Havre alumni to honor late coach, instructor Tom Molen

Havre High School alumni are holding a memorial dedication for former football and wrestling coach Tom Molen, who died in January.

Noel Henderson, part of the schools state champion football team in 1972, said he discussed the matter with the school and other former athletes and a fiery maple tree has been planted at the football practice field in Molen's honor. 

Henderson said Molen's family will be in attendance at the football team's game Friday, Aug. 27, with a plaque dedication at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, at the field just west of the high school.

Henderson said Molen died Jan. 31 after a roughly 13-year battle with cancer and Parkinson's disease.

Henderson said he and others started talking and decided they should get the word out to as many of the people Molen coached, taught and mentored, Henderson said.

"It's become a little bigger than what we initially imagined. But I think it's for the better because coach, he inspired a lot of people, inspired a lot of wrestlers, and just students," he added.

Molen taught and coached wrestling and football at Havre high in the 1960s and 1970s, leading his teams to two state wrestling championships and one state football championship.

Henderson said a fiery maple tree was chosen to honor Molen because of his passionate motivational speeches to his athletes prior to big events, which Henderson said he delivered without the use of profanity.

"He brought out the desire for us to do the best that each individual on the team could for the team. That's a rare gift," Henderson said.

Henderson also said Molen was also his instructor for a couple of business classes and through those classes, Henderson learned some valuable life lessons he has reflected on as he has gotten older.

"He taught me, and I didn't realize it until later in life, that in order for someone to be trustworthy, you have to first trust them. And you need to trust kids, trust young people, because they will do the right thing until they don't and have to regain your trust. But he was a trusting individual," Henderson said.

"His greatest lesson to me, and probably to all of us, was when you do something, do it with passion and do it to the best of your ability. And I think all of us that have played under him took that lesson to heart," he added.

Henderson said Molen made his athletes better citizens.

"I know there were some guys on our football team if they didn't have football - football was the only sport they did. And if they wouldn't have had football, ... they maybe would have gone in a whole different direction," Henderson said.

Henderson said the memorial is from the entire championship-winning team and Henderson's classmates, all of whom, he said, thought the memorial was a good idea.

He added that the costs of planting the tree and for the creation of the football-shaped plaque were covered through donations.

"The support that other people have shown has been a very positive aspect of this whole thing, also. So, even though it's kind of sad that he's passed, he won't be forgotten," Henderson said.