George Ferguson Column: I'm getting old, but I won't forget 2016

It’s been said, the older you get, the faster time goes by. I can’t really argue against that point, especially considering that I feel like 2016 came and went in the blink of an eye.

In a way, that’s kind of sad, because, it was another great year, and with so many great things that happened the past 365 days, it’s hard to accept that it’s all a memory now. I mean, take sports out of the equation, and in 2016, I still had a big year. Got chased by a grizzly bear, lost nearly 70 pounds, added to my family by rescuing a kitten from minus-10 degree weather just a few days before Christmas. I crossed the U.S. Open tennis tournament off my bucket list, and did much more that I won’t bore you with.

And just like 2016 seemed like another big year in my life, it was another big one in sports too. And narrowing it down to my five fondest moments of the local sports year, yes, I’ll leave the Cubs out of this one, wasn’t easy to do. But here goes. And keep in mind, these are things I actually saw or covered, not just things that happened.

5. Watching Natalee Faupel play basketball all last season, and so far this season. I don’t know if fans of the Skylights realize what they see when they watch Faupel play every night. But what I see is one of the best NAIA basketball players in the country, certainly one of the best to ever suit up at Northern, and, what really strikes me when I watch her play is how fun it is to think that the Skylights have a player that both former Lady Griz head coach Robin Selvig and Bobcat head coach Tricia Binford shouldn’t have passed on. I see a player who would have been a star at the NCAA Division I level, and, I’m damn glad she isn’t, because if the Cats or Griz would have taken her, I never would have gotten to watch her play the last four years, and that’s been something I don’t take for granted.

4. The first of two Northern football moments. Yes, it was another difficult year for the Lights, but, it was still magical watching Zach McKinley play. And his last game was really something to behold. Playing at Blue Pony Stadium on the final day of the regular season, McKinley, on an emotional senior day, needed nearly 170 yards to earn his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard season. Had he not gotten it, it wouldn’t have taken any of the shine off of his remarkable and record-setting career. However, he certainly deserved to get to the 1,000-yard mark, and against a stingy College of Idaho defense, McKinley rushed for 181 yards and one last TD in his brilliant Northern career. The Lights fell to the Yotes 31-13, but watching McKinley one last time, and getting to see him walk off the field with his head held high, at the end of an amazing career, was something I’m always going to remember.

3. Similar to McKinley’s end to his career, the Havre High boys basketball team didn’t win their last game of last season either. In a dramatic showdown with Polson in the consolation game of the Class A tournament last March in Missoula, the Blue Ponies fell just short. But two things that really stuck were: how great of a game it was and how special the trio of Dane Warp, Jerod Boles and Nate Rismon were. The game itself was epic, going right down to the wire in front of a big Dahlberg Arena crowd. And the trio of Warp, Rismon and Boles played at an elite level one last time. It was a bitter-sweet feeling, watching Havre come up just shy of getting that elusive state trophy. But it was memorable watching the Ponies, led by that great group of seniors, play so well on the biggest stage in high school basketball. The performance the Havre boys put on in Missoula last March brought me back to when I was in high school and how much fun it was to watch our boys play in the state tourney. The 2016 HHS boys made me feel that feeling again.

2. Again, it was a tough season for the Lights on the gridiron. But I’m certainly not going to forget Sept. 17, when, the Lights, who had lost 13 straight games, knocked off then No. 20 Carroll College, 28-14 at Blue Pony Stadium. With just over three minutes before halftime, the Lights took a 7-0 lead on a Zach McKinley touchdown. They went up 14-0 later in the third period and that’s when I tweeted out that anyone who decided not to go to the game was missing something special. I didn’t know if the lead would stick at the time, but in the end, I was right. Northern’s defense was remarkable that day, and Carroll couldn’t do what it wanted and expected to do, which was run the football down the Lights’ throat or stop MSU-N’s offense. Neither happened and the Lights ended up actually dominating the game. Yes, Carroll got in the endzone twice in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough. On that day, Northern was the better team and it wasn’t close. On that day, the losing streak was snapped, a 20-game losing streak to Carroll was over, and Aaron Christensen got his first win. But most importantly, the Lights were able to feel like they were a true, competitive football program again. They got to see the winning score below their name, on the scoreboard, and they got to see it against a team that has caused them so much pain over the years. It was an incredible and an historic day, and for those of you who were going to go but decided not to, you’ll never be able to have that memory. And it’s about as good a memory as there was for me this past year.

1. And finally, my top moment at work in 2016. It came last February and it was an event I never thought I’d see in Havre. I’ve covered some pretty cool stuff over the years, including the U.S. Open golf tournament, an FCS national championship game featuring Marc Mariani and the Montana Grizzlies, and Ben Stroh’s fourth individual state wrestling championship, just to name a few. But those were all away from home. So, I owe Northern wrestling coach Tyson Thivierge a big thank you for giving me something on that level to cover, right here in Havre. When the Lights dualed the Iowa Hawkeyes inside the Armory Gymnasium, it was as big a sporting event as I’ve witnessed here at home. Many wondered, would Iowa bring a JV team? Would they take it easy on the Lights? Would many people come because it was also state wrestling weekend? The answers were: No, Iowa didn’t bring a JV squad, and they definitely didn’t take it easy on the Lights. They wrestled their real varsity lineup, with All-Americans, potential national champions and some of the biggest guns in NCAA Division I. And take it easy? The final score was 51-0. No way. Iowa brought it. But so did the Lights and so did the crowd. The Armory was packed and as loud as I’ve ever heard it, for any sporting event. It was an incredible night, the Lights put up an incredible fight, no matter what the scoreboard said, and because of the magnitude of the event, the Hawkeyes, Tom Brands, all the great wrestlers, the crowd, all of it, it was easily my favorite sports moment of 2016, and it might be my favorite sports moment to unfold in Havre for a long, long time to come.

So that’s it. That’s my look back at 2016. It was fun, it as memorable, both in my job and in my personal life. But now, I have to stop reminiscing because 2017 is upon us. There’s going to be great moments to come, basketball, wrestling, football, tennis, golf, baseball, maybe I’ll get chased by another grizzly bear. Who knows. I just know there’s a lot to look forward too, and that’s why I’m wishing all of you a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2017.