The ButteCast with Bill Foley

Butte Central’s boys’ basketball team and Butte High’s girls’ basketball team will be playing in State tournaments this week. Coach Brodie Kelly’s BC boys will play in the Class A State tournament in Great Falls. The Maroons will open the tournament at 10:30 a.m. Thursday against Billings Central, the No. 1 seed from the Eastern A. The Maroons are the No. 4 seed from the Western A after last week’...

Brooke Badovinac hit the biggest 3-pointer in the history of Montana Tech women’s basketball last Monday night. Before she caught the ball, her coach stood up and signaled a 3-pointer. He called the shot with confidence because he knows the player we call “The Assassin” better than anyone. His reaction also reminded me of one of my favorite people of all time — Steve Vezina. That is what today’s c...

The great move “Johnny Dangerously” is an all-time classic. One of my favorite lines in that 1984 Michael Keaton flick came from a newspaper headline shown in the move. The headline read: “Roman Moroni Deported To Sweden. Says He’s Not From There.” That is what I thought when I saw a bunch of knuckleheads (and some bots) tell my friend Nick Gevock to “go back to California.” They told him that bec...

If you went to school with Tytan Rosencrans, you already know he is funny. Even most of his teachers and principals will agree with that. If you did not go to school with Tytan, you can see just how funny he is Saturday night in the ballroom of the Thorton Building in Uptown Butte. The 2021 Butte High graduate is back in the Mining City to entertain his hometown. He is based out of Chicago, where...

Hudson Luedtke will go down as one of the greatest Butte High Bulldogs of all time. When he entered Butte High, many of us knew him as Mickey Tuttle’s grandson. As Hudson enters the final stretch of his remarkable high school basketball career, Mickey, a star on Butte High’s last state title team in 1984, is now known as Hudson Luedtke’s grandpa.   That is what today’s column is about. You can rea...

If you have been to a Montana Tech sporting event over the last couple of decades, then you know the work of Joe McClafferty. Even though it has been more than a decade since he moved on from his role as the director of athletics at Montana Tech, the impact he made there is still alive and well. He created Digger Vision, the giant Jumbotron at Alumni Coliseum that made the rest of the Frontier Con...

Many of us Butte Rats think we know Marcus Daly, the famed Copper King whose likeness is immortalized in a statue that sits on top of West Park Street. Well, Brenda Wahler really knows Marcus Daly. She probably knows him as well as anybody currently alive, anyway. Brenda has written two books about Daly. Her first book, “Marcus Daly’s Road to Montana,” was released in 2023. Her next book, “Marcus...

The funny thing about refereeing high school basketball is that you can never feel too high or too low. There is a cosmic balance to it all. When you call a foul, one team applauds and one is upset. Even if it is an obvious call, someone on the side of the team the call goes against disagrees. They might not yell too much, but you can hear the reaction. So, you never get too high when you are an o...

The 1980s were not an easy time for the Mining City. Things started to turn around late in the decade. But for the better part of the 80s, Butte was mired in an economic depression. After the mines closed, so many people were left unemployed or had to flee their hometown to find work somewhere else.  My dad was one of the men who, when he was lucky, found work hundreds, if not thousands of miles f...

Last week was an exciting one for the Butte Sports Hall of Fame. We got to announce the 12 individuals and five teams being inducted this July 24-25 at the Butte Civic Center. That is when we get to see the excited reactions from the inductees and their families. Unfortunately, we also had to have some very hard conversations with family and friends of some worthy candidates who were not yet voted...

Back in August of 2023, Butte Central basketball legend Ray Johnson appeared on episode No. 117 of the ButteCast with his lifelong buddy Steve Schulte. Today, Ray Jay is back for a solo appearance. In 2022, Ray Jay was inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame. He is best known for his role on the 1978 Class A State championship Butte Central boys’ basketball team. Those Maroons beat Glendive 55...

Today we meet the Butte Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026. The class was introduced during a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Butte Civic Center. The event was broadcast live on KBOW’s Partyline, and this is a recording of the event. This year’s class is the 20th since the Hall of Fame began in 1987. It includes 12 individuals and five teams. The individuals are Brian Bolton, Bernie Bro...

Thanks to some one-sided journalism and social media bickering, Anaconda has been unfairly betrayed as a racist community following the Anaconda-Arlee basketball games on Jan. 22. It is not fair that Anaconda is painted in such a light over an incident that involved a few immature adults and some students who do not speak for a school, let alone an entire community. Anaconda is not the bad guy in...

Today, Butte High graduate Dylan Cook makes his second appearance on the ButteCast. This time he joins the show as a Pittsburgh Steeler. We all know Dylan’s story by now. He was a quarterback in high school and to start his college career at MSU-Northern. He transferred to the University of Montana, switched to the offensive line and became a starter. Dylan signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as...

Not only was Fritz Daily one of the greatest icons in the history of the Mining City, he was our greatest fighter. He was a social and environmental justice warrior right up until he passed away at 80 last week. Butte will never be the same without Fritz. But it will also never be the same because of Fritz. He was the ultimate Butte guy who fought to make all our lives better. Fritz left an impact...

Tanner Huff is one of the best athletes to come out of Butte, America this century. He was a member of Butte High’s 2019 football team that advanced to the Class AA State championship game as a junior. As a senior, he won four gold medals at the Class AA State track meet in Missoula. On that beautiful May weekend in Missoula, Tanner won gold in the 100- and 200-meter races. He also ran a leg of Bu...

Today we are talking unions with Mac Coyne and Adam Haight. Mac, a Butte native, is a field agent for Laborers Local 1686. Adam is from California originally, but we like him anyway. He is the business manager for the local. Unions are the backbone of the economy. That probably goes even more for the Laborers Union, which is billed as the most progressive, aggressive and fastest-growing of the uni...

Monday night was a great night for Butte sports. A nice crowd showed up for the Butte Sports Hall of Fame public forum at the McQueen Club. The public forum gives members of the public the chance to make a case for nominees in front of the selection committee. Twenty-six people took that opportunity in a forum that lasted about 3 hours. It started with Pat Ryan telling stories about his fellow But...

Don Peoples and Pat Kearney were right when they thought the Butte Sports Hall of Fame would be a home run when it started in 1987. This summer, the Hall of Fame will induct its 20th class. Opening music by Tim Montana. For more from the Elk Park native, go to  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠timmontana.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Kevin Peoples is a 1989 Butte Central graduate who has been a college football coach for the past 30 years. He has coached at places like Indiana, Tulane, Arkansas, and Missouri. For the past two seasons, he has coached the edge rushers at LSU. He joined the Tigers program under Brian Kelly and will continue under new head coach Lane Kiffin. Peoples was a three-sport standout for the Maroons, comp...

If Susie (Briney) Hogart-Harrington was born 10 years later, we would all probably know her name from her prowess in the athletic arena. She was just good at everything she did. Unfortunately, Susie came along before Title IX, the 1972 landmark civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funds. Susie graduated from Butte Central i...

Two weeks ago, I brought you the story of Shawn Wetzel allegedly being attacked by a woman at the Santa Slammer youth basketball tournament at Memorial Gym in Anaconda. Wetz was working as an official at the time. The story blew up, and nearly everyone took Wetzel’s side. He is a likable guy from a famous Montana family. She is now disliked, known only by her alleged actions that were caught on se...

The Bears beat the Packers in the playoffs Saturday night. As a life-long, lunatic Bears it was a game that I could not miss, even if it was my daughter’s 16th birthday. Now I’m in the doghouse for something that I could not control. Opening music by Tim Montana. For more from the Elk Park native, go to  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Russell Cleveland is a father, small business owner, rancher and Navy veteran who is running for Montana’s first congressional seat. On top of all that, Russ is a former Montana Tech football player who is the defensive coordinator for the high school football team in St. Regis. Last fall, Russ helped lead the Tigers as they advanced to the second round of the Montana Class C 8-player playoffs. He...

Aaron Woliczko served as the head coach of the Montana Tech’s men’s basketball team from 2010 through 2013. He had the program clearly pointed in the right direction when he and his family decided to move back to California. Not long after that, Coach Woliczko started what has to be considered a dream job with the West Coast Conference. He is currently the senior associate commissioner for men’s b...