Rambo, Swimley to join Libby Hall of Fame

To earn a place in the Libby High School Distinguished Graduates Hall of Fame you don’t have to be an astrophysicist, but it probably wouldn’t hurt. With past inductees including governors, college presidents, musicians, professors and doctors, the talent pool of former Libby High students is deep with esteemed individuals.

“We try not to focus on doctors and lawyers when we look at possible candidates; we also look at loggers and mill workers,” said the chairman for the selection committee, Jeff Gruber.  

Two more Libby alumni are being honored at an induction ceremony on Monday, April 13, 2015, at 7 p.m. at the Ralph Tate Gym.

Hugh Swimley and Dan Rambo will be the most recent additions to a group of individuals who have excelled in their lives and occupations.

Rambo is pleased and somewhat taken aback by the accolade from his former high school.

“You don’t really think about your career as you’re doing it, but it came as a pleasant surprise to be recognized,” Rambo said. “The best thing about this award is I get to come back to Libby.”

A 1970 Libby High graduate, Rambo grew up on his family’s 168-acre farm on Farm to Market Road. When he thinks about the area, Rambo recalls the massive Libby Dam, the swinging bridge at Kootenai Falls, M.K. Steakhouse and his childhood friends.

After high school, Rambo attended Carroll College and played football under the tutelage of Bob Petrino, Sr. In 1974, while he led the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in rushing with 152.1 yards per game, Jackson State running back Walter Payton was second on the list and was the scoring leader. On a certificate Rambo received for the accomplishment, Payton’s name is inked below his name in the statistical category, a point of pride for Rambo.

Rambo said Petrino’s style of encouragement was a bit gruff, but it got the most out of his players.

“He certainly knew how to motivate me. The old man was a tough nut. He kicked me off the team twice in one practice,” Rambo said.

The reason for the one-day suspension was because Rambo came to practice with a cold and wasn’t able to holler as loud as Petrino expected him to. Rambo was told to leave the field, so he did. After spending a few minutes in the locker room, he assumed it was safe to come back out. Not quite. Petrino found Rambo and excused him for a second time.

From about 1975 to 1981, Rambo was a self-described professional tryout guy, attempting to crack rosters with the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, Oakland Raiders and a couple of Canadian football teams.

Rambo’s on-field career consisted of one preseason game. He played special teams for the Broncos against the Baltimore Colts.

“I didn’t get in as running back, which was kind of disappointing,” he said.

His parents attended the game and were thrilled their son got on the field. After deciding to dissolve his aspirations to play football, Rambo continued to pursue a career in the sport.

As assistant general manager for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League from 1983-1990, Rambo helped propel the team back from an 11-year playoff drought in 1998 and then a Grey Cup Championship in 1989.

After spending one year as general manager of the Ottawa Rough Riders, Rambo began work as director of player personnel in Saskatchewan before working as the northeastern scout for the Denver Broncos, where he earned a Super Bowl ring with the team in 1999.

In 2006, Rambo retired for the first time before a two-year stint as Director of Player Personnel for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, then retiring for a second time in 2009.

Since then, he’s continued to work on his 30-year passion of designing and managing software to help football teams quickly find players with detailed search options, create lists of players of interest, and add unique data. “We’ve been building and rebuilding this program for 7 or 8 years now,” Rambo said.

Rambo currently co-owns a company called FBXchange, which has over 110,000 players in its database.

Rambo has called Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, home since 1991 and is married to Dr. Kathy McFarland. The couple has two children, a 19-year old daughter, Teeghan, and an 18-year old son, Art. The family also owns four dogs.

“I was the kind of guy that wanted to go,” Rambo said. “I knew where my home was, but my focus has always been sports.”

The other inductee, Hugh Swimley, moved to Libby from North Dakota in 1941 and graduated from Libby High School in 1949. Not able to make it up from his home in Surprise, Ariz., Swimley will be represented by his nephew, Robin Swimley.

Swimley thought there might have been a mistake when he heard he was being recognized for the distinction.

“I thought something must be haywire, I haven’t been connected to the schools for many, many years, of course,” Swimley said.

“My career wasn’t that distinguished, but I was involved in some of the workings of the community. I guess that’s what being a member of the community is, being involved.”

After graduation, Swimley worked for Adkins Thrift Store before enlisting in the United States Air Force in March 1951 and serving in the Korean War.

He then returned to attend college at Montana State College for several years, then returned to Libby where he picked back up at Adkins, which had opened a second store in Kalispell.

“I was the general manager of those stores until they were sold to Rosauers,” Swimley said. “I became the general manager of the Libby store, where I worked 35 years in the retail food industry before retiring in 1988.”

Swimley’s wife, Allison, retired the same year after working as a teacher and librarian in the Libby school system for 35 years.

“We had our years of work there, we raised two fine sons there, who were both valedictorians of their classes, which we were very proud of,” Swimley said.

“We all had a really nice experience there in Libby. We knew all of the people and all the people knew us, it was a friendly community,” Swimley said. “It was great to raise a family there.”

“We were also members of the church and participated in those activities.” While serving the Christ Lutheran Church, Swimley acted as treasurer, council member and president.

Other activities Swimley takes pride in was working for the Libby Volunteer Fire Department and serving a four-year stint on the St. John’s Hospital board.

He thinks fondly of his time spent on the family cabin on Bitterroot Lake, where they owned a cabin and enjoyed water skiing and other outdoor pursuits.

Another favorite activity for Swimley was golf. “I played many years of golf at the beautiful golf course up there; not very well, but I played,” he chuckled.

In 1990, Swimley and his wife moved to Arizona. He said when they first moved to Surprise the population was about 10,000 and has since ballooned to about 115,000 residents.

A medical issue kept Swimley from golfing for a while, but he and his 91-year old friend were going to hit the links this week.

It’s been a couple of years since Swimley and his wife have been back to Libby. This summer they plan to visit his oldest son Brett in Bozeman. His other son, Bryce, lives in Washington State. “We’re connected up there yet,” Swimley said.

Swimley is proud of his family and said everything about his life in Libby flowed together really well.

“It was nothing outstanding that I know of,” Swimley said. “Just being a part of the community and raising a family there. With my job and my wife in the school system, we had a very good life.”

The addition of Swimley and Rambo to the Distinguished Graduates Hall of Fame is being held in conjunction with the Libby High School National Honor Society induction ceremony. The names of those students are being withheld until the event.