Here's Marty!
Photo by CHANSE WATSON Marty the Miner says that the Wallace Miners are No. 1 during their basketball game against Clark Fork on Tuesday.
Photo by CHANSE WATSON Marty joins in with the Wallace student section during a cheer.
Photo by CHANSE WATSON The inspiration for Marty’s look came from the mural miner, painted on the east wall of Krulitz Court.
By CHANSE WATSON
Managing Editor
WALLACE — For as long as the institution has existed, Wallace Jr./Sr. High School (or a variant of that name) sports teams have always been called “the Miners.”
During all that time though, the Miners have never had an official mascot to rally the home crowd and cheer on their athletes.
Of course there have been countless students, staff, alumni and fans that have donned mining attire over the years to look like A miner — but none have ever had the title of being THE Miner.
Thanks to the efforts of the WHS “W” Club (spirit club) and various financial supporters, WHS now has their official mascot.
Making his first athletic event appearance Tuesday night, Marty the Miner could be seen on the sidelines rooting on the boys basketball team as they took on Clark Fork.
WHS teacher and W Club adviser Tina Brackebusch explained that Marty got his name and appearance from the 31 members of the W Club.
The students, spearheaded by Carter Bailey, started throwing around the idea for a mascot in September 2019. Their goal was to bring the miner painted on the gym wall to life.
“We’ve had kids in miner hats, but we’ve never had a cartoonish, collegiate-level mascot,” Brackebusch said.
The painted miner is part of a larger mural in the gym that covers much of the east wall. Shown bounding from a mine portal with pickaxe in hand, the previously unnamed miner on the wall rushes out in under the classic WHS athletic introduction, “HERE COME THE MINERS.”
The look of the mural miner was based on several ideas thrown around between WHS Athletic Director Bruce Bailey and other selected staff members in mid-2019.
With an idea in mind, the W Club sent off a description to the mascot company. The company replied with concepts of their own that didn’t quite fit what the students were looking for.
“They sent back some mock-ups, some drawings and the first ones were too clean-cut,” Brackebusch said.
The W Club replied back with notes to give Marty some more grit and toughness.
What resulted was the grimacing, mustachioed miner that arrived at the school on Monday — the day before the Clark Fork game.
In addition to his tough looking mug and scruffy hair under his hard hat, Marty sports some pretty serious arm and chest hair to compliment his pickaxe and now iconic yellow overalls with rock dust on them.
“That’s been sort of controversial, some people don’t like the yellow pants,” Brackebusch said.
The few critics have said that the bright yellow pants clash with Wallace’s traditional red and black color scheme.
Brackebusch and Bruce Bailey stand by the color choice though, as that is the color of actual mining pants.
“Even my husband, who’s a mining engineer, says that’s what miners wear is those slickers,” Brackebusch said
Marty’s outfit is completed with black shoes with red tips to look like steel-toed boots.
Everything about Marty was carefully chosen and certainly wasn’t rushed.
“Marty wasn’t just born in a day,” Brackebusch said.
Funds for the mascot were raised by the W Club and contributed by other donors including the WHS senior class of 2020, La Rivier Inc., the Morbeck Foundation, Mike and JaeJean Achord and the Wallace Gyro Club.
The W Club’s next task is to create Marty’s back story, which will be published in the Shoshone News-Press when completed.