The Tiger Cage is the nickname for the basketball gym at Battle Ground High School, but the actual court itself sits nameless, and an old friend of legendary Tigers basketball coach Butch Blue wants to change that.
Blue died at the end of January at the age of 78, leaving behind a hall of fame legacy and Battle Ground boys basketball’s lone state title. Now, during the summer, Bryan Ens, a Battle Ground High School graduate and video assistant for the Tigers’ basketball team under Blue in the late 1970s, is seeking community support to rename the playing surface in the Tiger Cage to honor a legacy.
With the legacy Blue created through basketball at Battle Ground High School, the goal to name the court in his honor would also include his wife, Lorna, as she heavily contributed in a team mom role. Ens would like to see the basketball court named after Butch and Lorna Blue, but he said he has been told by Battle Ground Public Schools administrators that’s something the school district doesn’t really do. Ens is hoping with enough community support and funding provided, the district would make the exception to honor the husband and wife duo.
“As a member of the community, I’ve seen the contributions that him and Lorna made to their career and to the city, the school, the whole community,” Ens said. “And it goes much deeper than just putting a winning basketball team on the floor and he was like a mentor and a role model, which these days are hard to find.”
Travis Blue, son of Butch, explained the relationship with his father from being taught how to be an outdoorsman to learning the game of basketball. Travis Blue said through basketball, a lot of life lessons were taught by his father.
For renaming the court after his parents, Travis Blue provides his full support, but wants people to know he is not spearheading the movement.
“I think it would be great if the community backed it and they decided to do it, you know,” he said. “I don’t want to put my name on it like, you know, ‘his son is saying that we have to do this,’ but I would love to see it happen and I think it would be a great honor for him to have that.”
Butch Blue first moved to Battle Ground in 1972, later becoming the boys basketball head coach in 1977, thus beginning an era in which the program saw its greatest success.
He led the Tigers’ basketball program for 26 years from 1977 through 2002. During that period, his teams won 405 games while losing only 198. He led the Tigers to seven outright league titles, three co-championships and six district championships.
His 1990 squad brought Battle Ground High School its first and, so far, only boys state basketball championship. Battle Ground’s 1990 boys basketball team finished with a 24-2 overall record and defeated Mount Vernon to claim the Class 3A state championship. The Tigers finished the regular season with a 14-1 record to claim the Greater St. Helens League title before moving on to claim the district and state titles. The 1990 squad was led by 6-foot-9 center Mike Brotherton and 6-foot-8 forward Scott Tharp.
His 1989 team finished third in the state 4A tournament, and the 1991 squad finished second in the state 3A tournament.
Blue was employed in the Battle Ground School District from 1972 through 2007. His main teaching field was health and physical education, but he also taught English and Washington state history, according to previous reporting by The Reflector.
At the end of his career, he was an assistant principal and activities director at Battle Ground High School.
Blue was also an assistant football coach for about 20 years and served as head football coach in 1991.
Blue was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006. At the time of his induction, he was one of only 14 hall of fame coaches in state history with over 400 career wins. He was later inducted into the Battle Ground High School Hall of Fame in 2011 along with the 1990 boys basketball team.
“The game has changed,” Ens said. “People just don’t stay in one job for long or at one school and have that kind of a run. I just would plead to the people that are going to make this decision that there’s a lot of support out there and when people know about what we’re trying to do here, I think there will be more support. This is well deserving and let’s break the mold this one time and make an exception for this man.”
Ens can be contacted by emailing socaliman1@gmail.com.
