Cast of 1000s put Savik on Legends Wall

Lew Savik, 82 years old and officially now a Legend, was asked how he was doing the other day.

“Considering?” he answered. “I’m doing good.”

Savik is not as young as he used to be, but anyone can say that at any time — he certainly could have from 1990-2015, when he was constantly setting age group records in race-walking at the national level.

This “hobby” followed a marathon race, which followed years of city league basketball and slowpitch softball, which followed a stint in the Army, which followed a year at the University of Montana.

Before that, he was a state champion for Charlo in the hurdles — the 120 highs and 180 lows, in those days.

“They started a track program in Charlo when I was a sophomore,” said Savik, who by the time he was a senior was good at just about everything, including football. He earned a spot in the 1958 East-West Shrine Game.

Of all the sports, though, track is his favorite. And after he settled in Kalispell he was drawn to the Timberettes, a girls-only youth club. It was 1975.

Run out of Flathead Valley Community College, coach Neil Eliason used his FVCC athletes to coach the youngsters and it went swimmingly for eight years — until Eliason pulled up stakes for Bozeman.

“I had a daughter in the program at the time,” Savik remembered. “And I didn’t want to see it go away.”

The Timberettes soon transformed into the Three Rivers Bank-sponsored Highlander Track Club, for girls and boys.

“Which is good. Boys should be included,” daughter Lynnette Johnson laughed. For 30 years, off and on, her dad shepherded young athletes through the program.

Among them were a couple fast Savik kids: Lynnette took third in the State AA 400 as a freshman and got faster, though so did CMR’s Denise Pidcock and the like; and Lon, who won the AA boys 300 hurdles as a senior in 1989.

Importantly, Savik’s progeny were just a few among thousands that matriculated through.

“I really enjoyed those little kids,” he said this week. “Some of those kids went on to become state champs in different events.

“But I also had a lot of kids who — they were never going to win anything but they were there, year after year, improving themselves. That made it special.”

Race-walking into the record books is nice, but it is the Highlanders that got Savik a plaque on that wall at Legends Stadium.

“As a committee we were very excited to reward somebody with his history and what he gave to the Valley,” Flathead athletic director Bryce Wilson said.

Savik gave a lot of time, and old habits die hard. The state cross country championships are Oct. 21 at Rebecca Farm, and he is well aware.

“He’s already emailed me,” Wilson said. “‘Hey, put me wherever. I’ll help out.’”

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.