Kelvin Sampson’s journey and it’s many Butte parallels

Monday night, the University of Houston Cougars, under the tutelage of Coach Kelvin Sampson, will meet the University of Florida Gators for the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.  As you have probably heard several times by now, Coach Sampson is also the former head coach of the Montana Tech Orediggers, a school he led to then-unseen success and a school where he left a lasting legacy.  Coach Kelvin is a member of the Digger Athletics Hall of Fame.  Sampson is a mentor to current Oredigger Head Coach Adam Hiatt.  Hiatt's present-day Orediggers proudly play on Kelvin Sampson Court.  But even as Sampson has moved on, you can tell there is a lot of Butte left in him.  Saturday's incredible come-from-behind win over Duke in the semifinals, while historic and certainly a win that will be talked about for decades to come, showed that even when things look bleak, even hopeless, if you keep fighting, good things can happen.

Kelvin Sampson came to the Mining City in 1981 which was a time of turbulence, a time when the Berkeley Pit was in its final days and the Anaconda Company was leaving town along with what many said was Butte's economic lifeline and even it's very future.  Many of Butte's mining families, a big percentage of the total population, moved right then and there while the ones that remained were faced with unemployment, depression and a bleak economic outlook.

Montana Tech's basketball program was facing difficult times as well.  The program was not only losing but consistently finishing at the bottom of the Frontier Conference, winning only 17 total games the 3 seasons prior to Sampson's arrival.  Under Kelvin Sampson, things changed.  By 1984, the Orediggers had put together 3 consecutive 22-win seasons along with three Frontier Conference Championships and appearances in two NAIA District 12 Championship games.

Butte began an economic resurgence of sorts along this timeframe as well with the emergence of Montana Resources which kept mining alive and became a major employer in the community alongside the ever-expanding St. James Hospital, the Montana Power Company and Sampson's former employer, Montana Tech.  Sampson by 1987 had been named head coach at Washington State of the PAC 10, his tenure capped by an appearance in the NCAA tournament.  Sampson would then move on to the Big 10 as head coach of the fabled Indiana Hoosiers.  While success would follow Sampson to the Hoosier State, it was at IU where Sampson would be forced to resign due to NCAA recruiting violations and subject to a five-year show-cause penalty.

Butte, too, would take its share of punches to the gut as the aforementioned Montana Power Company would find itself in the throes of bankruptcy in the mid 1990s, it's stock virtually worthless.  Butte would try, and fail, to lure industrial players like Micron and Michaelina's frozen foods to town, although mainstays like the Town Pump Corporation, headquartered in Butte since its 1952 inception, and silicon manufacturers ASiMI, later REC Silicon, would help keep Butte's economic heartbeat stable.  The years following, however, would see Butte grow in an unexpected way and emerge as a world-class host city for events.  Some of them were huge like Evel Knievel Days and the National Folk Festival.  The An Ri Ra Montana Irish Festival and many more entertainment and arts-related happenings became annual events.  Butte grew as a cultural center, welcoming everyone from children's theater actors to Grammy winners all growing and thriving under the town's diverse cultural umbrella.  Meanwhile, employers like NorthWestern Energy, CCCS, Inc., St. James Healthcare, Montana Resources and Montana Tech continue to thrive and grow while new residential and commercial construction can be seen all over town.  Butte has been against the ropes, knocked down even, but Butte always gets up and Butte always keeps fighting.

After the NCAA recruiting violations became national headlines and the coaching job at Indiana in his rearview mirror, Kelvin Sampson could have called it a career.  Many would have.  Sampson's reputation, many said, was forever tarnished, even though many of the violations that he committed are no longer even illegal by NCAA standards.  But Sampson did not quit.  He became an assistant in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks and then the Houston Rockets.  He followed that with his return to the collegiate ranks as head coach of the University of Houston Cougars where he has brought them back to a Phi Slama Jama level of fame and national prominence.  Coincidentally, the Olajuwons and Drexlers of Phi Slama Jam roamed the court during the years of Kelvin Sampson's tenure at Montana Tech.

Sampson's Cougars have been to the Final Four before, but on Saturday they catapulted themselves past the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA semifinals in one of the most thrilling college basketball comebacks in history.

Kelvin Sampson's Houston Cougars could have called it a season, but they did not get down, they did not lose focus, they worked hard and even though it seemed like they didn't lead in the game itself for more than 3 minutes, they won.  Sound familiar?

Butte is seeing new construction, new families and new businesses coming to town, but the fight for the Mining City is far from over.  We still have big money looking to cut corners regarding mine reclamation and community cleanup and, what's worse, we have elected officials who seem to be just fine with that.  Some have adopted an "it's always been that way" type of attitude.  Others are taking a stand and are lacing up the gloves.  Butte, it seems, has always been about the little man and always ready for a fight.  Monday night we will see a man who we will lay partial claim to as one of ours fight once again in a game that he defied odds in which to participate.  He may have been here for just a short while, but let's hope Coach Kelvin Sampson takes every ounce of "Butte Tough" he has ever possessed and fights like hell for a National Championship.  Let's hope that "Butte Tough" can come through for us as well.