... That fieldhouse now holds about 7,300 spectators, after a 1980s facelift. Back in the day, though, for kids in Montana, it was like going to Madison Square Garden.
And it provided the dramatic setting for my first book, published last summer ("Win 'Em All - Little Laurel Wins Montana's Biggest Basketball Trophy") Montana had a setup when I was in high school that while not totally like the Hoosiers' scheme in Indiana, did provide an opportunity for smaller schools to upset their bigger brethren and claim the state championship. It was called the Big 32, an amalgamation of Montana's then 16 biggest schools (Class AA) and the 16 next-largest in terms of enrollment (Class A). This ran for six years, 1964-69, during which time three Class A schools won the championship and a fourth got second place. The administrators of the bigger schools, one of which I attended (Billings West), got mad about losing face and voted to pull the plug, with a little help from three Class A schools. The Montana High School Association vote was secret, but I'm pretty that's the way it came down.
Anyway, on March 15, 1969, the most dramatic moment of all occurred - and I was there as a high school senior and part-time sportswriter for the Billings Gazette, helping the sports editor cover the three-day tournament. The Laurel Locomotives, who had no one taller than 6-2, capped a 26-0 season by beating the Kalispell Braves, 57-54, in overtime. The Braves hailed from a school with at least four times as many students as the Locomotives. More importantly, the Braves had a 6-11 center (Brent Wilson) who did play a bit of Division 1 ball, first at Montana State and then at Colorado State, as well as 6-7 and 6-4 players on the front line.
I was part of an enormous throng on championship night, a turnaway crowd estimated at close to 11,000. The previous attendance record, back in the late 1950s, was about 10,300, when Elgin Baylor-led Seattle U. came to town and beat the Bobcats. The March 1969 crowd still stands as the largest crowd at any level - high school, college, "minor" league pro basketball or NBA exhibition - to watch a basketball game in Montana. They could crowd all those people in the arena, thanks to wooden bleachers that ringed the court. Also, there still is a catwalk overhead - reputable reports say that gate crashers got help in sneaking in from students in the game crew and they perched up high. And there were reports of about 500 people, turned away, who sat in their cars in the fieldhouse parking lot to listen to a statewide game broadcast.
And just for perspective, Montana's population then was something like 570,000-580,000, can't remember exactly. So those 11,000 people represented about 2 percent of all the men, women and children in the state being at the same place that night.
The record probably will never be broken. As mentioned, the fieldhouse, now equipped with comfy seats for all of us who are ... er, wider .. than we were then, is limited to more than 3,000 fewer spectators. The Metra in Billings has had some big crowds, slightly over 10,000 for a few high school games, but that's right at capacity. I don't have the exact capacity for the University of Montana's place in Missoula, but I doubt it's bigger than 8,000.
It was a magical night for all those who were there. And it's still magic going on 48 years later.
