The Ronan Hall of Fame inducted a crop of new members Feb. 1 at the Community Center in Ronan, celebrating the individuals, athletes and team members who have contributed to the town.

County Commissioner Gale Decker introduced the inductees, beginning with Jay and Beth Preston, Distinguished Community Contributors. 

The couple moved to Ronan in 1960 after they purchased the Ronan Telephone Company and, along with their three children, dived right into community life.

As humanitarians, the Prestons accepted people in the area as they were, spent most of their lifetimes making their business prosper, and helped improve the community in myriad ways. Jay had a penchant for civic projects, including purchasing, installing and maintaining Christmas lights on Ronan’s Main Street and along the “new” highway.

Many acts of kindness went unpublicized. As one Polsonite noted, “If there’s anything going on in Ronan that’s worthwhile, Jay and Beth are involved.”

Jay passed away in 2019, while Beth, 98, lives at St. Luke Extended Care. She attended Saturday’s gathering and thanked all the attendees.

The couple’s son, Jay Jr., also expressed appreciation. “Thank you very much for this honor,” he said.

Distinguished Alumni Dennis Murphy was honored next in the program. He graduated from Ronan High in 1970 and majored in wildlife biology at the University of Montana. He also was a team manager for Grizzly basketball coach Jud Heathcote, which spurred his interest in sports medicine, and an eventual master’s in Athletics and Sports Medicine from the University of Arizona.

Mentored by legendary Grizzly athletic trainer Naseby Rinehart, Murphy became an athletic trainer and when Rinehart retired in 1982, he became head trainer for the Grizzlies for the next 30 years.

Murphy said he travelled to all 50 states and many foreign countries with sports teams, and “it didn’t cost me a dime, except for a passport.”

“This (honor) was completely unexpected,” Murphy said after joshing with Ray Aylesworth, a member of the Ronan Hall of Fame Committee and neighbor of Murphy’s when they were kids.

“I wish my parents could have been here for this – Bob and Doris Murphy,” he said. His sister, Linda, her husband, Alan, and their daughter, Sheena, were on hand to cheer for him.

Murphy expressed his pride in the six RHS students who are now certified athletic trainers.

Distinguished Athlete Terry Camel Brown returned the Camel name to the Hall of Fame.

Decker said he thought maybe it should be called the “Camel Annual Gathering” since so many family members are superb athletes, including boxer Marvin Camel and Bobby Camel, who nominated his sister.

Terry was a freshman in 1972, the year President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law, which prohibits gender discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding. That meant high school girls had to have equal opportunities on the courts and fields.

Terry competed in the 80-yard and 100-meter low hurdles and the long jump and was a 12-time divisional track champion.

She earned five track and field state championships and four second-place finishes.

Her brother Kenny built three hurdles on her mother’s property so she could practice.

“I’d just run and run and run,” Terry recalled.

Competing at state, Decker noted that Terry jumped a record 17 feet, 8 and 3/4 inches.

“At that time, only five girls in the state of Montana had jumped over 17 feet,” Decker said.

She was also an accomplished basketball player and in 1973, collected 301 rebounds, averaging 14.3 rebounds for game.

“I’m very humbled by this (award),” Terry told the crowd. “I’m waiting on my sister Renee to get the next nomination.”

Matt Jore noted that high school guys of that era all had crushes on Terry. He slipped this tidbit of information in after reading a letter from his brother, Roger Jore – also inducted as Distinguished Athlete.

"It’s a great honor for me to be nominated,” Roger wrote. He was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.

Ronan dominated Class A wrestling in the 1970s, and Jore was a major contributor to three of the five state titles the team brought home, wrestling on the 1973, 1974 and 1976 squads.

His best friend and teammate Jim Darlington also spoke, giving chapter and verse of Roger’s amazing career. He and Roger were both selected for the 1976 USA Wrestling High School All-America Team – the only two Montanans on the 42-member squad.

“Roger had a record of 114 wins and four losses in three weight classes in high school,” Darlington said, adding that he was undefeated his sophomore and senior year.

“Roger had some special capabilities; he could handle the stress of competition,” Darlington explained.

“Roger was free of mental stress,” Darlington added. “It’s a gift – he could wrestle free, without fear of losing.”

Following graduation, Roger won gold medals in the in the National AAU freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions in the 132-pound weight class in Illinois, which qualified for a place on the 15-18 AAU Cultural Exchange team, which toured Turkey that August.

After competing in the Regional Olympic Wrestling Trials, he was invited to wrestle in the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials in Cleveland Ohio. He also received the 1976 Montana Little Sullivan Award, which recognizes Montana’s outstanding male athlete of the year.

Roger shone on the gridiron too, earning all-conference quarterback his senior year.

The 1992 State Champion Girls Basketball Team was also recognized for winning Ronan’s first girls state championship.

“it was a different lifetime ago,” said Coach Decker, as he was known to the team. “It was one of those memories of a season that never goes away and stays with you for the rest of your life.”

The team, which included four seniors, had a record of 19 wins and four losses.

“The seniors were a bunch of foulers so our sophomores got to play a lot, because the seniors were sitting on the bench with Coach Decker,” he recalled.

The Maidens came up the hard way to get to the final game because they didn’t win their conference, Jody Horner Bergh said. They beat Browning in the first game of the tourney, advancing to the semi-finals against the Hardin Bulldogs, a perennially tough team.

Coach Decker told the girls to pack a bag in case they lost to Hardin and had to stay the night in Kalispell for a morning game. Angie Sheumaker arrived with no bag.

“Where’s your bag, Angie?” asked Decker.

“Didn’t pack one; we ain’t losing,” Sheumaker replied. They beat Hardin by one point.

The seniors had played together since middle school and wanted to win state on their way out the door. Plus, Decker said assistant coach Janell Espinoza Garrison told the team over and over, “You can do this, you’re good enough.” He thinks Garrison’s sincere positive message helped motivate the team.

Garrison had high praise for Decker too. “He didn’t coach girls. He coached.”

“The Hardin game was really the championship game,” Heather Grainey and Bergh agreed. The Maidens beat the ’Dogs by one point and rolled on to the championship game against Colstrip on Saturday night.

That was a long couple of days for the team, which drove home each night.

“Coach Decker wanted us to sleep in our own beds,” Bergh remembered.

Decker called each player up to receive a certificate, and shared stories about each one.

Naomi (Cook) Mock fouled out seven games that year, Decker said, so they spent lots of time on the bench together discussing strategy. On the other hand, he said she worked hard and was a great rebounder.

Angela Sheumaker “was the most valuable player of the 1992 state tournament, all conference, all state,” Decker recalled.

“Angie still holds the record for most points, 37 against St. Ignatius,” he added.

Point guard Stephanie Irvine “looked like this nice, sweet little girl,” Decker said. “But put her in a basketball uniform, and she steps out on the court and watch out. She was like that old saying — kick ass and take names later – that’s how she played basketball.”

Decker called Heather Grainey the “the unsung hero of our team.” She was at practice every day, worked hard, pushed her teammates to work harder and was always positive, cheering everyone on.

Jody Horner Bergh’s approach to conditioning “was to go as hard as she could for as long as she could, and then take a break,” Decker explained.

The Ronan Police spied Autumn DeJarlais driving the coach’s blue pickup and called the principal. Decker always left the keys in the ashtray, and all the kids knew this.

Autumn had forgotten her shoes for practice and “borrowed” the pickup to run home and pick them up, “because she knew she’d be in trouble for forgetting them.”

Jami Jackson Schall was a sophomore who played a lot that year “because she didn’t like to foul,” Decker said. He added that the Maidens wouldn’t have made it to state without her.

Misty ChiefStick also stepped up, playing most of game after Mock fouled out.

Nikki Webster Graham had a knee injury and served as team manager.

Megan Tameler, Carol Irvine and Tricia Dejarlais were unable to attend, as was assistant coach Kris Salonen.

After the certificates, stories and laughter, the inductees went to the Ronan Events Center to be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame between the girls and boys basketball games against arch rival Polson.

The Decker clan had a busy day, with wife Susie and Gale’s three daughters cooking and serving lunch. But Coach Decker was the true workhorse, putting in untold hours on the website and the program, scanning annuals, and handling nominations for the inductees with help from the Ronan Hall of Fame Committee — John Neiss, McKenzy Kelch, Naomi Mock, and Ray Aylesworth.

Before the crowd dispersed, Charlotte Sheumaker thanked Decker – not only for his Hall of Fame work but also for coaching kids through the years.

She also commented on “the wonderful group of people in this room. I’m so glad that I can still remember them all!”

    Distinguished Alumni inductee Dennis Murphy speaks to the crowd who came to see the 2024 crop of Ronan Community Hall of Fame inductees. (Berl Tiskus/Leader)
  

    A 1992 RHS Girls Basketball State Championship jacket was on display at the community center along with other Hall of Fame memorabilia. (Berl Tiskus/Leader)