Memories for March 1, 2017

100 years ago

Taken from 25 years ago, PCN, March 1942

Jim Brayton and Lawrence Costello 's were reported as wrestling "la grippe" and Editor Paul Flint had to find a substitute for Costello in the Call office.

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Fond hopes were aroused around Bowdoin when the legislature gave the Great Northern Railroad Company the right to buy 177 acres of land near the Bowdoin station. The establishment of a freight and passenger division point was expected, and came through, for a while.

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Doc Blankenhorn closed the Sunday school because of an epidemic of measles in town.

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Teachers examinations were going on and some of the candidates listed as undergoing the ordeal were Flora Simms, Jean Hewitt, Elizabeth Keren, Edna Mae Cardwell, Frank Lewis and Julia Durocher.

75 years ago

February 26, 1942

Dodson complaint inspires raid on gambling game

Acting on a complaint filed with County Attorney Fred C. Gabriel, Under Sheriff Frank Partridge and Special Deputy "Toots" Pray moved in on a poker game at Dodson Tuesday night and furnished some business for Judge Hurly's District Court.

Donald Lee pleaded guilty to a charge of dealing again and paid a fine of $100.

Brilliant cartoonist will appear at high school

Bob Woods, well-known Chicago cartoonist, is to appear in Malta on March 3 at 8 PM at the high school auditorium, according to an announcement by J. H. Lessely Young.

One of the outstanding events of the entertainment season will occur when Smiling Bob Wood appears locally in his brilliant chalk talk and cartoon program. Mr. Wood ranks as the outstanding entertainer of his type in America.

50 years ago

March 2, 1967

More Unidentified Flying Objects are cited

Mr. and Mrs. Rex Ulrich, southern Phillips County ranchers, have reported to the News a spotting of an Unidentified Flying Object the night of February 18. Mrs. Ulrich told the News that the object was seen about 8 p.m. in the westerly direction from their ranch home. It appeared as a large glowing object and had a "orange, red and yellow flickering glow."

When the Ulrichs first saw the object it seemed to be resting on the ground. As they watched it, it rose into the air and moved back and forth in a horizontal motion and seem to gradually get smaller, as if receding into the distance. It made no noise that the Ulrichs heard.

When Mrs. Ulrich first spotted the object through a window, she called her husband Rex, who watched it while Mrs. Ulrich called Mr. and Mrs. Martin Sandvik who live about six miles Northeast of the Ulrich's. The Sandviks also saw the object, in the same general direction the Ulrich did.

Mrs. Ulrich reports that the object was in view for 20 to 30 minutes, but seemed to be at too great a distance to investigate after it rose from the ground.

Livestock Association against Buffalo herd on game range

The Board of Directors of the Phillips County Livestock Association went on record Monday as opposing the introduction of a buffalo herd on the C. M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in southern Phillips County along the Missouri River. County Stockmen have recently been alerted that such a proposal is in the offerings.

25 years ago

February 26, 1992

He's driven nearly a million miles in his career

If ever a job fit a person or a person fit a job, it has to be Keith Holmes and his school bus driving.

"It's a job," he said at first. But after he talked about it for a while a person knows it's been more than that.

Most "jobs" you get tired of, he admitted. "I got tired of that ol' service station job I worked at before, but I've never gotten tired of this one." When he bought his first buses from Ray Harwood back in '54-'55, "they mostly hung together with bailing wire," he said. "They were in tough shape." He had to work on them every night so they'd be ready to go again in the morning.

Holmes has spent more hours waiting than driving, through the years. Waiting for the teams as they play their games or held their speech meet or music festivals, or even to shop at the malls.

In Butte a few years ago, in -25° to -30° weather, he had to leave the bus running all the time, five days while at the girls' basketball tournament.

"They kept calling for me, both at the gym and at the motel, to come move the bus, it was stinking up the place," he said.

"I don't want to quit very bad, but I have to. I'm getting old," admitted Holmes, who turns 70 next month.

In 37 years of driving, almost a million miles, he never had a major breakdown or accident.

Tollefson was a scoring machine

In a small pool of light, and a lonely farmyard, in the far reaches of the Hi-Line, the greatest scorer in the history of Montana High School basketball learned his craft.

Rocky Tollefson grew up on a weed and cattle spread 21 miles north of Saco, the youngest of three children. As a grade school student in the early 1960s, Tollefson would watch the Saco Panthers on winter nights, then replay the game by himself in the family yard.

The Tollefson's had a power pole in the yard. Nailed to the poll was a light and a basketball hoop, but no backboard. "If I shot and missed, I had to chase the ball forever - so I didn't miss," said Tollefson, 39, an elementary school teacher in Malta.

Tollefson scored 2326 points in 105 varsity games at Saco from 1967 to 1971, twice leading the Panthers to the State Class C Tournament.

Tollefson posted eye-popping numbers as a senior in 1970 – 71, averaging triple doubles: 23.8 points, 18 rebounds and 11.5 assists per game. He averaged 18.8 points as a freshman, 22.7 of the sophomore and 20.8 as a junior.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of Tollefson's career is that it coincided with Duane Walker of Malta and Rick Goodman of Belt, the number two and three scorers on the all-time list.

Tollefson's theory is simple: It was the shoes.

"We had flat – bottomed, great arch support types with the great canvas uppers for ankle support," Tollefson said. "The kids nowadays don't know what they missed."

10 years ago

March 7, 2007

M-ettes make a statement with title

The Malta M-ettes used the second half of the championship game to make a statement.

Not only were they the winner of the State Class B Girls Basketball Tournament - but they deserve to be.

That fact wasn't necessarily evident the night before when they struggled to defeat a tough Three Forks team in semi-final action and won the game with a Laramie Schwenke shot with no time on the clock after the junior had stolen the ball only seconds earlier.

In the championship game, the M-ettes scored 46 of their 66 points in the second half, hitting 17 of 26 field goals to defeat a suddenly the moralized Shepherd 66-54.

The win capped off the M-ettes first undefeated season, 26-0.

Street Talk; which of the M-ettes do you admire most?

Nicole Arnold: "Laramie Schwenke, because she made a free throw under pressure in front of everyone."

Kimberly Brown: "Kylee Denham, because she helped hold the team together."

Chelsea Roberts: "Amber Harms. She shows good sportsmanship."

Jessie Cole: "Kelly Pankratz. She works hard and practices hard all the time."