Page 13 - Flathead Beacon // 1.22.13

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JANUARY 29, 2014 | 13

n back of the yellow, Blue Bird school bus,
members of the Whiteish High School wres-
tling squad lay sprawled across the vinyl bench
seats, their legs slack and spent, dangling in
the aisle as they dozed or chatted idly, cobbling
together last-minute Saturday night plans.
It was Jan. 21, 1984, and the Bulldogs were
returning from an afternoon dual in Brown-

ing. Driving through the winter darkness, bus
driver Jim Byrd, a well-known Columbia Falls
resident with 59 nieces and nephews, nego-
tiated the narrow, snow-choked corridor of
U.S. Highway 2, a two-lane, 94-mile stretch of
winding road between Browning and White-
ish that tracks along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, skirts

the southern border of Glacier National Park and, at its zenith,
tops out on the Continental Divide and Marias Pass, at an eleva-
tion of 5,216 feet.
It was around 6:30 p.m. and the bus was 20 miles east of West
Glacier, homeward bound.
A blizzard had been steadily spitting lakes throughout the
day, covering the valley in a slippery vale of winter white. Before
departing from Browning, the team stopped at Teeple’s IGA gro-

cery store for snacks and to discuss the possibility of spending
the night or waiting out the storm. Crossing Marias Pass would
be dicey, but probably passable, they reasoned; everyone was ea-
ger to return home and sleep in their own beds.
“We were nervous about the roads. We knew when we left
that it would be tense, but it was a collective choice we made to
go home. It was a team decision,” recalls Steve Osborne, a junior

at the time. “Being high school kids, you don’t stress about it too
much. You just sit back and start yakking.”
Back in Whiteish, the annual Winter Carnival was underway
and the festive royal coronation was slated for that evening. The
Whiteish High School basketball team was playing a home game
against Deer Lodge.
At the front of the bus, members of the cheerleading squad
gossiped while two girls hatched tentative plans to see a movie

when the team returned to town; “Hot Dog . The Movie,” the
iconic ‘80s ski comedy, had just been released.

Anne Audet pauses during a moment of silence last week in observance of the
Jan. 21, 1984 tragedy. Audet’s brother-in-law, Jim Withrow, was head coach of the
wrestling team and was killed when the bus carrying the Whiteish High School
wrestling team crashed along U.S. Highway 2 on the southern edge of Glacier
National Park. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON