BILLINGS — For years, wrestling enthusiasts in Montana have had Byron Hallock’s number on speed dial. The Glasgow guy has been the go-to for coaches, parents and fans across the state when looking for answers to questions regarding Treasure State wrestling history.
Soon, Hallock may be able to relax a bit more.
Hallock and former Glasgow wrestler and current athletic director Brenner Flaten have turned to wrestling historian Spencer Condie of Wyoming to give fans of the sport a new source for Montana’s wrestling information.
“This top banner is a list of every place-winner from every year since the beginning (of the state tournament,) from 1956 all the way to 2017,” said Condie, a former high school wrestler and coach in Wyoming, pointing at the large printout in the southwest corner of Rimrock Auto Arena. “That one back there is all the Class A tournament, the same history from every tournament, and this one is Class B/C. Every name, every place.”
Condie’s corner of the Metra has drawn hundreds of fans’ interest over the past two days. Wrestling fans have scoured through the color-coded, class-by-class organized history of Montana’s state tournament.
Fans easily search for the year of interest, follow their finger down the page for the corresponding weight class and find the top six placers from that state tournament. At the bottom of the list is the final team scores from that particular year.
“It wasn’t an easy task at all, but my thanks go to Hallock and Flaten for getting me on board here,” Condie said. “I’ve done this same thing in Wyoming and they asked if I would do the same thing in Montana history, and here it is.
“The history of the sport is soemthing that people should know, and I thought that this was something that had already been done before, but I found out nobody had put it together in a way like this. People need to know the history and I wanted to provide a way for them to know that history.”
Condie has put nearly five years of work into the compilation of stats, which goes well beyond just the placers from particular state tournaments. His iPad shows numerous other statistics — from the four-time state champions to the Montana families with the most state championships.
All of that information, more than 1,800 days worth, will eventually find its way to the fingertips of fans. Condie has already found developers to create apps for the history of Utah and Wyoming wrestling and even NCAA wrestling. Though there have been a few hiccups along the way from the app creator’s standpoint, he hopes to have a Montana app released soon for fans to browse through.
“Eventually it will become an app. The name of the app will be ‘Champ Stats,’” Condie said. “If I open up the Utah version it shows you these kinds of files — (four-time champions, family championships, yearly team champions.) If you don’t know, you can search by name, by school or by category.”
“I have these family categories right now,” he continued. “The Weber and the Currier family top the list of championships per family with 15, followed by the Malia, French, Cheff and Owen families.”
Condie says the app will likely cost $2.99 in Apple iTunes store and Google Play, with a $0.99 update each year. He hopes to have it released in the next few months, but definitely before the all-class state wrestling tournament comes back to Billings in 2019.
Fans will still go to their phones for their wrestling history questions, but Hallock will finally be able to relax and, who knows, maybe search for answers of his own.
