If you didn’t pick up a program/flyer when you walked into the football field area at Noxon High School Thursday, you may have been really confused.

“You can’t tell the players without a program” is an age-old cry used by program sellers in all sports to entice game attendees into buying a program.

No need for that in Noxon, or pretty much anywhere else high school sports are played in the Treasure State. The programs, some elaborate like the slick-paper, full color documents handed out at Plains High games, some just copy paper reproductions of an original typed, two-sided roster list, give you the names, uniform number and usually the position(s) of the student athletes on each team.

But that was mostly disrupted in Noxon Thursday, due to an infusion of cold hard CLASS that in many ways transcends sporting events.

The Red Devils of Noxon were scheduled to play their six-player football rivals from Hot Springs Friday evening. It was senior night for Noxon and a state playoff berth was hanging in the balance.

But tragedy struck Hot Springs in the form of the death of a player on their team. The local sporting world was saddened and stunned by the loss, no group more so than the coaches, players and classmates of the young man who passed.

The Friday night rivalry game was, of course, cancelled.

But the game, in this case involving another six-man team from Lima, stepped forward and gave the fans and Noxon players a glimpse at why sports and common human decency in general, are so important to the fabric of a society.

Lima made the nearly 400-mile drive to Noxon on very short notice. They came with a team that has experienced roster shortages all year, often able to field the bare minimum six players required by rules.

On this sunlit day, the rules were bent. Class and decency were the winners of what was labeled a scrimmage game. The scoreboard at the end of the game read 55-18 in favor of Noxon, but both teams were winners in a game that did not count in the standings.

“The kids talked about coming to Noxon, for about five minutes,” said Lima coach Jared Weaver. “They wanted to come and play”.

This one was for Jody Page, the deceased player from Hot Springs. It was for sports and the word derivative, sportsmanship.

Prior to the opening kickoff, the two teams and the good weekday crowd of fans, bowed their heads in silence. The life of one of their own had come to a tragic end. No other reason was needed.

And because Lima came with just one substitute, Noxon lent them three players for the game. That gesture became even more magnanimous when three of the Lima players swapped teams with other Noxon players for most of the second half.

It was what class is all about.

Young men were having fun on a glorious Fall day, playing the game as a tribute to one of their own. Playing the game because they love to play the game.

“It was the right thing to do,” said Noxon Superintendent Dave Whitesell, who helped with the down and distance markers on the sideline during the game.

No arguing that statement. And it genuinely didn’t matter who won the game, it didn’t count and that was not the purpose.

The purpose, in my mind, was to celebrate the exuberance of life. The heart of kids in the midst of a troubled world.

Players helped each other up after hits. They patted players from the “other” team on the back when a good play was made. They had fun.

The game went on, just like the world goes on.

But on this day, the participants of two six-player football teams in a far corner of Montana, maybe even unwittingly, made a beautiful place more beautiful.