BILLINGS — A scheduling battle in my world this weekend has me reminiscing about some fantastic reminiscences.
This Saturday when the seventy fifth version of the Montana East-West Shrine Soccer Recreation is performed in Nice Falls, it should mark simply the second time since 1995 that I’ve not been in attendance calling the sport on radio. I missed the 2007 recreation when my spouse Kristi and I celebrated our twentieth wedding ceremony anniversary with a cruise to Alaska. And this week I’ll miss the sport (and presumably many extra sooner or later) as it’s now being held on the identical weekend because the Midland Roundtable Montana-Wyoming All-Star Basketball Sequence.
Whereas the schedule battle is unlucky, it provides me a motive to mirror on so many nice moments.
My first Shrine broadcast was in 1995 after I was the sports activities director for the Northern Sports activities Community, and we put the sport on statewide radio for the primary time. What an exhilarating recreation that was, as Nice Falls Excessive quarterback and future NFL participant Dallas Neil accomplished a 45-yard move to Plentywood’s Travis Walker with simply 29 seconds left for a 33-28 East victory.
The fiftieth version of the Shrine Recreation in 1996 is one other one which I’ll always remember. Not a lot due to the East’s 20-0 win, however for the tales I heard from the 17 males who have been the honored friends on the banquet the night time earlier than — 17 who performed in that first Shrine recreation made it again for recreation quantity 50!
A kind of tales will stick with me perpetually. One participant informed me that he was knocked unconscious after a tough hit at observe the day earlier than the sport, and wakened an hour later within the workforce bus. And he performed within the recreation the next day! The factor that perpetually sealed that reminiscence for me was when he took off his cap and had me really feel the bump that was nonetheless there 50 years later!
Two years later, the Shriners did one thing exceptional by taking the gamers from each groups (and a sure radio broadcaster) to Spokane to go to the Shriners Kids’s Hospital. What an incredible journey and the right option to let the gamers know what this recreation is all about.
Two of the winningest coaches in Montana prep soccer historical past — Don Schillinger of Baker and Terry Thomas of Dillon — went head-to-head within the 2001 recreation, however that’s solely one of many causes that one was so particular to me. This reminiscence is all a couple of younger man who was in a hospital in Houston.
That night time we arrange a particular telephone feed to Houston in order that Brian Kaluza may hearken to the printed. You see, Brian was an excellent tight finish for Malta, and scored the profitable landing within the Mustangs’ semifinal playoff win over Frenchtown within the fall of 2000. Kaluza was in Houston receiving a bone marrow transplant in his battle in opposition to leukemia, and it was touching for me to know that he was listening to my broadcast that night time.
For followers of high-scoring offenses like me, the 2006 recreation was a deal with. It marked the primary time that two quarterbacks — Andrew Selle of Billings West and Matt Komac of Helena Excessive — each threw for greater than 300 yards. Selle threw for 381 and 4 touchdowns, whereas Komac threw for 331 and three within the East’s entertaining 41-35 win.
After I launched the gamers on the banquet on the night time earlier than the 2009 recreation, I included a chunk of trivia that in 62 years the collection had by no means seen an time beyond regulation recreation. So guess what occurred the subsequent night time? You guessed it, the sport went into OT and Michael King of Helena Capital kicked a 33-yard area objective to provide the West a 20-17 win.
My lasting reminiscence of that 2009 recreation? The truth that the time beyond regulation interval nearly by no means occurred. The West lined up for a game-winning area objective with 4 seconds left within the fourth quarter. The kick was blocked, and Miles Metropolis’s Hayden Kalfell almost took it again the gap as time expired — however was caught and tackled on the 1-yard line by Bobby Hirsch of Belgrade. Wow!
In 2014, I went to one of many practices to interview Huntley Mission star Koni Dole, however couldn’t discover him. Considered one of his teammates knowledgeable me that Koni had gone “again to the locker room to get his leg.” Certainly, Dole was the primary in Montana historical past to play within the Shrine Recreation with a prosthetic leg.
How in regards to the time a participant from North Dakota was the hero of the sport! In 2018, Jeremiah Paine of the Mon-Dak Thunder booted a 30-yard area objective late within the recreation to provide the East a 24-21 victory. Mon-Dak is a co-op workforce of Westby and Grenora, North Dakota, and Paine went to highschool in Grenora.
However my favourite Shine Recreation broadcast of all? That might be only one yr in the past, after I had the chance to spend time with the legendary Tom LeProwse.
The Butte native and Bozeman teaching legend performed in that first Shrine recreation in 1947 — he was a workforce captain, kicked the opening kickoff, made the primary deal with AND married his highschool sweetheart after the sport. Unimaginable!
LeProwse attended nearly each banquet and recreation since then. Final yr, fellow announcer Paul Panisko and I sat with Tom on the banquet and had him on reside at halftime of the sport.
Tom handed away final month on the age of 94, and I’m so grateful that I used to be in a position to share my biggest Shrine Recreation reminiscence with him.