June 30, 1901: Missoula defeats Butte in baseball by the river in Montana

“[Missoula right fielder] Hugh Campbell jumped into the river after Scander’s long hit in the first inning. He fielded the ball back in time to throw Scander out at home.” — Anaconda Standard, July 1, 1901

The Montana State League, formed in 1900, lasted only a year. Its teams represented the state’s most populous cities: Butte, Great Falls, Helena, and Anaconda. Butte, the booming Copper City, was the largest, with a population of 30,470.1 None of the teams turned a profit.2

The demise of this minor league did not dampen the enthusiasm for baseball in Montana. Missoula, population 4,366, fielded an amateur team, and on Sunday, June 30, 1901, it played against a team of Butte amateurs at the South Side Grounds in Missoula. The game was touted as a “meeting of two of the state’s strongest teams.”3 Missoula’s team was undefeated in 1901 after six games.4

The Missoula squad was organized by 32-year-old Hugh B. Campbell, who had played on local teams for 12 seasons.5 Baseball was his passion and avocation. Married with three children, he made a living as a drayman and farmer, cutting hay and cultivating oats and potatoes.6

Campbell played in right field and was the team captain. He recruited his 22-year-old brother-in-law, Owen Kelley, to play third base. Hugh Kennedy, 20, was the shortstop. Charlie and Will McCarthy, probably brothers, played second base and center field respectively. Attorney Ed Mulroney, 23, was a first baseman and recent graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.7 Paul Lejeune, a 24-year-old left fielder, was a native of Belgium. The catcher was Charlie Mitchell. And last, but not least, was the ace up Campbell’s sleeve: George W. Andrews, 25, who had pitched professionally in Washington, California, and Colorado.

The best known of the Butte players was Sam Freeman, a 31-year-old Black catcher who had played on White teams in Montana since 1895.8 The Boulder (Montana) Sentinel said he was “a fine batter, and a sure catcher, and runs like a deer.”9

Missoula’s South Side Grounds were on the south bank of the Clark Fork River, at or near the present-day John H. Toole Riverfront Park. The first-base line was roughly parallel to the river. A batter running to first base traveled in the direction the river flowed, going east to west. Hitters could send the ball “sailing down” the river.10

The weather was ideal on June 30.11 The attendance was unreported but likely to be in the hundreds. The umpire was Dan Heyfron, one of Missoula’s substitute players. The game commenced at 2:30 P.M.,12 and Butte batted first.

Austin led off and received a base on balls, and Claybourn singled. Scander slugged a fair ball to deep right field, and somehow the ball ended up in the river. Perhaps the river traversed fair territory, or perhaps the ball landed fair and bounded into the river in foul ground.

Campbell, the right fielder, jumped into the river, retrieved the ball, and threw it back to the infield. He did it so quickly that Scander got in a rundown between third and home, and was tagged out at the plate. In the next play, Campbell, presumably dripping wet, made a splendid running catch on land of Freeman’s long fly. Missoula fans applauded Campbell’s amphibious feats. His aquatic play was performed with such aplomb that it seems he was experienced at it. The team could not afford to lose too many balls in the river, and he may have had practice retrieving them.

With a man on third in the third inning, Butte tallied an unearned run when Kennedy at shortstop fumbled a sharp grounder from Scander’s bat. And over the next two innings, Butte scored three more runs to take a 6-0 lead. The Butte pitcher, Brennan, was doing a fine job.

There was a change of umpire in the fourth inning. Missoula catcher Mitchell left the game after a foul tip injured his hand. Charlie McCarthy moved from second base to catcher, and the umpire, Heyfron, took McCarthy’s place at second base. Myers, another Missoula substitute, filled in as umpire.

Controversy erupted in the bottom of the fifth inning, and Myers was at the center of it. Heyfron led off with a single and reached third on Kelley’s single. Claybourn, the Butte third baseman, fielded Will McCarthy’s grounder and threw to catcher Freeman, who tagged the incoming Heyfron, but Myers called him safe. Freeman insisted that Heyfron was out, and the entire Butte team gathered at the plate to argue the call. After much wrangling, which lasted 5 to 20 minutes depending on the source, play resumed. The run counted, and Myers was replaced by two umpires, one from each team.

Singles by Mulroney and Campbell brought in two more runs in the fifth inning. And in the sixth, a double by Lejeune and a single by Andrews produced another run. Missoula now trailed 6-4.

In the eighth inning, Missoula rallied for three more runs. Andrews doubled and scored on Kelley’s single. Will McCarthy drew a walk, and he and Kelley scored on Mulroney’s single. Butte trailed 7-6 going into the top of the ninth.

Austin, the leadoff man, singled, stole second base and advanced to third on Claybourn’s groundout. After Scander struck out, Freeman lifted a foul popup which on its descent caromed off Austin as he ran home. The ball was deflected into fair ground, and the Butte team argued that it was a fair ball, but it was ruled foul. Freeman then struck out, and the game was over. The final score was Missoula 7, Butte 6.

The Missoulian said “both sides played ball like professionals” but noted that the “interminable and senseless” arguing of calls by the Butte team “stretched the game to a tiresome length.”13 The Anaconda Standard said it was “a great betting game” and estimated that “more than $1,000 changed hands.”14 That is equivalent to about $40,000 in 2025 dollars.

It was Missoula’s seventh consecutive victory. In a rematch three weeks later, Missoula defeated Butte 8-1, as Andrews allowed only four hits and struck out 18.15 Missoula’s winning streak reached 13 games before it was ended on August 11, 1901, by a loss to the Anaconda Eagles.16

For years, Hugh Campbell organized Missoula teams, and he played till his early 40s.17 In 1912 he was president of Missoula’s pennant-winning minor-league team in the Class D Union Association. He signed the team’s ace pitcher, Leslie “Bullet Joe” Bush,18 who achieved a 26-16 record that year. Bush went on to win 196 games in his major-league career.

On April 18, 1955, Campbell died in Missoula at age 86. In an obituary, he was called “the Grand Old Man of Missoula baseball, in which he was interested for more than 65 years, as a player, manager, executive and fan.”19

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas E. Merrick and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana. Used by permission.

Sources

Game account in the July 1, 1901, issue of the Anaconda (Montana) Standard.

Ancestry.com and Baseball-Reference.com, accessed in July 2025.

Image: Baseball game at the South Side Grounds, Missoula, Montana, circa 1900, by photographer John E. Dunn, from the archives of the University of Montana. The Clark Fork River is near the first-base line. Mount Jumbo is in the background on the right.

Notes

1 1900 US census.

2 “1900 Montana State League, ‘Badlands & Bloodshed,’” DiamondsintheDusk.com, accessed July 2025, https://www.diamondsinthedusk.com/uploads/articles/474-ZZaQaYS-1900_-_Montana_State_League.pdf.

3 “Missoula vs. Montana,” Missoulian (Missoula, Montana), June 29, 1901: 1.

4 “For the Seventh Victory,” Missoula Democrat-Messenger, July 4, 1901: 1.

5 “H.B. Campbell Dies at 86,” Missoulian, April 19, 1955: 10.

6 1900 US census; “Missoula Notes,” Anaconda (Montana) Standard, July 15, 1900: 21; “Missoula Notes,” Anaconda Standard, August 24, 1901: 12; “Hugh Campbell in Training,” Anaconda Standard, June 16, 1901: 26.

7 “Costs Partially Taxed,” Helena (Montana) Semi-weekly Herald, October 26, 1900: 8.

8 Greg Martin, “Remembering Sam Freeman,” Medium.com, April 26, 2023, https://medium.com/@gregmartin_76328/remembering-sam-freeman-5db5f57365ca.

9 “The Ball Game Sunday,” Boulder (Montana) Sentinel, June 7, 1900: 3.

10 “Fast Game Will Be Played,” Missoulian, August 12, 1906: 8.

11 “The Missoula’s Are Victors,” Missoulian, July 2, 1901: 1.

12 “Montana vs. Missoula,” Missoulian, June 30, 1901: 1.

13 “The Missoula’s Are Victors.”

14 “Record Still Unbroken,” Anaconda Standard, July 1, 1901: 10.

15 “Frank Conley Got Away,” Anaconda Standard, July 22, 1901: 10.

16 “Garden Citys at Last Defeated,” Missoula Democrat-Messenger, August 15, 1901: 5.

17 “Caught on the Run about Town,” Missoulian, September 21, 1909: 10.

18 Ron Anderson, “Joe Bush,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed July 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Joe-Bush/.

19 “H.B. Campbell Dies at 86.”