know the Garrison that I knew — the insanely funny man who never turned it off.
His prison roommates are probably laughing so hard that it hurts.
— Bill Foley, who will probably be played by Brad Pitt in the Garrison Courtney movie, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74.
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Podcast No. 24: Dr. Nick DiGiovine
After more than a quarter century practicing in Butte, Dr. Nick DiGiovine is retiring next month.
Dr. DiGiovine is a renewed orthopedic surgeon who has been a leader in the state — and beyond — when it comes to concussion treatment and awareness.
Shortly after arriving in Butte, Dr. DiGiovine launched Montana Sports Medicine, which uses a team of highly-trained athletic trainers to make sure all athletes in Southwest Montana receive quality medical care.
A former Notre Dame football player and a team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dr. DiGiovine and his wife also raised three children in the Mining City.
While Dr. DiGiovine is retiring, he is leaving our athletes in good shape, and he will leave a legacy that will last for decades.
Click here to listen in as Dr. DiGiovine talks about growing up in Western Pennsylvania, his days playing football at Notre Dame, moving to Butte and his plans for retirement.
Enjoy your retirement Doc, you have certainly earned it.
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Marcus Miller game still stings
Despite what some people might say, there is such a thing as a moral victory in football.
As a Bears fan, that is pretty much all I have.
A moral victory is what one Montana Tech fan was trying to claim following the No. 20 Orediggers’ 17-14 heartbreaking loss to No. 2 Carroll College Nov. 10, 2007 at Nelson Stadium in Helena.
“That right there is a win for us,” the guy repeated to anyone who would listen inside the men’s room at the Carroll College P.E. Center following the game. “That right there was a win.”
This time, though, that guy was wrong. Dead wrong. (Click here for the podcast verso of this column.)
I shook my head in disbelief. I could not register how an Oredigger fan could be happy about what we all just witnessed.
As he sat on the floor outside the visiting locker room, Montana Tech coach Bob Green certainly disagreed with the enthusiastic fan, who I believe was a father of a Tech player.
“It was a football game that we had in hand, but Carroll made some good plays,” a dejected Green said, leaning back against the wall and struggling to find words.
Yes, Green, a man known for his comical one-liners and his up-beat attitude, was almost speechless. I would not say that he was crying, but his eyes were watery, and he looked like he had just had his heart ripped out.
Green and the Orediggers were just victimized by Marcus Miller, Oredigger Killer.
Montana Tech dominated the Saints in that game. I mean dominated. The Orediggers racked up 417 yards to Carroll’s 93. Tech picked up 23 first downs, and Carroll got just four.
If you looked at every statistic except the final score, you would think the Orediggers won 70-0.
Tech’s offense was humming like never before. It was like a dream for Oredigger fans.
Miller, though, turned that dream into a nightmare.
The Spokane, Washington native returned two interceptions for touchdowns. He kicked the extra point after each pick six, and then he booted the game-winning field goal — accounting for all 17 Carroll College points.
It was a highly improbable outcome for a rivalry that had seen it all.
“That’s what happens when we play Tech every year,” Miller told me after the game. “It’s just crazy. You’ve got to find a way to win.”
Coach Mike Van Diest’s Saints always seemed to find a way to win.
Carroll completed the regular season with an 11-0 record on its way to another national championship. This one, which got the Saints pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, was Carroll’s fifth in six years.
The Saints won six national titles in the decade.
Tech, on the other hand, saw its four-game winning streak snapped, and the Orediggers missed the playoffs with a 7-4 record.
A win would have surely sent the Orediggers to the postseason, where they seemed primed to do some real damage.
The Tech-Carroll rivalry is, in my eyes, still the best rivalry in the NAIA. In 2007, there was no other rivalry that was even close. Well, maybe the Montana Tech-Montana Western rivalry was close.
That November Saturday saw the Orediggers play an inspired game. It was set up like a storybook straight out of Hollywood.
Two weeks earlier, Mariah McCarthy, a 14-year-old Butte girl, was killed by an underage drunk driver while she walked with her friends. Her father, Leo, was, and still his, a huge Montana Tech booster.
One of the last things Mariah did on this world was cheer on the Orediggers in a Senior Day win over Montana Western.
Oredigger senior defensive lineman Kyle Carter, who went on to marry Butte Central star Quinn Peoples, arranged for the Orediggers to wear angel stickers on their helmets to honor Mariah and her family.
“I figured it would be a good thing for Leo because Leo is always there for us,” Carter told me as the loss was starting to sink in.
With Leo McCarthy on the Oredigger sideline, it appeared that inspiration would be enough for Tech.
The Orediggers converted 13 of 17 third down situations, including eight of 8 yards or more. They did it against the No. 1 defense in the NAIA, too.
Miller, a defensive back, returned his first pick 32 yards to put Carroll up 7-0. His second touchdown went for 68 yards to tie the game at 14 early in the fourth quarter.
He booted a 23-yard field goal a little more than two minutes later to put the Saints on top for good. Brandon Day picked off a pass and returned it to the Tech 12 to set up the winning score.
Despite throwing three interceptions, Tech quarterback Matt Komac, a Helena native and one of my favorite all-time Orediggers, played one of the best games by a Tech quarterback.
His 28 completions set a school record, and he threw for 317 yards.
Komac, though, did not care. He was not into any kind of moral victories, especially against the Saints.
“Matt Komac feels terrible about what happened, but he’s the guy who made the plays to get us touchdowns,” Green said. “We would not have had the lead without Matt throwing the football the way he did. They hadn’t given up a touchdown all year — not their real defensive guys.”
Komac hit Alex Grevas 11 times for 160 yards. Other Orediggers to catch passes were Casey Kelly, Cale McQueary, Zach Soukup, Justin Hansen and Jason Russell.
McQueary, a Butte High graduate, is still playing football. He is a member of the Idaho Horsemen in an indoor football league.
On the other side of the ball, the Orediggers played their best game, too.
J.J. Perino registered his 14th sack to close his Tech career with a school-record 46 quarterback takedowns.
“We just came out ready to go,” Carter said. “We knew we could beat ’em. It’s just too bad a few plays didn’t go our way.”
It was too bad. In the wake of the McCarthy tragedy, our community was broken. Beating Carroll would not have fixed that, but it would have definitely eased the pain for a little bit.
In a way, it seemed like that tragedy made the loss hurt even more for the Orediggers, who so badly wanted to honor the McCarthy family.
Instead, they settled into the dark offseason full of heartache.
The win led to brighter days for the Saints.
Carroll did not have offensive struggles the rest of the season. Their defense bounced back, too, and the Saints beat Sioux Falls and defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell 17-9 in a muddy national championship game tilt in Savannah, Tennessee.
Morrell, of course, went on to replace Green after the Oredigger legend retired following the 2010 season. Morrell is now the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at the University of Washington.
Morrell led the Orediggers to better days at Nelson Stadium, which has been mostly a house of horrors for the Orediggers since it opened two decades ago.
In 2015, Morrell’s Orediggers beat Carroll 42-7 in Helena. Nolan Saraceni scored on a 99-yard touchdown run to highlight that blowout win.
That, as Green says, was a great day to be an Oredigger.
Indeed, it was.
But there is no way that it took the sting out of the Marcus Miller Oredigger Killer Game. Nothing will.
That was one of the toughest losses you will ever see.
While it was perhaps the pinnacle of a career that ended with Miller being inducted into the Saints Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, it was a gut punch to the Orediggers.
Everybody associated with the Orediggers was crushed, with the exception of one strangely happy guy in the men’s room.
— Bill Foley, who is not a member of the Saints Athletic Hall of Fame, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74.
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Podcast No. 23: Bob Green
Coach Bob Green wasn’t the first choice for Montana Tech when he was hired to lead the Oredigger football team in December 1986.
He wasn’t even the second choice, and he might not have been the third.
But he was clearly the right choice.
It is hard image Montana Tech football without Coach Green leading the team for 24 seasons. Even after his retirement following the 2010 season, Coach Green and Oredigger football are synonymous.
He is beloved by his players, fans and the media members who were lucky enough to cover his career.
Green served his country as a Marine during the Vietnam War. The he played college football and went into coaching. Eventually, his coaching career brought and his wife, the Lovely and Talented Pam Green, to the Mining City, and they proved to be a perfect fit.
Click here to listen in as Green discusses growing up in Nebraska, his days as a Marine, his coaching career and so many of his highlights (and even some lowlights) coaching the Orediggers.
The ButteCast with Bill Foley 