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Podcast No. 212: Dark Sevier

No, Dark is not his real name. But it sure seems to fit him.
Dark Sevier has been in Butte for about a decade now, and he is one interesting guy. Sure, anyone with his own IMDB page is going to seem pretty cool on the surface. But the 6-foot-9 Dark lives up to the part.
One entry on Dark’s IMDB page jumps out to anyone who watched television in the 1980s and 1990s. Dark played a part in “Saved by the Bell.”
He also appeared on Love Connection, but that does not show up on the IMDB page because he appeared on the show under a stage name.
Today, Dark is a man who wears many hats in the Mining City. At his core, though, he is an artist. That was the reason behind the Okie from Muskogee moving to Los Angeles to try his hand in standup comedy. That is why he is still in Butte.
Listen in to this podcast to hear how he was raised in family that joined a religious cult, and the long process to de-condition himself from that.
Listen in to hear his take on the Los Angeles standup scene in the early 1990s. Listen as he talks about his part on Saved by the Bell, and how it actually led to him leaving La La Land. Listen as he talks about how he came out the good guy on a bad Love Connection date, even though he did all he could to be the bad guy.
Listen in to hear what Dark is up to today, but don’t expect to find out his real name.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by Casagranda’s Steakhouse. Eat where the locals eat.
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Friday nights are for the high schools

God, family and the Green Bay Packers.
That is what Bernie Boyle says is his life’s motto. I’m not sure that is 100 percent accurate, though.
Bernie, the man we call “Saint Bernard” without a hint of irony, always puts the wants and the needs of his fellow man high on his list. You see that when he devotes an average of 28 hours each day to the Knights of Columbus Hall and its good deeds.
Recently, I even saw him wear a Chicago Bears shirt while playing cribbage at the KC. He didn’t lose a bet. Rather, he said he was doing it to support his Bears fans friends like me.
Bernie asked me when I was going to do the same for him and wear a Packers shirt. There is only one day a year I will wear anything Packers — Feb. 31 — so he won’t be holding his breath.
I would cheer for Bozeman before I would cheer for the Packers.
Yes, Bernie is way more supportive of his friends than I am.
I also suspect there is one sports team Bernie loves more than the Packers. That would be the Butte Central Maroons.
You can see that in the millions of videos of Dougie Peoples’ game-winning shot in the championship game of the 2022 Class A State boys’ basketball tournament in Missoula. While he did not lose his mind like BC assistant coach Renzy Kelly, Bernie was clearly one of the happiest guys on the planet that night.
Check out one of the videos to see what I mean. You can spot Bernie by his yellow BC hat.
Perhaps Bernie is counting his Central fandom in the “God” part of his motto since BC is a Catholic school. But I don’t think so.
If he were asked if to choose between one Butte Central state championship in football or 10 straight Super Bowl wins by the Packers, I know without a hint of doubt that Bernie would choose the Maroons.
He would not even hesitate.
Still, last Friday night must have been a bit difficult for Bernie. The Maroons and Packers were playing at the same time.
Butte Central played its home opener on the Bob Green Field at Montana Tech, and the Maroons beat Hamilton 22-21 in an overtime thriller.
Central overcame a 15-0 deficit, and took a 22-15 lead when Justus McGee scored on a 5-yard run in overtime. Hamilton answered, but the Broncs were stopped on their 2-point conversion.
The late Pat Kearney would have gone full Kermit The Frog on his radio call if he were still around to see one of the best Central wins in the last decade.
I was in Bozeman watching my son and the Butte High Bulldogs play the Hawks, so I did not get to watch the Maroons pull out the win live. But I would bet that Bernie was one of the happiest guys on the planet that night.
At least he was until he saw that his Packers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil and Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love suffered a knee injury. So, the night was probably bitter sweet for Bernie. But it had to be way more sweet than bitter.
It is puzzling why the NFL would have teams open their season in Brazil. It is even more puzzling why the NFL would open the season on a Friday night.
When forced to choose between the NFL or their high school team, most of us are going to pick the kids. That goes double if you have a relative on the team. But it is not an easy decision.
Friday night lights have always been for the high school players. The NFL in all its sell-out glory should never even attempt to step on that.
For years, we have followed the pattern. Fridays are from high school games, Saturdays are for college, and Sunday and Mondays are from the NFL. That should never be messed with.
Over the last few years, the NFL decided to take over Thursdays — the safety of its players be dammed.
The sporting world adjusted to that, but I have yet to meet a person who likes NFL games on Thursdays that are not Thanksgiving.
Last year, the NFL decided to offer a day full of games on Christmas Day, thumbing its nose at the long tradition of the NBA owning that holiday.
While that was disrespectful to the NBA, those of us who never watch the NBA did not care.
Dissing the high school teams around the country, though, is a totally different story.
That is exactly what the NFL is doing with its Friday night season opener, too. It is telling the high school teams that they don’t matter.
While I assume Bernie was at the BC-Hamilton game, he probably had his attention diverted a bit by watching the Packers play on his phone. I would have to image a lot of phones were broadcasting the game in the stands of high school games around the country.
Many fans probably even stayed home from supporting their local teams to watch the NFL, taking away money and enthusiasm from their schools.

Friday nights in the fall are magical — even if your team does not pull out a thrilling overtime victory. That goes double for the Friday nights when the weather is still good.
As a player, band member, cheerleader, parent or fan, it just doesn’t get any better than a high school football game on a Friday night. Nothing says “welcome to the weekend” like high school football.
That is why people pack the stadiums — big and small — around the state and country every Friday night. Those huge stadiums in Texas are full, and so are the small sets of bleachers in every small town in between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Football is king in America, and the NFL is the top of the sport. It’s ratings long since passed up baseball and basketball, and every owner of an NFL team is a billionaire.
Part of that reason is just about every boy — and a whole lot of girls — grow up cheering for an NFL team. So many of us identify with our NFL teams as if we were part owners. We also judge others by the team they root for.
If I wear my Bears hat to a store in the fall, I will have several people talk to me about the latest games. Then they will inevitably tell me about their NFL teams. Or they will tell me about their fantasy football teams.
That doesn’t happen when I wear my Red Sox hat — even if Boston is currently playing in the World Series.
(Note for Yankees fans out there: The World Series is when the National League champion plays the American League champion every October.)
A World Series game being played on a Friday night in the high school football season will not hurt the high school game much.
Also, fans have the choice to stay home and watch the NFL or go to the high school game. The players do not. So, the NFL is only hurting itself by competing against the kids. Those players can’t watch the game because the NFL is pandering to try to get some more foreign fans.
The NFL is, as they say, cutting off its nose to spite its face by alienating thousands and thousands of potential viewers to instead woo people who would rather watch soccer.
It just might go down as one of the worst moves the league has ever made.
Hopefully, going up against so many high school games severely hurt the ratings for the Packers-Eagles game. Maybe that way, the NFL will leave the Friday nights to the high school players.
Then Bernie and the rest of us will never be faced with such a tough decision.
— Bill Foley, who also breaks out Yankee colors on Feb. 31, 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.
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Podcast No. 211: Mark Shutey

Mark Shutey is one of the more interesting people you will meet.
The 1987 Butte High graduate has pretty much done a little bit of everything. He stood out in swimming for the Bulldogs, and he played football at Butte High and Montana Tech.
He is an engineer, an outfitter, a guide, an entrepreneur, a consultant, a writer and a bit of philosopher. He has so many stories to tell, and he has told them in some major publications around the country.
Mark has been featured nationally on the Outdoor Channel, Versus Network and Sportsman’s Channel. He has also been highlighted in the pages of a multitude of hunting publications to include North American Hunter, Outdoor Life, Predator Extreme, Cabela’s Outfitter Journal, Peterson’s Bow Hunting, Bow Hunting World and more.
Listen in as mark talks about the many hats he wears and some of his many adventures in the outdoors. Listen in as he talks his work with the Passback Football, a ball designed to throw like a football and bounce back to you off a wall.
Listen as he talks about the influence his parents had on him and some of his friends while growing up on the Flats of Butte.
Listen as he talks about the one last mountain he has to climb before he retires. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Today’s podcast is presented by Thriftway Super Stops. Download the TLC app and start saving today.



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Podcast No. 210: Dave Rathgeber

Dave Rathgeber was born in Sarnia, Ontario, and he grew up in Red Deer, Alberta. So, you guessed it, Dave played hockey.
He was part of Montana Tech’s highly-successful club hockey team, serving as an Oredigger net minder on a team that was highly successful last decade. That team, you should remember, packed the Butte Community Ice Center full of rowdy fans night after night before it ran into the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team also picked up some big-time victories before it disbanded.
Rathgeber, who recently completed his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering, is now in charge of bringing back the Oredigger hockey program. In addition to teaching labs and classes at the school, he is also the team’s head coach and manager.
Tech will host an alumni game Sept. 20, and then the team will be off and running. You can feel the excitement around town as Butte gets ready to embrace college hockey once again, and the team will play a heavy home schedule in October.
Earlier today, I sat down with Dave for a fun conversation about him and his plans for the Oredigger hockey program. Listen in to hear him talk about the glory days of Tech hockey. Listen to hear that he is planning a whole lot more than a return to those glory days.
He has some big-time plans as Tech goes through a hockey reboot.
Click here for more information on the Orediggers. Click here for sponsorship opportunities.
Today’s podcast is presented by Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warrantee.
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Wall That Heals lives up to its name

The 1980 movie “9-5” has long been one of my favorites.
I watched that movie every time it came on our pirated HBO when I was young. In that flick, I learned that Franklin Hart Jr., played by the great Dabney Coleman, was a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.
To this day, that is one of my all-time favorite movie lines.
One day, I was home watching that movie when my dad came home. He walked into the front room and saw that Jane Fonda was on his television.
“Change the damn channel,” he said.
I was surprised by this demand. The movie also starred Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin. Who in their right mind doesn’t like Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin?
Plus, did I mention Dabney Coleman?
It didn’t matter. I was making an unwinnable argument. Jane Fonda was not to be seen on a television in our house.
When Jane sat next to her husband Ted Turner as the Braves lost World Series after World Series more than a decade later, there was no way you were cheering for Atlanta at our house.
My dad, you see, is an Army veteran. In 1967, he volunteered for the military draft.
He figured he was going be drafted someday soon because he was designated 1-A. His parents were not rich, and he was not exactly college material.
So, while many guys in his situation were trying to find a way out, my dad jumped to the front of the line to get in. There are so many amazing things about my dad. That he stepped up and did that just might top them all.
He didn’t have bone spurs like Donald Trump. He didn’t have bad knees like Joe Namath. He didn’t go skiing in the Alps like Sylvester Stallone. He didn’t have friends in high places like Bill Clinton.
Even if he did have such connections, he would have never used them to take the easy way out. That is why my dad has always been my hero.
After basic training, my dad had orders for Vietnam. But in January of 1968, those orders changed when the North Koreans captured the USS Pueblo, seizing the ship and its 83 crew members. Instead of going to Vietnam, my dad was sent for long stay in South Korea, near the Demilitarized Zone.
He did not serve in Vietnam, so Jane Fonda wasn’t directly talking about him when she attacked the brave men and women of the United State military fighting in the Vietnam War. He wasn’t even in the Army anymore when Jane visited North Korea in 1972.
But he still took it personally when the movie star, who rose to fame largely because her father was Henry Fonda, posed for photos while sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.
He took it personally when Jane claimed that American prisoners of war were being treated kindly by the Vietnamese, saying that those who claimed they were tortured — like the great Sen. John McCain — were being fictitious.
He took it personally when Jane told Americans to greet soldiers when they returned home as “hypocrites and liars” instead of heroes.
Some wounds are just very hard to heal, and some words cannot be taken back.
My dad never had to walk through the jungles of Vietnam as his government dropped cancer-causing Agent Orange over his head, but he certainly felt the pain of a nation that did not appreciate his service.
Jane apologized later for her words and actions, but that apology fell mostly on deaf ears. No, she did not invent the hate and discontent for our soldiers in the Vietnam War. But she certainly fanned the flame of ignorance.
That was an awful time in American history. More than 58,000 young Americans — and many more Vietnamese — were killed in a war that still doesn’t make sense a half a century later.
During every American war from the Revolutionary War through the Korean War, our troops were welcomed home as heroes, as they should have been.
Today, our troops are welcomed home as heroes, as they should be. Anybody who puts him or herself in harm’s way to protect others is deserving of praise and thanks.
It doesn’t matter if you stormed the beaches of Normandy, took part in the Grenada invasion or served in Iraq or Afghanistan, you are a hero for signing up to defend this country
Our troops during the time of the Vietnam War, though, were treated like villains. They were sworn at and spit on. They were called “baby killers.”
The soldiers were taking the brunt of the blame for a politician’s war that most were not particularly fond of either.
That is why so many of the emotional wounds of the Vietnam War have never healed.
That is why the Wall That Heals is so important. Last week that wall, which is a three-quarter replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., was proudly displayed at Father Sheehan Park in Butte.
The Wall was brought to town thanks to the hard work and determination of Sgt. Michael Taapken, a retired Marine who was too young to fight in Vietnam. He was the host of the Wall, which was visited by thousands of people over five days.
The Wall includes the names of all the American service men and women who were killed in the war. It is a daunting sight as you approach the wall and realize how many names are on each line and how many lines are on each panel of the wall that stretches more than 100 yards.
That wall includes the names of 22 men from Silver Bow County. Sanford Kim Archer was from Melrose. The other 21 were from Butte.
They are Ronald Gregory Babich, Kenneth Sandford Bercier, Robert William Cawley, Lester Allan Doan, Gregory Phillip Helsley, Greg Neal Henderson, Russell James E. Hevern, Raymond Dale Hoerner, Robert Edwin Holton, Daniel John Janhunen, Raymond George Kriskovich, Steven Patrick Murphy, Daniel John O’Neill, Joseph E. Parker Jr., Weston Henry Reece, Marvin Kent Robertson, Raymond Robertson Jr., Richard D. Satterthwaite, Dennis Wayne Sonsteng, Kenneth Peter West and Florian J. Zahn.
Six men on the wall are from Anaconda. They are David Anthony Anderson, Patrick Jay Fleming, Eugene Floyd McNally, Ronald John Moe, Wayland Dan Stembridge and Robert Joseph Thomas.
All of those were young men had their futures stolen from them in Vietnam.
I made three trips to Father Sheehan Park to look at those names on the wall because one trip was not nearly enough. I went with my dad two of those times, and we found some names of the men he knew.
That included Satterthwaite, a corporal in the Army. When in Korea, my dad opened a letter from his dad to learn that Satterthwaite, a fellow former St. Mary’s grade school student, was killed on March 19, 1969.
So many people found the names of their loved ones and scratched those names onto a piece of paper. Others left pictures, flags or flowers by their loved ones.
Someone left a photo of Kriskovich with a flag and a couple of hearts near where his name could be found on line No. 42 of panel 49W.
Kriskovich served in the Army. He died on Aug. 10, 1968.

The Wall That Heals is an appropriate name. While it was probably painful to see the name of a loved one on such a beautiful memorial, it had to help the healing process for those who did.
It also must have helped in the healing process for so many of the Vietnam veterans who stopped by to see the wall. No matter what time of day or night you stopped by the wall, you would find at least a handful of those veterans.
The five days that the Wall That Heals stood at Father Sheehan Park will go down as five great days in the history of the Mining City.
Time, they say, heals all wounds. That is not true. It takes more than time, and some of those wounds will never heal.
The soldier can never forget seeing his fellow soldiers die. He cannot forget being yelled at or spat upon when he came home.
The wall, though, had to help. At least we can hope it helped.
Hopefully, seeing that wall comforted the family and friends of the fallen soldiers. Hopefully it proved to them that they were not forgotten. Hopefully it showed the living Vietnam veterans that they really are loved and appreciated.
Seeing those names on the wall seemed to help my dad, even if just a little.
However, do not expect to see any Jane Fonda movie his television any time soon.
— Bill Foley, who was also told to turn the channel when “On Golden Pond” came on, 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.











