GREAT FALLS — Last weekend, the University of Providence welcomed men's basketball alumni for a reunion to celebrate more than 50 years since the program's inception.
On Saturday, the campus held a celebration dinner featuring Argos past and present.
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"It was over 50 years ago this spring when I played and graduated from here," Rick Goodman — who played for the Argos in the 1970s when the school was known as the University of Great Falls — said on Saturday. "One of my teammates said we need to get together, and I thought, well, this would be great, you know, to open it up to everybody."
Goodman, originally from Belt, spearheaded this to bring it to fruition.
"I probably started a year ago, but it was just calling people and kind of just spreading the word," Goodman said. "There was a lot of time and that's one thing that I guess I wanted to give back."
Since he went out and spread the word effectively, all sorts of men's basketball alumni and their families made a return to Great Falls. One of which is current Providence board of trustees member Ed Coghlan, who emceed the event.
"This university sees itself as a family, and the fact that we had these other families coming in to celebrate it just is really great," Coghlan said.
Like previously stated, a few Argos of the current era attended. This includes current men's head coach J.C. Isakson.
"Doesn't matter what era or school colors or school name you played for, at the end of the day it's always been Argos basketball," Isakson said. "It's just awesome to have the history that's in that room."
As Isakson said, the weekend was all about the history the Argos program holds.
"Of excellence, right? It really has been a program that almost immediately competed nationally," Coghlan said. "In the fourth year they went to the national tournament."
"Unite, you know the old past with the new generation," Goodman said. "That's all I kind of do. It's just a part of a team, that's what I like."
"There's a lot of greats here and a lot of people that you just see their names in the record books or on a trophy somewhere," Isakson said. "To be able to meet them and shake their hand and hear the stories so far this weekend, it's really special."
