Anaconda, Montana is one of the most historical football cities in the western United States.  Organized in 1895 as the "Oxfords" under the management of team center Eugene Rowe, in the early years the team would fluctuate based on weight limits imposed by opponents for each game.  Some "junior" division teams would have a weight limit of 120lbs or 135lbs and roster make-up each game would be structured to match up as equally as possible.  This led to conflicts as the star player from one week, may be ineligble to play the next week if the opponent changed the weight limits.  Some teams would build two entirely different teams within the club playing simultanously and trading players as roster management became an artform and game negotiations could get ugly with negative stories printed by opposing news outlets between rival cities.  Nearly every player was a two-way offensive and defensive man and only a few teams would suit up more than 20 men per game.

After a loss to the Silver Bow Juniors, a handpicked group of players from Silver Bow, Butte High School and Walkerville played as the Trillbies, named after the Trilby Mine defeating the Oxfords 12-4.  The next game against one of the best teams ever to play in Montana, the Butte Football Club, smashed Anaconda 58-0.  This would spark the long running football rivalry between Anaconda and Butte that would rage off and on well into the 1920's.The Oxfords would finally get a win when the club team from Deer Lodge got a team together and Anaconda dominated in a 34-0 win.

1896 featured two games against the Butte High team as Anaconda was dubbed the "Young Americans", both losses.  An exhibition game was played within the team for players vying for a spot on the 1896 squad dubbed the "Olympics" and "Juniors".  The Olympics won the game and the prize:  a box of cigars for the victors.  Anaconda was determined to be recognized as a rival to Butte and modeled their team after the squad that crushed the Anodes in 1895.

The 1897 season kicked off against a group of mners from the Anaconda Foundry where the "Anodes", named after the electric dynamite blaster used to mine copper, lit up the mine workers 50-0 in a runaway before 150 spectators.  The Butte Football Club would tag the Anodes with their only blemish of the season, a 26-0 whitewashing by the bigger more experienced team.

By 1898, the Anodes, taking a page from Butte, sported a team that could give the champs a run for their money.  And it was money doing the job.  Between the Anodes and Butte, the west coast teams were nearly crippled as both teams lured top players with well paying mine jobs to Montana.  That was the extent of the craze of football with the big businessmen of the early days.  It was all about pride, bragging rights and having the team the town and state could celebrate as the Best in the West.  The Reliance and Olympic Clubs of California were so upset with the defeats they were taking at the hands of the Montanan's, they agreed to join forces and lure Pete Smith back from Montana for 1898.  That year, the Anodes would get the better of Butte in four games.  With each team posting a win and having tied a third game, a Thanksgiving Day game was scheduled to decide the Montana State Championship.  The Anodes would eek out a 6-5 victory and claim the championship of Montana having defeated the collegian team as well.  A scheduled game with the team from Deadwood was canceled after the Dakotans tied Butte two days earlier.  Realizing they might be in over their heads on the trip having seen Anaconda win 10-0 earlier in the year, they took the mid-week rest facing a second game with Butte where they got smashed 23-0.

With Butte having enough players for two teams, Jim Hooper and Percy Benson split squads and challenged Anaconda.  The Anodes answered and the games were so tough, injuries took their toll.  By season end, the Hooper and Benson teams were so beat up, they planned to play each other but asked for Anaconda players to fill in for injured men.  Weather forced the cancelation of the game, and Anaconda repeated their claim as Montana Champions having defeated both squads along with a tie.  The October 15 game was originally declared a 7-6 victory by Butte, but was later reversed on account of a safety being the incorrect call instead of a touchback on a blocked punt.  Anaconda was awarded the 6-5 victory after referees reviewed the rule book.  Anaconda had bolstered their roster with Wilson, former Iowa State and Cornell fullback, and Keller, a tackle from the University of Nebraska who had both come to Montana as members of the Deadwood team and stayed.  Also recruited in were Storey (Lafeyette University), Chadwick (Yale), Snelson (University of Iowa), and quarterback Richard Kilroy from Dublin, Ireland.  After the tie game with Butte, Jake Rentz, Livingston, Wilson, Keller and Fitzpatrick were recruited by the Hooper and Benson teams to prepare for games on the west coast.  Jake Rentz, the big center for Anaconda found himself at the "center" of a bidding war by coastal teams wanting his services.  Seattle led the charge after Multnomah gained Anode coach and star halfback George McMillan.

After weeks of attempting to form a team and schedule games for the 1900 season, Anaconda had to back out of the game with Missoula for undisclosed reasons.

The Twentieth Century club was expected to put up a team of "old Butte stars" in 1901, but was officially dropped in October.  The Anaconda team playing as lightweight "juniors" sometimes called the "Tigers" were coached by Jake Rentz.  The heavy team, also known as the seniors would be sponsored by the Anaconda Business College including some of the speedy, but lighter juniors. (See: Anaconda Juniors page)

Organized on October 2nd of 1903, Harry Blake would be elected manager and Arthur Anderson as coach.  A team to be called the "Twentieth Century Club" was slated to have a team announced in the Butte Miner on October 7th.  Instead, an exhibition between picked elevens was played as the finances and organization could not be secured to play other town teams.  The Lions squad defeated the Tigers squad 17-5.

Muggsy Thomas, star back broke his ribs in a hard hitting affair against Montana College on Oct 29, 1904.  The 1905 team was announced in October and would form two teams of players between the ages of 18-20 years old.  Will Hogan would player/manage the "New Works" team while Barney Fitzpatrick would coach the "Foundry" squad with John Donahoe serving as player/manager.

Late to the party again in 1907, two teams of Ananconda players dubbed "East End" and "West End" formed for a November 30th game with a plan to select the best players of both teams to take on other town squads later.  No report of the outcome followed, but it was speculated that the late formation prohibited the organizers from securing games with other clubs.  Anaconda would continue to wait for their time to shine and prove their football skills against outside competition.

Finally in 1908, the organizers would secure games with the Butte Columbias as a rival between the two towns.  Butte would dominate the first game 23-0 prompting and intra-squad game to be played as a "tune-up" for the next game.  Gilmore, C.J. Strakel, Barich and McEachern were hand selected to form a group of eleven players nicknamed the "Tigers" to prep the main squad resulting in a tie.  Butte would win the next two games, however Anaconda showed offensive life as they began as regular opponents of the Butte City League teams and on-again-off-again members of the new league beginning in 1913 and ending at the outbreak of World War II in 1941.

CJ Strakel would be the hero of the 1909 opener against Centerville when he scooped up a fumble and rushed 100-yards for the game winner.  Anaconda would win both outings with Centerville, but fell again for the fifth straight time to the Columbias.

The 1915 team began to accumulate some "educated footballers" as Horrie from the University of Idaho, Howard from Kansas, and Beal from Denver began to work with the team.  By 1916 and sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, Joe Harter formerly of Washington State College, Ryan from Chicago, Kelly from Minnesota and Everett, Washington native Stevens joined the fray as well.  Their impact would not come to fruition as games were hard to come by as World War I kicked off and America ramped up the military aged men for joining the war effort in Europe.

Anaconda would go without an official team from 1917 through 1920, eventually rekindling the football fever in the city in 1921 against Deer Lodge after nearly a five year absence and the first recorded victory in a decade.  Under the sponsorship of "Kronie" Dimitrovich the 1922 team opened as an independent in the "135-pound" average weight division and was to take on Mount St. Charles College but a missed train connection caused the cancelation of the game when Anaconda could not make it in time.  Following a 13-0 downing of the Englewood Juniors, a game scheduled with East Side of Butte was canceled due to inclement weather from an early December snow storm.

Again, Anaconda would be shelved for the 1923 through 1925 seasons as interest waned finally returning in 1926 as an official member of the Butte Independent League.  This team would lay the foundation to what would become league champions six times over in the coming decade under former player Coach "Doc" Wilbur L. Beal.  Beal had served as a medical doctor at Camp Lewis during World War I.  Though that 1926 team finished a mere 1-4-1 in league play, Kleinholtz at tackle and Bownes at end would be named Butte League all-stars while Murphy at center was named to the second team.

The 1927 team would again only manage one victory in a 1-3-1 campaign, but the honors for the players rolled in.  The 1927 All-Star selections for the Butte League included Bownes at end for the second consecutive year, Jim Emmons at halfback, and Stregar at fullback.  Mueller, tackle and Dougherty, end earned second-team honors, while McCallum, Calnan, Peck picked up honorable mentions for their line play and Long earned honorable mention from the backfield.

The 1928 team struggled a bit in the early part of the season only to smash Dublin Gulch and Centerville twice to claim it's first-ever Butte Independent League championship.  No points were allowed in those final three games as Anaconda rolled up 56 total points. 

That formula would be used throughout the 1930 season as Anaconda finished 4-1-2, the sole loss in the opener to Montana State University 18-14.  From that point forward, opponents managed to score only 7 points the rest of the season as Anaconda swept the field going 4-0-2.  Peck (guard), Teddy Bubash (halfback), John Stregar (fullback) were named first-team all-league, Joe Shegina (fullback), Tom Calnan (tackle) Clyde Eccleston (center) and Burris (guard) were named to the second team.  Following the season, H.J. Freebourn, a Silver Bow county attorney presented John Stregar with a silver cup trophy as the top player which was on display at the Tucker-Thompson bowling alley through 1931.

Once again, Anaconda would fall in the opener to the collegians from Montana State University, but remain undefeated in league play claiming the Butte League championship of 1931.  Walt Dooley (end), Tom Calnan (tackle) and George Bubash (halfback) were named first-team all-stars, while Clyde and Oran Eccleston earned line nods on the second team, James Bownes (end) and Robert Emmons (quarterback) gained second team honors as well.

The 1932 team would finally taste league defeat to Hub Addition and Dublin Gulch knocked them out of contention for the championship.  Walt Dooley and Tom Calnan were named first-team all-stars, Swanson (end), Robert Emmons (quarterback), John Stregar (fullback) earned second team, while honorable mentions went to Bitrick (tackle), Teddy Bubash (halfback) and Rube Shegina (halfback).

The 1933 all-star selections tabbed Bernard Kelly (end), "Rube" Shagina (fullback) as first-team all-stars, Orrin Eccleston (end), Mark Popovich (guard), and Tom Calnan (tackle) as second-teamers, with Rudy Blaskovich (end), Tom Garvey (tackle), Clyde Eccleston (center), Bill Herbolich (quarterback), Teddy Bubash (fullback) earning honorable mention.  Ten of Eleven regular starters making the list during a 2-2 Butte League season.  These men would return as a stable core for the team as it built itself into league champions once again in 1935 posting a 5-0 season.

The 1936 team would defend it's crown only to fall to the Hub Addition Kelly Greens in both meetings to finish 4-2.  They would get their revenge in 1937 defeating the Hubs twice to reclaim the crown.

A 1937 Northwest Championship game was attempted to be scheduled between the Anodes and Renton Rams for New Years' Day 1938.  The Rams featured former Butte and Montana Mines star John L. Sullivan.  The financial guarantees could not be finalized to cover the costs for the Anodes and the game was called off.  The Rams were upset just days later in the Silver Bowl by Enumclaw.

Pat Quane was the hero of the 1939 Anodes vs Butte League All-Stars game scoring for the Anodes on a touchdown and field goal as Anaconda won the league title finishing 8-2.

The 1940 Anodes could not secure the title, losing the Championship to Hub Addition by a single yard in what was then called "California Overtime Rules".  The 0-0 tie was broken when Hub Addition outgained the Anacondas on a 5-play runoff that counted total yards gained to determine the winner.

With World War II on the horizon, the 1941 team would once again battle for the Butte League championship, but players began to come and go, none more important than halfback Charlie Chore.  Charlie scored the winning points in an 8-6 overtime victory over the Englewood Blues on September 28 leaving for the US Army the very next day.  His team would drop their final three games including the championship finale on November 30th to the Blues.  The Anodes would pack the gear away and the country went to war.

Independent football returned to Anaconda in 1949 after an 8-year absence with the Anodes battling the Butte Buzzies over the next two years. Prepping for a September 1950 game with the Buzzies, the Anodes were forced to shut down due to military call-ups for the Korean War of Gene Corcoran, Jack Thompson and Al Drescher as well as injuires to John Dillon and Vern Di Re.  

Vern Di Re returned after playing the remainder of the 1950 season with the Buzzies to restart the Anodes for 1951.  However, by August fan interest was not what it was through the 1930s and early 40s and the city resigned itself to not supporting a team and 57 years after the copper and gold first doned their kit, the Anodes drifted into history. 

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