Local author pens 'Out of the Mist'

Jerry Murphy’s first book chronicles the success of the FVCC running team in the early 70s.

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

Eliason’s history and record of success spurred Bigfork resident Jerry Murphy to write “Out of the Mist,” a chronicle of the Mountainettes’ achievements under Eliason’s tutelage. Murphy first heard of Eliason, who is now retired and living near Bigfork, in a May 2004 article in the Bigfork Eagle. The story focused on the induction of two high school women’s track coaches, Sue Loeffler of Bigfork and Mindy Harwood of Polson, into the Montana Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Both women had trained under Eliason while they studied at FVCC. “Mr. E.,” as the former Sue Bronson and Mindy Sharp knew him then, had won the same honor in 1983.

The young women Eliason coached during FVCC’s early days had few resources other than their natural talent and Mr. E’s expertise and determination, Murphy writes. The fledgling college had no training facilities, scant funding and women weren’t eligible for athletic scholarships at the time.

Eliason had his charges train by running in school hallways after classes were dismissed for the day. He raised money from local businesses and service clubs so that students could attend track meets in other cities and states. He elicited superior performances from talented women and winning attitudes from those with less talent.

“He was the type of coach you’d do anything for,” Sue Loeffler said. “I’m a sprinter, and he had me running cross-country. You just couldn’t say no to him.”

Between 1969 and 1975, the FVCC Mountainettes placed in the top 10 nationally against all four-year universities whose teams entered. The Kalispell team won first place in the national women’s junior college championship in 1977.

Yet the next year, the FVCC administration choose to eliminate funding for the women’s track and field team, and the Mountainettes were no more.

A primary reason for disbanding the winning team was Eliason’s decision to take a coaching job at Montana State University, Murphy writes. Although his new MSU job paid slightly less than he earned at FVCC, Eliason wanted the opportunity to coach female athletes for four years rather than only two. He’d seen several students he trained at FVCC go on to four-year schools and later beat the Kalispell team at track meets.

Some of his FVCC students went with him to MSU, Eliason said. After he retired and moved to Bigfork, he assisted Bigfork track coach Sue Loeffler for 13 years. He’s enjoyed following the progress of local track talents such as Brooke Andrus, he said.

“Last spring was my final retirement,” he said. “I tried it a couple of other times and it didn’t work.”

“He was only going to stay a year and he ended up staying a long time,” Loeffler added.

Nowadays Mr. E. enjoys traveling with his wife, Carol, growing dahlias in the summertime, hunting in the fall and occasionally attending track meets — as a spectator, not a coach, he emphasized.

Murphy’s book notes that Carol Eliason played an important part in supporting her husband’s teams, performing “the duties expected of a coach’s wife.”

“A coach’s job is difficult, time-consuming and constantly concerned with the mental health, grades and physical requirements of young athletes,” Murphy writes. “The wife’s role is every bit as important in this two-person team. Find a successful coach and you’ll find a dedicated coach’s wife.”

Murphy quotes from a note the Kalispell Timberettes and FVCC Mountainettes wrote to Mrs. Eliason and another coach’s wife, Mrs. Braunberger: “We appreciate the times you were able to go with us on our meets away from home and somehow live through them as our favorite chaperones…. We would especially like to thank Mrs. Eliason for lending us Mr. E for hours and days at a time, so that he could make us the team that he wants us to be.”

Twelve of Mr. E.’s female athletes have gone on to become coaches. What role do their husbands play in supporting their teams?

“My husband coached with me for a while,” Loeffler said. Her husband, Wayne Loeffler, is now principal of Bigfork Middle School. Mindy Harwood’s husband accompanies his wife to her students’ games, Loeffler added.

Near the conclusion of his book, Murphy analyzes some reasons for the Mountainettes’ success in an era when women’s athletics were seldom encouraged and hardly got noticed when they did exist. One essential reason for their success is Montana’s history, particularly that of strong Montana women such as pioneers, homesteaders and Indian leaders, he writes.

“Early Montana women worked extremely hard, spoke their minds and demanded their rights,” he states.

That can-do attitude took the women’s team from the little college in Kalispell to a national championship and paved the way for future generations of female athletes. Coach Eliason and the Mountainettes showed that it pays to challenge stereotypes, to dare to reach for excellence.

Researching the book took Jerry Murphy all over Montana and into Idaho, talking to a diverse variety of people and gaining a deeper appreciation for Montana’s history and women, he said. He needed two and a half years to complete the book because of all the research he had to do.

“I had a ball,” he said.

Murphy is organizing a reunion of Mountainette alumnae for June 3 of this year. He chose that date because it will be the 30-year anniversary of the Mountainettes’ national championship win. The team lasted less than 10 years, but “it was one heck of a run,” he said.