View from the Sidelines

Have you ever thought about how things get their names? A cursory look around the sporting world in Thompson Falls provides a few prime examples.

Why is Previs Field, the official place of business for Blue Hawk football and track and field teams, named Previs Field; and how did the Ted Kato Invitational wrestling tournament, one of the longest running tourneys in any sport in Montana and now affectionately called simply the Kato, acquire its distinctive moniker?

Although some may think that these places and things were always known by the names they go by now, it turns out that there is always a reason, and usually a really good one, as to why things are named what they are, and that reason is to honor someone.

The list of someones to honor in the sports world is long in Sanders County as many of the names of this area’s finest students, athletes and coaches live on in events and places we now see all the time in our everyday lives, from Jenny Lampshire Memorial Field in Noxon to the west to the Amundson Sports Complex in Plains to the east and all points in between.

Recently, there has been talk of naming the Thompson Falls High School softball field after the late, great Randy Pirker, who passed away in 2017. Pirker coached the Lady Hawks for over 20 years of his life, including 14 as head coach, guiding the Hawks to the 2010 State B-C title, and to second place finishes in 2005 and 2008.

He was so dedicated to the sport that he was still serving as an assistant coach for the Lady Hawks last spring while working his schedule around medical treatments, although his heroic battle with his disease ended late in the softball season.

Although the TFHS softball field was nicknamed as the “Field of Dreams” when it was rebuilt into its current state-of-the-art condition, in large part thanks to the efforts of another fine former Lady Hawk softball coach, Bob Crowder and his wife Pat, the field never has been officially named.

Maybe it is time to get around to it and make it official – Randy Pirker Field – it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

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The Dave Tripp Memorial track and field meet, annually hosted by Hot Springs, now in Polson but formerly in the Spa City, is what got the wheels turning about why things are named what they are.

Thanks to some impromptu research by Hot Springs administrator Mike Perry, it was learned that Dave Tripp was a student, a 1970 graduate of Hot Springs high who died in an unfortunate pedal-boating accident on Flathead Lake in the summer of 1971.

Tripp was well-liked, the editor of the school yearbook and completed his education in Hot Springs as the salutatorian of his class.

“The understanding is that he was a fine young man who loved competing in track and field, and was a very good runner in the quarter and half mile races,” Perry said. “He was always very involved in school activities and was class president his senior year.”

Tripp went on to attend Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell for one school year before the tragedy unfolded on Flathead Lake that next summer.

Tripp’s sudden, untimely demise in the prime of his young life, which shocked and saddened all that knew him, led to the naming of Hot Springs’ annual track meet in his honor.

Although we never met him, it is nice to know that Dave Tripp’s memory will live on in Hot Springs because someone took the time to honor him in this fashion.

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Speaking of gone but not forgotten and the naming of places and things, I recently learned of another move afoot to do some renaming of some other Thompson Falls sporting facilities.

Visiting with Bob Brown, a 1976 graduate and all-state player for the football Blue Hawks in Thompson Falls’ only State B-title winning seasons (’74 and ’75) recently, I learned that there are a lot of people out there who would like to see the architect of those championship teams, the late Henry Hamill, honored by renaming Previs Field as Hamill Field.

While the football field would be renamed to honor Hamill, Previs’ name would then be not discarded, but attached to the basketball court at TFHS, an as of yet unnamed entity, and Previs Court would be born.

This move would make a lot of sense as the fact is Steve Previs was not known for his football coaching (although he reportedly did do it a few seasons), he was much, much more famous for his basketball coaching. Nicknamed the “Silver Fox” for his habit of producing high-quality hoop squads who always seemed to be playing their best around tournament time, Previs would still have his name attached to Thompson Falls sports in a permanent way with this naming move.

Hamill, who passed away in late 2015, would certainly appear deserving of being honored in Thompson Falls this way. In addition to guiding the Hawk grid squad to Thompson Falls’ first state championship of any kind in a team sport, he was twice named coach of the year in Montana and went on to a long and incredibly successful career coaching football in other parts of Montana and in Idaho after leaving Thompson Falls.

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Hitting a return to the beginning of this column, Ted Kato was a lifelong educator and administrator who taught and coached all over Montana during his working days and wrapped up his teaching career in this area, after tours of classroom duty at both Thompson Falls and Plains.

In the final years of his life, Kato took on the responsibility of coaching the Plains-Hot Springs wrestling team and also served as Sanders County Superintendent of Schools. In honor of his many contributions over the years, Thompson Falls administrators renamed the school’s annual wrestling tournament after Ted.

There are many more stories to tell about the famous names of this area and what they are now attached to in Sanders County, but not enough space here to cover them all.