Cancer claims 'Finny'

The Daily Inter Lake

Beloved coach remembered for making those around him better

Columbia Falls native Craig Finberg passed away Friday at his home in Dillon from pancreatic cancer. He was 51.

Throughout his battle with cancer, "Finny," as he was often referred to, was surrounded by friends and family, including his wife of 12 years, Tammy.

Funeral services in Dillon are tentatively scheduled for Saturday, March 28, with a memorial service in Columbia Falls tentatively set for Friday, March 27, according to the family.

"He was like a father figure to me in a way, and you just always looked up to him and wanted to be like him," said Finny's brother Cary, who coaches boys basketball at Columbia Falls.

"Especially basketball-wise, not too many kids can grow up with a guy that's your hero but also your brother."

Finny coached high school basketball at Beaverhead County High School in Dillon for 18 years and became the most successful coach in school history. He amassed a 281-160 record and two state championships in that time.

He still was teaching at the high school in Dillon, and was in his second year as an assistant for the University of Montana-Western men's college basketball team, when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January.

Finberg was an all-state basketball player at Columbia Falls High and played in the state championship game during his senior year (1975).

The next year, he went to Bozeman and played for the Bobcats, where he scored 1,473 points, the seventh most in school history, and finished second in assists. Finberg is a member of the Bobcat Hall of Fame.

The love of basketball was a huge part of Finny's life, and he passed it along to others, including Cary, who got his first coaching job working with Craig's freshman squad.

"His deal was if you work hard and love the game, good things are going to happen," Cary said.

As fate would have it, last weekend's Class A state basketball championship in Great Falls matched Dillon against Columbia Falls. The game was dedicated to Finny, who was diagnosed in late January.

Both teams wore shirts with Finny's name on the back before the game.

"He had two families community-wise: Columbia Falls and Dillon," Cary said.

Bruce Adams of Columbia Falls helped to organize the Wildcats' T-shirt order back in February with Joe Smith and Dave Yates, and was proudly wearing one along with many others throughout the final months of the season. Adams said more than 350 shirts were purchased to help defray the Finbergs' medical costs.

"We started with ordering 150 shirts, but it just became so popular and everyone wanted to be a part of that," Adams said.

"This is so exciting, this game tonight is about the Finbergs," Adams said before the championship game March 14. "It's been a really emotional tournament, at divisionals and state. Win, lose, draw, it doesn't matter, you know - it's about the Finbergs. Normally, when you play a ball game, it's all about the Wildcats, and I'm going for the 'Cats, but it's different this year."

After the game ended, the entire arena erupted in a final "Finny" chant.

"We certainly lost a great guy," said Doug Cordier, a CFHS counselor who was a senior during Finberg's freshman year of high school.

"He always made people feel good. That's his legacy. He was principled and he cared about people. He made people better when they were around him.

"We'd get together and argue about the Cats and the Grizzlies. He was always good fun," Cordier added.

Finberg's family members announced the death on their Web site (www.caringbridge.org/visit/craigfinberg), which was set up in February to keep friends and family updated. Within days of its creation, thousands had visited to give support.

"You mean so much to the town and the kids of Dillon," one person wrote on the site's guest book. "Besides my father, there is nobody who I would rather have teach my child to shoot."

"It's a big loss, especially for Tammy, his wife, and all the Finberg family," Cordier said. "Our heart sure goes out to them.

"His struggle is over now," he said. "I think we're all thankful for that."