Toughest Highschool gym to play in!

Bleedinbluengold · Post by **Bleedinbluengold** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:01 am

Any gym on a Rez, especially Browning. They seem to all be about the same, at least the ones I played in. I only played at Butte once (and got smoked by 20+).

Just from my personal experience, Browning made Butte look like a church social. In Browning, the fans got to sit right down on the player's bench. So you'd have the number 7 guy sitting right next to some screaming, stinking, smoking fan (what a hoot). The fans behind the visitors would spend all night kicking you, throwing pop and other food on you, and when it was time to leave to the lockerroom after warm-ups and at half, every fan within reach tried to trip you on your way out.

One time, they didn't sing the National Anthem in english. They supposedly sung it in their native tongue. But who the hell knows, they could have just as easily been singing some sort of curse or war party song. The song lasted 15 minutes! No lie.

Probably the best home court advantage was the fact that the gym seated maybe 2000 shoulder to shoulder, but I swear at least 4000 would show up, and they all smoked. By the end of the first quarter, it was just a hazey, foggy, stinkin' mess. There was no such thing as "non-smoking" in those days.

I loved playing there.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 12:28 pm

Bleedinbluengold wrote:Any gym on a Rez, especially Browning. They seem to all be about the same, at least the ones I played in. I only played at Butte once (and got smoked by 20+).

Just from my personal experience, Browning made Butte look like a church social. In Browning, the fans got to sit right down on the player's bench. So you'd have the number 7 guy sitting right next to some screaming, stinking, smoking fan (what a hoot). The fans behind the visitors would spend all night kicking you, throwing pop and other food on you, and when it was time to leave to the lockerroom after warm-ups and at half, every fan within reach tried to trip you on your way out.

One time, they didn't sing the National Anthem in english. They supposedly sung it in their native tongue. But who the hell knows, they could have just as easily been singing some sort of curse or war party song. The song lasted 15 minutes! No lie.

Probably the best home court advantage was the fact that the gym seated maybe 2000 shoulder to shoulder, but I swear at least 4000 would show up, and they all smoked. By the end of the first quarter, it was just a hazey, foggy, stinkin' mess. There was no such thing as "non-smoking" in those days.

I loved playing there.

That was a great description -- it's almost begging for at least a short story to be written around the setting. I have never been there, but I can visualize it perfectly from what you wrote.

suckitgriz · Post by **suckitgriz** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:05 pm

No one remembers the sweet Helena High Gym back in the late 90's with the light show- awesome- at least while you were in high school.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:05 pm

Yes, Helena's light show was pretty cool for a while. I remember the visiting coach would take his team off the floor until it was over. It's a classic old gym with that great big apparatus that holds the backboard. There must be 3 tons of steel in those things.

Frazer (I, too, liked the description by Bleedin') was a classic, sounds similar to Browning on a smaller scale. Asbestos all over the ceiling and rafters was/is falling off. Built in seating, not the fold up bleachers. I don't think the floor was ever re-sealed after it was initially installed, so the hardwood was faded and popping up in places.

Shelby has a classic gym in all the good ways. Horseshoe around the top and bleachers below. Neat old gym.

Bobcat-in-OR · Post by **Bobcat-in-OR** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:40 pm

We played in Lame Deer one year........they brought their ceremonial drums onto the court and played them for about 20 minutes right after the national anthem. We stood the whole time out of respect, but we were dying to sit down.

I remember we kept looking at our coach and he kept yawning (you know how contagious that is), so pretty soon our whole team was standing there yawning and feeling sheepish because we didn't want to disrespect their culture, etc. We didn't think it would ever end, and by the time it was over we had to warm up again.

Although their court/gym was fairly new at the time, I don't think they had ever cleaned it. The plexiglass backboards were smothered with dust and greasy handprints. The locker rooms were horrid. They had all this new equipment (soaking tubs, etc.) but they were filled with mold and dirt. We were afraid to touch anything, including the floor. God was it awful.

Finally, to top things off our 6'6" big man vomited all over the place in the back of the bus on the way home. Made for a lovely 90 minute trip, as it was freezing cold outside so keeping the windows open was out of the question.

Ahhhh, what fond memories!

Andrist · Post by **Andrist** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:52 pm

Belgrade hasn't been a Class C for numerous years. In fact, probably not since the early 80's. Anyway, possible tough gyms in the state would definitely include Anaconda. Yes, 'the snake pit' is a horrible place to play. The Butte Civic Center, playing Butte Central, never a good idea. And lastly, Whitehall. Concrete walls all around. Bleachers on one side with iron poles to stop you. HORRIBLE!

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:31 pm

Well, you're right. Belgrade's last year in Class C was 1969. They won the Class B Football championship in 1970. It took Manhattan until 1973 to win the State BB championship and Greasy Spoon until 1975...

hokeyfine · Post by **hokeyfine** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:36 pm

the one thing i remeber about browning was running into the locker room and being spit on by the kids(boys and girls) chewing. we had an african-american on our team, so it made things even more interesting.

WolfPtCat · Post by **WolfPtCat** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:01 am

Moccasin Square Garden, Poplar

I'm not kidding, that's its name. We (Wolf Point) always had a mutual respect type of thing going on, and the crowd was still tough. I can't imagine if they didn't like you.

side note- several years after graduation I learned of some of the wagers that were placed on that cross-reservation game. The amounts were staggering, (even for me, and I'm a gambler). I'm sure glad no players ever knew the betting was even happening.

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:14 pm

Played in a few smaller gyms with tile floors. They all had dead spots and if you did not know where they were then you were in for a surprise when the ball hit one. The home team would always have a big advantage.

BCATbread · Post by **BCATbread** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:10 am

anyone that played for bozeman could tell you the Billings West's Mini Dome was the toughest gym always packed with a loud ass band and the wrap around seating, plus BHS and west are usually 2 of the top teams in the state but that game is usually a battle. Butte and Helena always had terrible officials but the civic center is a great arena to play in and the butte fans no longer have that tough/meaness they were once known for.

geogfather · Post by **geogfather** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:50 am

WolfPtCat wrote:
side note- several years after graduation I learned of some of the wagers that were placed on that cross-reservation game. The amounts were staggering, (even for me, and I'm a gambler). I'm sure glad no players ever knew the betting was even happening.

The Game in Question was not actually the Wolf Point Poplar game, As a bet in favor of Poplar over Wolf Point that year would be like throwing your money away. The Game was the Wolf Point Harlem Game although the bet itself involved people from Wolf Point and Poplar.
Yeah the amounts were stagering. In the thousands. It was nuts. But I will tell you this. I can't speak for all of the players, but i can tell you that at least two of the Wolf Point Players knew of the bets that were taking place. I wish I had seen the look on the faces of the poplar people when weeks hit that three a the buzzer to win it for Wolf Point. Man that would suck to lose that bet.

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 2:05 pm

Bleedinbluengold wrote:Any gym on a Rez, especially Browning. They seem to all be about the same, at least the ones I played in. I only played at Butte once (and got smoked by 20+).

Just from my personal experience, Browning made Butte look like a church social. In Browning, the fans got to sit right down on the player's bench. So you'd have the number 7 guy sitting right next to some screaming, stinking, smoking fan (what a hoot). The fans behind the visitors would spend all night kicking you, throwing pop and other food on you, and when it was time to leave to the lockerroom after warm-ups and at half, every fan within reach tried to trip you on your way out.

One time, they didn't sing the National Anthem in english. They supposedly sung it in their native tongue. But who the hell knows, they could have just as easily been singing some sort of curse or war party song. The song lasted 15 minutes! No lie.

Probably the best home court advantage was the fact that the gym seated maybe 2000 shoulder to shoulder, but I swear at least 4000 would show up, and they all smoked. By the end of the first quarter, it was just a hazey, foggy, stinkin' mess. There was no such thing as "non-smoking" in those days.

I loved playing there.

Browning would be my pick as well as far as the gym's I played in high school. Very tough atmosphere/crowd right on you/dirty floor/fans throwing stuff onto the floor. I always did like a lot of the Browning players personally though. Lots of nice guys on those teams growing up I thought. Definately an intimidating place to play in though. Not many teams come out for pregame in a full size headress/pow wow music warming up. It actually used to be thumping bass music when I was in school. Very unique experience though.

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 2:09 pm

gtapp wrote:Played in a few smaller gyms with tile floors. They all had dead spots and if you did not know where they were then you were in for a surprise when the ball hit one. The home team would always have a big advantage.

Browning would be my toughest 'venue' to play in, but as far as toughest gym to play on, yeah the tile floors would be my choice too. Big Sandy used to have one when I played and it is TOTALLY different to play on if your used to the springy wood type floors. Hard to run on and the feel is like you are playing a lot slower (probably are

). Definately scuffs up the knees when you fall too. Those type gyms definately make for a huge advantage. Example: We played Big Sandy in Chinook in the same year and beat them like 105 - 70 or something like that. We played them down there a few weeks later and it was a close ballgame (3-5 points). I reffed a lot of games in the Billings surrounding area, but I have yet to see a tile floor like Big Sandy has/had.