Die-hard fan photographs C-Falls games for 50 years

For the last half-century, even the most die-hard of Columbia Falls basketball fans would be hard-pressed to remember a game played on home court where local photographer Randy Bocksnick was not on the sidelines snapping pictures of the action.

Aside from being a constant presence at Columbia Falls sporting events, Bocksnick is a well-known entity around town from having owned and operated a barber shop on Nucleus Avenue — across the street from what is now Smith’s Food and Drug — for 43 years.

Born and raised in Ronan, Bocksnick transplanted himself to Columbia Falls in 1964 when he was just 19 years old. Fresh out of barber school, the still teenaged Bocksnick came to cut hair for a friend who’d already set up shop on Nucleus Avenue.

Five years later he opened up his own storefront several doors down, where he continued to cut the community’s hair until he finally retired in 2012.

But his photography hobby he has yet to give up.

“I’ve always just had this thing about photography,” said Bocksnick.

For Bocksnick, it all began at the end of his eighth grade year when, as a graduation present, his mother gifted him a Kodak Brownie flash camera.

As a sociable young high schooler, Bocksnick started taking the camera most places he went, snapping photos of summer ball games and friends playing catch in the yard. He even took the camera, a little silver-brown cube topped with a bowl-shaped flash receptacle, to school to shoot photographs of his classmates.

“To be honest with you, [the Brownie] took terrible pictures,” recalled Bocksnick with a chuckle. “They were awful, those cameras… always buying flash bulbs for it, very expensive, even then.”

Yet it was the Brownie that Bocksnick still had when he moved to Columbia Falls, and, nearly as soon as he’d unpacked his barber kit, he loaded it up with film and began shooting Wildcat sports, which at the time included only football, basketball and track.

Sports photography was a natural fit for Bocksnick, not only because he was an athlete himself, playing baseball and basketball as a Ronan Chief, but also because he’s always leaned toward capturing images of people.

“I would say that I’m a people photographer. Sports yes, but mainly people,” said Bocksnick. “... I like photographing people, I really do.”

IN THE beginning Bocksnick developed the photos himself, in a bedroom/converted dark room, and sold the images as black-and-white 8x10s for a dollar a piece. Yet, often he found himself giving the prints away.

Over the years Bocksnick’s photography setup has steadily evolved, growing from the entry-level Kodak and make-shift darkroom into a selection of Nikons, multiple lenses, a PC running Adobe Lightroom and a professional-grade printer capable of producing crystal-clear 12x18s.

These days Bocksnick chooses to give his photographs away, often showing up to home games with a stack of glossy prints to distribute to players.

This year he’s given away more than ever, although parents and grandparents still tend to approach him with grateful wads of cash. He’s already tallied over 350 photographs gifted, including poster-sized images as well as a few 20-page albums.

Between the reams of photo paper and cartridges of printer ink, Bocksnick says he spends about $4,500 a year on his sports-photography passion. The cost has yet to be a deterrent for him.

“It’s just the thrill that I get out of it,” says Bocksnick. “I make a lot of people happy. I see tears, I see lots of smiles… I make them happy.”

Bocksnick still photographs the occasional football game, but it’s now basketball that claims most of his attention. Even at 76 years old, he rarely misses a home game of hoops, often arriving at the start of a froshmore game and staying until the final minute of varsity, a span of about four hours.

And in 55 years Bocksnick has not missed a single western divisional tournament— a mind-boggling streak that will be broken this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

As time wears on, Bocksnick says the long hours of standing on a hardwood court are starting to become a little more wearisome. For now, he plans on continuing to capture moments of Wildcat glory, but at this point he’s not certain for how long.

“My goal is, can I make 60 years? I don’t know, we’ll see, I’m not so sure. ... but I’ll try,” he says.