One Nation, Under God

Idler inducted at '78 Reunion

The Malta High School Class of 1978 held their 40-year reunion in Malta last Saturday, August 11, and with it came the induction of one of Malta High School's greatest athletes; Terry Idler.

Idler was nominated to the Montana High School Association Athlete's Hall of Fame in 2012 by his wrestling, football and track coach the late Glenn Flatt and officially named to the Hall a few months ago.

"I am very proud," Idler told the PCN after the event. "I'm really impressed with the friends that I have made here. The people in Malta (are incredible), you couldn't find better people. I have lived in 11 states, many different places all of which have good and bad but Malta seems to have the best people that I have ever met."

The event was emceed by current Malta High School Principal, and longtime Malta Football Hall of Fame coach, Scott King.

"I know Terry more for his reputation of being first of all, a great person," King said at the event. "He is a standup guy and secondly, he was a phenomenal athlete. One of the best athletes that Malta High School has ever put out."

Though King had only met Idler one time prior to the event, it was revealed the Idler had been the topic of many discussions during his tenure at Malta High School.

"Glenn and I spent a lot of time talking Mustang football over the past several years," King said during the presentation. "We would talk about kids that we have coached, teams that we had coached. We talked about running backs. From my generation I would talk about Morris, Salsbery, Demarais. But it never failed; the conversation would always come back to Terry Idler."

Presenting the award to Idler was MHSA President Dennis Murphy, who is also the Athletic Director at Havre High School and Class A representative to the MHSA.

Other speakers included his former teammate and longtime friend Michael Fred Ereaux, a letter was read from Hall of Fame Coach Brad Utterback of Fort Benton, a segment from Greg Kielb's KMMR Sports Hour was shared, a speech was spoken by his former wrestling coach Gordon Kron and Idler shared a few words.

Idler was inducted with seven other former Montana athletes in the 2018 class including Travis Dorsch who graduated from Bozeman High in 1998, Lindsey Graham-Gustafson who graduated from Charles M. Russell High School in 2000, Tim Hauck who graduated from Sweet Grass County High School in 1985, Zoe Nelson who graduated from Flathead High School in 2005, Joslyn Tinkle who graduated from Missoula Big Sky in 2009, Travis Walker who graduated from Plentywood High in 1995 and Gary Monahan who graduated from Butte Central in 1962.

 

Reader Comments(0)