Butch and Lorna Blue. Photo courtesy the Blue Family

Hall of Fame Battle Ground basketball coach Butch Blue passed away last week; he will be honored at Friday’s game at BGHS and in a service on March 1

Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today

Clark County lost a sports legend last week when Butch Blue passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 at the age of 78 after a long battle with dementia.

Blue coached boys basketball for 26 seasons at Battle Ground High School, amassing 23 winning seasons during his career. Blue was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006 and to the Battle Ground High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

Blue guided the Tigers to the state tournament five times, winning the Class 3A state championship in 1990. His 1989 team took third in state and his 1991 team took second in state. As a young sportswriter, I had the pleasure of reporting on Blue’s Battle Ground teams during that era. I was blessed to develop a very fulfilling and rewarding working relationship with Butch. He was the ultimate competitor, a coach who reminded me of the old adage “if they’re keeping score, I want to win.’

A stool used in Butch Blue’s final game as coach at Battle Ground High School is lifted up near his name on the gym’s Hall of Fame wall. The stool belongs to the school’s current athletic director, Trevor Person, who was on Blue’s final team at Battle Ground in 2002. Photo courtesy Paul Valencia

Our books share a common chapter

Butch didn’t know it when we first met, me a young reporter and he a veteran coach. but our life stories had a common chapter. In 1975, Butch was already teaching and coaching at Battle Ground High School. However, he wanted to be a head basketball coach and in the summer of ‘75 he accepted a teaching position at Stevenson High School, where he would become the varsity basketball coach.

That summer, a fellow teacher and coach at Battle Ground tragically died. The tight-knit Battle Ground community was devastated. As a result of the difficult circumstances, Butch and his wife Lorna chose to stay at Battle Ground, where he soon became the head basketball coach. Butch and Lorna’s decision to stay in Battle Ground was certainly understandable.

In the final weeks and days before the start of the 1975-76 school year, the Stevenson-Carson School District was forced to scramble to find a replacement. A history teacher and a varsity boys basketball coach was needed and there was little time to find a good candidate. Ron Daron, the principal of Stevenson High School at the time, received a recommendation for a young, aspiring teacher/coach. Mac Fraser interviewed for the job and was hired.

“I’m sure Butch was torn between becoming a head coach and going to Stevenson and staying and being a support for everyone in Battle Ground after what happened,’’ Fraser said this week.

Fraser spent two seasons as the junior varsity coach, assisting an internal district candidate who was given the varsity coaching job, before taking over as head coach of the program in the fall of 1977. Coincidentally, that happened to be freshman year at Stevenson High School.

At that time, freshmen were not allowed to play junior varsity or varsity basketball, so I was on the freshman team. In his first season as the varsity coach at Stevenson, Fraser led the Bulldogs to the Trico League championship and a berth in the Class 1A state basketball tournament, something the school hadn’t done in more than 20 years.

The next season, my sophomore year, Fraser made me his starting point guard. We won the league title in each of my three years on varsity, finishing 26-1 in 1981 while earning a fifth-place trophy at the state basketball tournament. To this day, it’s the only trophy the school has ever earned at the boys state basketball tournament.

Fraser and I are still dear friends to this day. I can’t begin to measure the impact that he has had on my life. This past weekend, Fraser joined myself and two other teammates from that ‘81 Stevenson team in Lynden for the annual Lynden vs. Lynden Christian rivalry.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like if the tragedy had not happened and Butch would have become my coach at Stevenson. After watching Butch in action for many years, I know I would have been blessed abundantly with him just as I was with Mac.

Blue and Fraser continue to cross paths

While Blue remained at Battle Ground High School for the rest of his career, Fraser eventually moved on to Mount Vernon High School, where he won three state championships and earned his own induction into the WIBCA Hall of Fame.

When Blue’s 1990 Battle Ground team won the state championship, the Tigers defeated Fraser’s Mount Vernon team in the state championship game. The next year (‘91), the teams met again in the state championship game, this time with Mount Vernon prevailing. In 1992, the two schools met in the first round of the state tournament.

The accomplishments of the Battle Ground boys basketball team, mostly during Butch Blue’s years as coach, as chronicled in the school gymnasium. Photo courtesy Paul Valencia

Fraser remembers his interactions with Blue and his teams fondly this week.

“I always knew we were going to play a very tough, hard-nosed, well-coached team,’’ Fraser said. “Those are the things that would always come up when we talked about facing Butch’s teams. They weren’t going to beat themselves. They were going to be tough like Butch.’’

Not only did Fraser remember the toughness of Blue’s Battle Ground teams but also recalls that they played with class.

“That’s how our kids remember playing against Battle Ground,’’ Fraser said. “People weren’t talking (trash) on the court. They weren’t being demonstrative. They were just playing as hard as they could.

“I thought it was interesting, once I got to know Butch, what a good guy he was on top of being a great coach,’’ Fraser said. “In coaching, you get to know people pretty well, especially in high-stressed situations. I always felt Butch was as quality a person as you could coach against.

When we beat them (at state), he said something like, ‘If we had to lose, I’m glad we lost to a good guy.’ I remember feeling the same when we lost to them.’’

Because of his history with and respect for Blue, Fraser was immediately saddened when I told him of Blue’s death last week.

Legendary Battle Ground basketball coach Butch Blue has passed away at age 78. He led Battle Ground High School to five state tournaments and a 1990 state championship. — Photo by Paul Valencia

Battle Ground community to remember Butch Blue

Area residents will have two opportunities to attend events to honor Butch Blue.

On Friday (Feb. 7) at Battle Ground’s varsity basketball game, there will be a ceremony to remember the legendary coach and his wife Lorna, who preceded him in death. This will be a pre-game ceremony. The couple is survived in death by sons Casey and Travis and daughter Maggie.

A service will also be held on Saturday, March 1 at 2 p.m. at the Reign Church, located at 11608 NE 107th Street in Vancouver.