Little League Baseball lost an icon and a legend in the spring of 2017, with the passing of Jim Scown. Scown was a career Butte miner who was well known for his work at Northwest Little League in Butte. He served as the league president for 26 years from 1970 to 1995. In 1988, the Northwest Little League field on Copper Street was renovated and named “Scown Field” in his honor. In 2016, Montana Little League District 2 created the Jim Scown Distinguished Little League Graduate Award in his honor.
Mr. Scown helped begin girls’ Little League softball in Montana in 1974. He was the first league president to provide girls’ softball in the Pacific Northwest, and he is credited with being a pioneer of the sport. During his tenure as president, the girls’ teams at Northwest won nine state titles. Scown served as an officer of District 2 Little League for 21 years. He served many years as a coach of all sports at the grade school level in Butte schools. Scown’s tenure at the Northwest Little League began in 1954 as an umpire. He started coaching in 1965 with the Ossello’s club. During his own playing days, Scown participated in fast pitch softball. In 2005, Scown was inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the Butte Buzzies football team. In addition to his work pioneering girls’ fast pitch softball in Montana, Scown developed the venue known as “Scown Field” in Butte. Once a mine dump, under the shadows of the Anselmo Mine Headframe, Mr. Scown persevered throughout the years using volunteer labor, neighborhood improvement programs, and all of his heart, to create a “field of dreams” that youngsters in the State of Montana can play Little League Baseball and Softball. The facility is the host to the 2017 Little League Baseball Championship Tournament. “Whether it be in Little League, school sports, or in the community, Jim was a champion for improving the opportunities and lives of all children and our community no matter what your name was, where you lived, or how rich or poor your family was,” Miller said. “His hard work, determination, and vision set the bar high for others to strive to live up to.”
Many of Mr. Scown’s former players have come back to the program to volunteer and help spread Little League’s message of character, loyalty, and courage. The Jim Scown Distinguished Little League Graduate Award was created in order to recognize those individuals who have come back to the program to help the pro-gram continue to flourish. Additionally, the award honors those that live out the examples of character, loyalty, and courage in their everyday lives. Establishing this award is just a small down payment on all the thanks that the former and current participants in Montana Little League District 2 owes to this man. It was once said that “Heroes are remembered, Legends live forever!” Jim Scown is a legend we are fortunate to have benefitted from.
Tim Gray - GCSLL - Missoula
Tim Gray is the 2024 Recipient. After growing up playing Little League Baseball for Missoula Westside, he played for the Missoula Mavericks. He then began his volunteer Little League coaching career at the age of 19 in the Westside program. He was a team manager for the Mount Sentinel-Missoula Southside Little Leagues for many years (with both of his daughters and his son).
During his time in Little League, Tim coached many Junior or Senior All-Star teams that have advanced out of Missoula. The 2013 GCSLL Junior Team (Regional/Arizona), the 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017 Senior “ZooTown” teams that advanced to the Little League Senior League World Series. In 2015, Tim, along with manager Dennis Staves and coach Troy Waters went back to Delaware and became the very first Little League World Series Champions (and still only team) from Montana – for either baseball or softball.
In 2018, Dennis and Tim brought a new level of coaching to GCSLL’s T-Ball program when they took on their 4-year old granddaughters’ team. (Seemed like a natural progression to go from teens back to preschoolers.) In 2019 – along with the T-Ball program, they came back to a Senior team at the end of the T-Ball season. Tim continues to manage the ZooTown Senior team each year at the Western Regionals which is held in Missoula (making it to the championship game in both 2023 and 2024).
He is still very active with GCSLL as a board member (now incoming president).
THE
JIM SCOWN
DISTINGUISHED LITTLE LEAGUE GRADUATE AWARD
2016
Meg Murphy
Butte
2017
Keith Marr
Great Falls
2018
Max Cannon
Missoula
2019
Terry Galle
Anaconda
2022
Jim LeProwse
Butte
2023
Jennifer McEwen
Butte
2024
Tim Gray
Missoula
Brandon Scown, Tim Gray, Keith Miller (DA)