Summer Games all about fun

Back in the 1970s, the few tourists still left in Whitefish used to vanish like magic after Labor Day and wouldn’t come back until the ski lifts were up and running in December. Central Avenue emptied, dogs slept with heads on paws in downtown doorways, and shopkeepers rearranged their windows endlessly while praying for early snow.

But then in 1981, a few local visionaries decided to extend the tourist season for one more week by creating a summer version of the Whitefish Winter Carnival, and so the Whitefish Summer Games was born.

The only guidelines were that the Games should be held the weekend after Labor Day, and that each event should focus on having fun, superbly illustrated by the Summer Games logo of the head, bones and tail of a whitefish superimposed over 1960s beer-can-pull-tabs in the shape of the famous Olympic rings.

Thirty years later, some of those visionaries are no longer with us, including Gordon Ochenreider, John Bos and Gary Elliott, but their spirits and the spirit of the Games continue on.

That first year there was a multitude of events, including mouse racing. Other sports ranged from basketball to biking, softball to soccer, golf to volleyball and horseshoes to the previously-mentioned mouse races, which were wildly popular. The tournaments went wonderfully well during the first couple of years, and in both years Whitefish was thronged with athletes of every shape and size, all intent on having fun.

Then nature stepped in; the third year there was a frozen snowstorm which caused most events to be cancelled, and the fourth year we had pouring rain all weekend, bringing the same result.

The men’s and women’s soccer tournaments kept going and growing, and now bring 500 players to town each September, but the other events never fully recovered and eventually disappeared.

This year, however, is bringing a renewal of Gordon, John and Gary’s dream.

The soccer programs will again bring teams from all over Montana plus Washington, Idaho and Canada, but now the other sports are being revived too.

Mountain Mall will hold a 3-on-3 basketball competition in their parking lot, Whitefish Parks and Rec will run a hockey tournament at the Stumptown Ice Den and also softball at the Armory, The Wave will host high-level squash matches, the Remington is creating both poker and pool tournaments, there will be lacrosse, tennis and paddleboard events, and Scott Ping of skijoring fame will run a cowboy black powder mounted shooting competition.

Other events under consideration are biking, bocce ball, bridge, chess, cribbage, darts, folf, golf, horseshoes, ping pong, roller derby, running, shuffleboard, swimming and the infamous mouse races, and any others will be welcomed with a smile.

All Whitefish residents (and visitors) are encouraged to have fun and join in, either by competing or even by creating your own event, no matter what it may be (rock, paper, scissors, anyone?)

Each event will offer commemorative T-shirts as prizes, complete with the original logo. This first year, it doesn’t matter if only a few competitors enter the smaller events; if it’s fun, they will tell their friends and will want to enter again next year, and the event will grow as the years go by.

As Gordon, John and Gary would say, it’s the Whitefish Summer Games. It’s all about inviting people to come to Whitefish and have fun.

The Summer Games this year will be held on Sept. 7-8. For more information, please call Colin Sellwood at 897-1008 or email to colin@markatton.net.

There will be a Summer Games meeting on Friday, July 26, at 12:30 p.m. on the patio at the Great Northern Bar and Grille, and everyone is welcome to attend.

— Colin Sellwood