George Ferguson Column: Here, Chinook or Griz Nation, Mike Tilleman will never be forgotten

I’ve written a lot of columns over the years that, somewhere early on in, I state how lucky I am. Well, with a heavy heart, this is once again going to be one of those columns.

That’s because, I am lucky, lucky that, even just a little, I knew Mike Tilleman.

I was, like so many people here in Havre, and well beyond, saddened to hear of Mike’s passing last week. It was tough news, especially in these already tough times. Mike was so much to so many, and he will be missed.

Of course, after the news, and after writing a story about Mike’s life, I was also reflective of my own experiences with Mike Tilleman. Like so many, I was in awe of Mike from a young age. When you grow up here, and someone tells you this giant of a man was a professional football player, you can’t help but be in awe. I imagine now, the way I was in awe of Mike so many years ago, I’m sure that’s the way our youth in Havre see Marc Mariani now.

Yes, I was indeed awestruck any time I saw Mike because, again, growing up in Havre, I didn’t know too many professional athletes. We just didn’t have many, but we had Mike. Back then, too, it was all word of mouth and what we saw in the Havre Daily News. We couldn’t look up Mike’s accomplishments on Wikipedia and ESPN.com like we can now. As kids in Havre, what we knew was Mike was a pro football player and a legend.

As I got older, I got to know Mike’s son Craig, too. Craig and my brother were friends and fellow Blue Ponies, so that always made me feel like I knew the Tilleman family a bit more.

But, it wasn't until my adult years, and more specifically, my time as the sports editor at the Havre Daily News that I truly came to understand what Mike Tilleman not only accomplished as an athlete, but also just how much he meant to this community, to the Hi-Line, and quite frankly, to so many around the state of Montana.

I covered, and wrote about, the very first Legends For Lights weekend, and that’s when I really saw just how much Mike Tilleman meant to so many different people. Of course, that was in the early stages of bringing back the Northern football program, and I pretty much have had a front-row seat to seeing Mike’s impact on the Lights’ football program, right up to the birth of Northern’s beautiful new football stadium.

And getting to see the transformation of the program, and knowing how much Mike Tilleman has done for that program, wow, it’s been incredible.

I also have gotten to see that impact on the University of Montana football program. You see, Mike isn’t a legend just here in Havre, or Chinook, or Zurich, he’s one too in Missoula. He’s a Griz’ Hall of Famer was we all know, but later, he was also one of the program’s most important supporters.

And one of Mike’s biggest contributions to modern-day Griz football is the Washington-Grizzly Champions Center, in which Mike and his wife Gloria have a meeting room named in their honor. When the Champions Center opened, that was also my last interview with Mike Tilleman. It was so much fun to get his thoughts on Griz football and the impact the new facility would have on the program.

I also got to be a part of Tillemans’ hosting of the GSA Spring Tour stop in Havre each May. For years, that was a time when I got to visit with Mike and get his take, not only the Griz, but on a variety of sports subjects, and believe me, Mike always liked to give his take. When it came to sports, and football in particular, Mike Tilleman always spoke his mind, and when he did, we all listened.

So I always cherished those events at Tilleman Motors, and I didn’t realize at the time, but when the GSA Spring Tour was canceled because of coronavirus, the 2019 event wound up being the last time I spoke to Mike Tilleman. So again, I was very sad to hear of his passing.

I have always felt a responsibility to make sure the legend of Mike Tilleman was preserved. As a sports journalist in Havre for going on 20 years now, it’s my responsibility to report on not just the present in Havre athletics, but its past, too. I got the opportunity to write several stories about Mike Tilleman, and I vow that this column won’t be the last time I write about him either. He’s too important to the athletic history of this community, and there will come a time when the field at the new Lights’ Stadium is named in his honor officially, and that will be an important story in and of itself.

In other words, as long as I am at the Havre Daily, the legend of Mike Tilleman will live on. Of course, Mike’s legend doesn’t need me. He was a legend long before I took the reins at the HDN, and he always will be.

And that brings me back to where I started in this column. I’m lucky. I’m lucky to have been able to cover Mike Tilleman, even as much as I did. I’m lucky I got to interview him the times I did and be around him and talk football as much I did. And like so many in our community and beyond, I’m going to miss getting those opportunities going forward. I’m going to miss chatting him up every spring and interviewing him in future stories I write. But like so many in our community, we’re all just going to miss Mike Tilleman, period.

So in closing, I’d like to say my condolences to Mike’s wife Gloria, and to the entire Tilleman family. RIP Big Mike. Havre will miss you, Chinook will miss you, Griz Nation will miss you, we all will.