Jim Lodge, was born in Glasgow, Mont. and raised in Dillon, Mont. He is a 1969 graduate of Western Montana College (WMC) with a Bachelor of Science in secondary education with a major in mathematics and a minor in physical education. He later earned a Masters in counseling.
Lodge transferred to Western after a year at Columbia Basin College. At Western, he was a letterman in baseball, basketball and football. Lodge earned all-conference honors in baseball and football.
Lodge was a defensive back and quarterback on two Frontier Conference championship football teams in 1967 and in 1969. The 1967 championship was the first Frontier championship. The conference had rebranded from the Montana Collegiate Conference to the Frontier the previous summer.
He was a shortstop on the 1967 Frontier Conference and District 5 baseball champions and the 1968 co-champions. Both the 1967 football and baseball teams have been inducted into the WMC Athletic Hall of Fame.
Lodge was selected to Who’s Who and was very active on campus including M-Club and intramurals.
After graduation, Lodge began his 42-year career in education as a teacher and the head football coach at Glasgow, Mont. While at Glasgow, he joined and served six years in the Montana National Guard.Â
In 1973, he moved to Missoula and taught math at Hellgate High School. In addition to teaching, he coached and was the first girl’s basketball coach at Hellgate. In 1980, he was on the inaugural faculty of  Big Sky High School. Lodge was an assistant football coach at both Missoula schools.
Lodge spent the second half of his career as a counselor and found it as rewarding as his days in the classroom or in coaching.
Alongside teaching, Lodge devoted countless hours to Montana Boys State. He first attended as a delegate, then a counselor, and ultimately became the longest-serving Director of the program from 1980-2000.
He was a boys basketball official for 27 years and was inducted into the Montana Officials Association’s Hall of Fame in 2003.
His alma mater recognized his achievements and commitment to education by inducting him into the Montana Western Education Hall of Fame in 2016.
He passed away peacefully on July 30, 2020 after a short and courageous battle with prostate cancer.
