BILLINGS — Hall of fame coach Gene Espeland, who won more than 450 boys basketball games in Montana and guided both Great Falls High and Billings Central to state championships, died early Monday of cancer. He was 92.
In a career that included stops at the high school, college and professional ranks, Espeland coached for 40 years.
A native of Westby, Espeland played college basketball at both MSU-Northern and Montana State Billings (then known as Eastern Montana College), and began his coaching career at Forsyth in 1959.
From there he made stops at Circle and Glendive, and then served as an assistant at Montana State University under head coach Roger Craft from 1965-67 before taking the head job at Great Falls High.
At Great Falls, Espeland led the Bison to the 1976 Class AA state championship as well as runner-up finishes in 1974 and 1977.
Espeland left the high school bench and spent nine years (1981-90) as an assistant in the minor professional Continental Basketball Association, notably serving under George Karl with the CBA’s Montana Golden Nuggets in Great Falls for four of those seasons.
Espeland then had two stints as the head coach at Billings Central, from 1991-2003 and again from 2005-07. He coached the Rams to their first Class A state championship in 1996 — winning his second title 20 years apart — two years after a runner-up finish.
Espeland and Central also made the Class A title game in both 1998 and 2003.
Espeland ended his high school coaching career with 468 victories. He is a member of two halls of fame; Espeland is a 1996 inductee into the MSU Billings athletic hall, and was selected to the Montana Coaches Association hall of fame in 2002.
According to Espeland’s family, there will be no formal funeral or memorial services. A celebration of life will be held at the West Park Village retirement community in Billings on Sunday at 3 p.m.
