Woodman talks 1985

Since the Mighty Malta Mustang Co. won their first title in 1971, the Malta Mustangs boys Basketball team has won eight Class B Championship games in eight attempts.

Of those wins, one of the most infamous games occurred during the 1985 season, as the Mustangs defeated the Browning Indians 95-90 in a triple-overtime thriller at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls.

The PCN caught up with former Malta Head Coach Mike Woodman, who coached at Malta from 1982-1986.

Coach Woodman is most recently known for his coaching stints with Manhattan High School, which started in 2001, stopped in 2003, restarted in 2011, and then ended with retirement in 2013, but still he remembers how great of a basketball town Malta is. He remembered that Malta had four basketball courts in town during that time and those courts were used by all kids from third grade to high school.

"It all starts and ends at home and when parents have that much emphasis on the game and still feel the importance of what is the cleanest form of entertainment in America, it is a wonderful thing," Coach Woodman said.

The 1985 team followed a great tradition that began with the 3M Co. and has had plenty of success since. That success has bred success according to Coach Woodman.

"There were so many good players in Malta," Coach Woodman said. "The Stiles, the Babsie Bishops, and the Duane Walkers that have come through there. It's pretty amazing, how much of an emphasis on basketball there is in Malta and that the kids have such wonderful mentors to follow."

He also mentioned that the community support was amazing and that during that time Malta was the team furthest to the east in the division.

"I think our average trip was about 150 miles," he said. "We would go overnight to play Cut Bank, Browning, Shelby, Conrad, and we had Chinook and Harlem."

Coach Woodman said that the travel was tough on the team and often times they would make it back to Malta at 2 a.m. or later. Despite the travel, the team saw plenty of support from the parents and the community.

Part of the team's success also happened in the post-season. Malta bonded on out-of-state trips including a basketball trip to a camp in California in 1984.

During that trip to California, the Mustangs benefitted from the wisdom of another Phillips County legend, the late Rocky Tollefson, who played for the Saco Panthers in the early '70s. Tollefson was also a longtime educator at Malta Public Schools and former coach of the Mustangs. He passed away to cancer in 2005.

"He was definitely an intricate part of putting that team together because he knew basketball really well," Coach Woodman said. "He and his wife (Karen) went on the trip to California with us and we just had a special time."

Coach Woodman admitted that Coach Tollefson knew the game better than anyone in the room, and he praised Coach Tollefson for his knowledge of teams along the Hi-Line.

"It was nice to pick his brain even though I had good assistant coaches that had great input..." Coach Woodman said. "He was really an important part of our success, even though he was never on the bench with me there."

Coach Woodman said that he believes that kids today may not handle the conditions of that camp well. Stating that the team slept on wrestling mats and didn't shower for a few days.

"That was a dedicated bunch that did what they had to do to be a better basketball team," Coach Woodman said.

He also mentioned that the team bonded well with each other, spending plenty of time together on the court, off the court, and during road trips that were full of games and visiting each other.

"I am sure glad that cell phones weren't around," Coach Woodman said. "We had that Greyhound bus, and we have four seats that would face each other on both sides and we played a lot of pinochle."

It was a stark contrast between teams in the '80s and today's teams, which often feature plenty of cell phone screens on bus rides home, according to Coach Woodman.

"Kids don't sit there and talk basketball like they used to and that's just because of technology," Coach Woodman said. "I don't know how many times I was at that gym at 10 at night turning off the lights because those kids wanted to stay in and play; it was pretty amazing."

The hard-working starting lineup consisted of Mike McNamara, who at the center position was often the team's top scorer, forward Danny Shores, forward Ross Anderson, guard Brian Henderson and the team's top defender Clark Darrah who also played guard.

The team ran two posts and three players on the perimeter, and without there being a three-point shot in those days, the team looked to feed McNamara.

Malta played man to man defense and relied on the press to force turnovers.

"I got to work with a great staff, and so many good players and our chemistry was unbelievable," Coach Woodman said. "We weren't the most talented team in the state that year but we had somehow put the chemistry together and of course McNamara was our nucleus and our go-to guy."

The state championship was the fifth game that Malta and Browning had played each other that season and according to Coach Woodman both teams always brought out the best in each other.

During the regular season, Malta won both games against Browning, the first by one bucket in a 58-56 win and the second was a 95-57 season-ending blowout.

Malta nearly missed the divisional round that year, taking fourth at the District Tournament, but took the Northern B Divisional Trophy and the top spot at state.

"I don't know what happened at district," Coach Woodman said. "We weren't ready to play. We went down there as the number one team in our conference and got a little complacent."

He mentioned that the team was upset with their performance, and after the third-place game, Coach Woodman kicked a trash can and wrote 6-0 on the board.

"I said you kids have worked too hard and come too far," Coach Woodman said. "This is a setback, but you all have character. I know you will rise to the occasion."

Behind McNamara, and a strong supporting cast, Malta did reach the goal of winning their last six games.

Coach Woodman mentioned that McNamara was one of the top three players that he had ever coached, but he had never played in an overtime period, including the 85 Championship game. McNamara fouled out with 2:54 left in the fourth quarter.

Still, the 85' Mustangs would not only score with Browning but outlast the Indians in a fast-paced, bucket filled game.

"All of those kids were so important," Coach Woodman said. "A lot of times throughout the year, we were 20 or 30 ahead in some of the game and (the bench) would get a lot of playing time and they were ready."

This translated to the championship game when the bench was needed the most.

"They were so supportive of the kids that were playing ahead of them," Coach Woodman said.

Brant Young was called up for McNamara off the bench. Young made a clutch play in the first overtime period, being fouled on a converted putback attempt with seconds remaining. He hit the free throw, sending the game into its second overtime period.

According to Coach Woodman, Young was an athlete that always wanted to be a starter, so much that he required medical attention during a team practice.

"I had to call the EMT one time because he had run so hard in practice that he collapsed," Coach Woodman said. "He was the perfect person to come off the bench as our sixth man."

Though the overtime periods of the 1985 State Championship Game was a blur, Coach Woodman remembers a few details, including the ending score of regulation, which was 68 all.

"It ended up being 95-90 after the third overtime with no three-point line, so you can imagine how many times, we went up and down the court," Coach Woodman said. "You can imagine how many (potential) game-winning shots there were and then someone else would hit a (potential) game-winning shot with only a few seconds to go."

He mentioned that there were plenty of steals, turnovers, and big rebounds.

After the game, while trying to review the game-tape, the coaches, players and their family members made a grave discovery; the game stopped recording at the end of regulation.

"Something happened with the camera and our manager ended up on the bench and we never had the three overtime periods on film," Coach Woodman said.

The team eventually reached out to Browning for the footage of that game.

After the 1986 season, Coach Woodman moved to Oregon to spend time with a sick family member. He then moved to Idaho where he currently resides until 1999, when he took on the role of physical education teacher and the boys' freshman basketball coach at Manhattan High School. He had a pair of stints as head coach in Manhattan and retired in 2013.

Though Coach Woodman did not get a chance to hoist another State Championship trophy, he reached the title game twice. He was and is grateful for every time he had at state. That 1985 season-ending, was something that he said he would never forget.

"There are a lot of coaches that never get a chance to go to a State Tournament, and there are even more that don't get into a championship, so I was really blessed to be that guy to be able to sit over there with those special kids," Coach Woodman said.

Even later in his career in Manhattan, Coach Woodman could see what the sport of basketball meant to Malta, and that was evidenced in Manhattan's 67-62 loss to the Mustangs in the 2012 State B Championship game.

"We were 10 to 15 points better than Malta and we probably had one of the best teams in the state but they played an unbelievable game and those kids hit 22-of-26 free throws, and shot three-pointers like I have never seen before," Coach Woodman said.

He said that has everything to do with the mentality of the Malta kids and the coaching of current Malta Coach David Costin.

"I got outcoached, our kids got outplayed, and it just wasn't meant to be," Coach Woodman said, also mentioning he was happy for Coach Costin. "We were only 20 miles away from Manhattan, so we had the bigger crowd, bigger players, but our team didn't have the mindset that the Malta kids did."

Prior to the 2012 Championship game, Coach Woodman was greeted by several of his former players from Malta in 1985 and was wished luck.