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FEBRUARY 4, 2015 | 21
Doug Betters talks about his involvement with the Whitefish Winter Classic. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
across the region rallying players and other supporters.
The goal of the event, besides having a fun time, was to help children in rural Montana who had medical needs that could not be taken care of locally.
“Hospitals like Shodair in Helena and Deaconess in Spokane would take a lot of our kids who didn’t have insur- ance, and we thought we had a duty to help them out,” Betters said.
The Winter Classic would do ex- actly that. The first year, in 1985, Peter Fonda and Betters headlined the three- day event, which featured more than 20 players from the NFL and Canadian Football League. The event was a suc- cess despite fears that it would fall on its face and lose a lot of money.
“That first year it was a little scary. But we got it rolling,” he said, crediting the help of Larry Delaney, the market- ing director at Big Mountain, and others who helped bring the Classic to life.
The event took off and became a massive endeavor that took more and more of Betters’ time as the volunteer president and founder.
To make it successful, he relied on the same skill that made him one of the NFL’s best linemen: tenacity.
“For defensive linemen, that’s what you do. You just keep going like a bull- dog,” he said. “I can be persuasive but I don’t intimidate people. I just talk to people and let them know that there’s
nothing in it for me. I also have the ca- jones to ask for some outrageous things. You just shoot high and take what you can get. And if it doesn’t work out, you just find a way to make it work.”
He added, “When it comes to kids, that’s something we can all agree on helping. So when I told the guys what we’re doing — we’re helping kids — most of the time it wasn’t hard get- ting them here.”
The Classic became a mainstay event and Betters became its familiar face.
But then it almost all fell apart in the mid 1990s.
Betters’ NFL career had ended and like most players it wasn’t an easy tran- sition.
“A lot of people have trouble with it. I didn’t wear it on my sleeve that much. I wasn’t as immersed in football as a lot of guys are but it’s tough. A lot of guys have a tough transition,” he said.
“There was a time when I was mak- ing some bad decisions and I went through divorce and got done with foot- ball. In 1995-96, we had some troubled times with (the Classic), and the board members kind of pushed me out. They said we can do this without you.”
Betters was afraid that the Classic would end without him, so he fought to stay involved and keep it running.
“I was afraid they were going to pull the plug on this thing. I wasn’t going to let that happen,” he said.
Then tragedy struck. On Feb. 5, 1998, Betters caught an edge while skiing at Big Mountain and crashed, landing on his head. He suffered a spinal injury that re-aggravated a previous neck injury from his playing days, paralyzing the former NFL player. He regained partial use of his arms and hands but remains a quadriplegic.
The Classic was canceled that year while Betters recovered in the hospital. Rumors circulated that this was the end of the event.
Again, Betters didn’t let that happen.
“We still wanted to do this. We still saw the need. We wanted to keep going,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let this end the Classic.”
With the help of volunteers and busi- ness sponsors, the Classic returned the following year as big and successful as ever.
That’s how it remains today, reflect- ing the true tenacity and steadfast devo- tion of its founder.
“Not all NFL players are doing neat things like the Classic. Then you look at a guy who has had a ton of hard luck and been out of the league for awhile, and the fact that he is still putting all this heart and soul into this all these years later, it’s remarkable to me,” said Nick Polum- bus, director of marketing and sales at Whitefish Mountain Resort and a board member for the Classic.
The impacts of the Classic extend
beyond the thousands of families that have been helped through its charity. Local kids who have attended the event have been able to play alongside the same players they look up to in the NFL and consider role models.
“I remember going to the Classic when I was a kid. I remember seeing the players and getting autographs and play- ing with them as a kid,” said Sean Averill, a real estate agent with Trail West Real Estate whose family owns The Lodge at Whitefish Lake, a longtime sponsor of the Classic.
“Doug’s generosity and how he really wants to make the community a better place really stands out. I think his legacy
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good memories. It wasn’t easy, he said,
but in the end, all the hard work and countless hours were definitely worth it and very rewarding. He was also quick to credit the thousands of volunteers who over the years have made the Clas- sic what it is today.
“It wouldn’t ever happen without the people who have lined up to volunteer or donate money,” he said.
“I’m glad it’s successful. I’m not get- ting any kudos for this other than kar- ma. And it makes you feel good.”
s cemented,” he added.
eflecting on the last 30 years from his home recently, Betters acknowledged hard times and
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