GREAT FALLS — Last Thursday and Friday was special for Great Falls High School, as there were many former football coaches and players that were part of state championships from years past that came back to visit.
The school called it the "Night of Champions," where alumni from as far back as the 1940s returned for weekend activities, as well as the game, which was a 38-7 win over Belgrade.
"We started planning it in earnest back in February," said the organizer of the event, Zack Ringler.
"We figured that we'd be able to build up from guys from like the '88 team then to '83," Ringler said. "It really built up on each other once a couple of people heard about it, then they sent it out. And then that reached all the way down to 1948."
Two of the returning alumni were well-known coaches Terry Albrecht and Mick Delaney.
"I had no idea how many were going to be coming, but it's a great group," Albrecht said. "I know the vast majority of them, and when they're your friends, they're your friends forever."
"Fifty years since 1974 when I was the head coach here at Great Falls High and won a state championship," Delaney said. "I can't believe it's been that long ago."
Thursday, the festivities began as alumni got to meet the current Bison team and tour their old school.
The returning alumni were honored in Friday's game at halftime. Ringler said it was "a group effort" making the event happen.
"It was a whole lot of emails," Ringler said. "It was email chain after email chain of trying to put everything together in the way it was going to work best."
He was also more than honored to spearhead bringing the Night of Champions to fruition.
"I'm so proud that I was able to be a part of this," Ringler said. "I can't say any more than that. It's an immense pride, I've been a Bison my whole life, just lived and died blue."
