Just outside the entrance to the old gym at Great Falls High there is a bronze plaque with a relief sculpture of a hockey player.
As a high schooler I didn’t read it but like every student at GFHS I knew it honored Terry Casey.
If I had been a few years older I’d have had a crush on Terry Casey. He was an All-Star quarterback and a fast pitch softball hero. Casey won a hockey scholarship and in 1968 he was named Captain of the U.S. Olympic Hockey team.
The whole town beamed. First John Misha Petkevitch, now Terry Casey. Great Falls was the place for ice.
In July of 1968, Terry and two buddies were killed in a head-on collision near Plentywood, where they were headed for a fast-pitch softball tournament.
Forty one years later our town still mourns the loss.
On the Casey Cup website there are two pictures of Terry. In the first picture he’s about fifteen, a thick butch shined with Brylcreem. His smile is wide enough to hold a hockey puck.
In the other picture Casey’s a few years older, his butch cut so close the scalp shows right through. This photo is impromtu, he’s in an oversized jersey with an appliqued Indian on his chest, the number twelve on his left shoulder. He might be thinking of a his lottery number in the draft, or some girl. Whatever the cause, Terry’s ‘Leave it to Beaver’ grin is long gone. 
Who knows what he would have looked like at forty.
For me, my sister and three brothers, learning to skate at the Civic Center ice rink was a rite of passage. The grey rubber skate guards, the painted wood bleachers blocked off by curved plywood, the concession stand in the corner…like Terry Casey, it’s all long gone.
It’s because of Terry Casey and former Olympians Petkevitch and Scott Davis that folks like me donate to the Ice Foundation every year. Thanks to the skaters, their families, and a good dose of community pride we have a new ice arena filled with kids, pucks and blade guards.
Billings may boast sports commentator Brent Musberger, but we had the real deal with Casey, Petkevitch and Davis.
We have a tradition to uphold.