Remember When?

38 YEARS AGO • FEBRUARY 14, 1980

LIGHTWEIGHTS LEAD HAWKS TO TITLE

At the beginning of this year’s wrestling season the odds favored the Blue Hawks to repeat as state champions, but as the year progressed the Hawks stock rose and fell. The Blue Hawks did have a winning dual season and they did extremely well in the four tournaments they participated in but they could do no better than tie with Arlee behind Seeley-Swan at the division tournament. By that time quite a few people had written off the Blue Hawks’ chances for repeating at State.

The first day of the state tournament at Butte was frantic. There were six mats – three for A and three for B-C – 96 matches in each class. All five Blue Hawks won in the first round, four with pins, for a total of 18 team points.

The second round was another matter however. Mike LaBrosse came up against first place divisional winner Keith Widhalf of Valier, losing 13-2. Mike Fisher broke his string of pins in this round but did manage a superior decision 21-6, against Kevin Cavanaugh of Harlowton.

Then Gary Hagerman defeated Warren Buckalew of Colstrip and Steve Davis, unable to get on track and hampered somewhat by several controversial referee decisions, lost 0-8 to Alan Fleckenstein of Baker. Despite the fact that Larry Milner had already won his match, leaving three Blue Hawks remaining in the championship bracket, the Hawks seemed demoralized Friday night, perhaps feeling that their slender chances of taking state – one more time – had vanished along with Davis’ chance of repeating his individual state championship. The Hawks gained only 7½ points in the second round; total: 25 points for eighth place.

The Blue Hawks are made of sterner stuff, however, and by Saturday morning the atmosphere was a combination of grim determination and calm acceptance – the Blue Hawks would be able to handle whatever came but they weren’t going to give up hope. That morning the championship and consolation rounds proceeded simultaneously. LaBrosse pinned Frank Kelly, Circle, in the consolations. Fisher pinned Wade Toren of Simms to advance to the finals. Hagerman defeated Ben Jenkins of Big Sandy 12-1 to go into the finals. Davis pinned Mission’s Dan Ebensteiner in consolations, and Larry Milner pinned Todd Marsh of Plentywood to go into the championship finals.

The Blue Hawks had three wrestlers in the finals and 46 team points, now it was up to LaBrosse and Davis.

While the three semi-final winners went back to the motel to rest for the championship round Saturday evening, Davis and LaBrosse were just beginning to get to work in the consolation bracket. In the second consolation round both wrestlers won by pins, adding another six points to the team score. In semi-final consolation competition LaBrosse looked surprisingly strong but could manage only a tie after three periods against a first place division finisher from Forsyth. As the match went into overtime Blue Hawk fans became subdued, knowing what the extra pressure, not to mention the extra three minutes of wrestling, can do to even the most experienced wrestler. LaBrosse chose to ignore all of this and won 10-2. He had placed at State!

A half an hour later Davis, for the second time that day was facing a first place divisional winner. Davis won 9-0 to join LaBrosse in consolation finals. The team total was 88 points and first place.

Back at the motel before the finals the mood changed once again; the wrestlers and the coaches had been dabbling in some mathematical speculations. The Hawks may have brought only five wrestlers to state but they still had five wrestlers in the consolation and championship finals. There was still a chance that one of the other teams might catch the Hawks but now the odds were in our favor.

LaBrosse, evidently deciding that he’d had enough wrestling for the day, pinned Mark Stevenson, Whitehall, in 39 seconds to take third. With the team points from Davis’ defeat of Bill Hicks, Fairfield, for third place, the championship round was merely an insurance round – the Blue Hawks had come back to take state again.

Perhaps it is unfair to the participants to make the championship round seem anticlimactic, but this was the case Saturday evening, with the championship all but wrapped up.

Fisher defeated Scott Weber, Forsyth, 14-6, but Hagerman and Miler each lost one point decisions, ending up in second.

Of the 24 matches the five Blue Hawks wrestled, 12 were pins. Without that extra point the Hawks might have finished fourth or fifth. If there were any standouts it would be necessary to choose the two lighter weights. Fisher, the only one of last year’s five to lose in the 1978-79 championship finals (second place), was the only one of this year’s five to win a championship. And a “kid” by the name of LaBrosse had five pins, third place, for the second highest accumulation of team points with 20½ of the total 101½.

This week’s column is in remembrance of Mike Fisher, Class of 1980, who died last weekend. He was a superb athlete being selected to play in the East-West Shrine Football game along with Gary Hagerman, Todd Hanson and Steve Davis in 1980; winning the state championship in wrestling as an individual and as a team member. Mike wrestled at 132 lbs. and earlier in the year won the quick pin trophy in the Western B-C Division Tournament with a 7:50, in one of his matches he pinned his opponent in 0:38, that’s a fast match!