Exactly one month after he died, basketball legend Elvis Old Bull has gotten the tribute he deserved, on Vice Sports.
Old Bull played for the Lodge Grass Indians from 1988 to 1990, when the team took three state titles and Old Bull was named tournament MVP all three years. I never saw Old Bull play, but I was lucky enough, at the state tournament in Butte in the early 1980s, to see Hardin player Jonathan Takes Enemy, another Montana legend mentioned in the article.
As I say, this tribute by Patrick Sauer is worthy of its subject. Here are two of my favorite parts:
In Old Bull’s sophomore season, the Lodge Grass Indians came out of nowhere to win the Class B title in Missoula, and he exploded onto the state basketball scene, long before the advent of YouTube or MaxPreps, back when a 20-second clip on Chris Byers KULR sports wrap-up was all the footage hoop fans were going to get.
And this:
Old Bull had his demons. Enough said. His legacy doesn’t need another white dude righteously trying to explain reservation life. This is a celebration, not a funeration, a chance to remember a man who created beautiful things where none existed before. Old Bull created his own mythology.
Now, read the whole thing.
