Michael L. "Mike" La Salle

Michael Louis La Salle, aged 76, a resident of Hamilton, Montana, passed away peacefully on April 10 from a heart attack.

La Salle born December 14, 1946, in Bozeman, Montana, to Conrad (Connie) Arthur and Vivian (Vinnie) Ruth La Salle. The family subsequently moved to Hamilton, MT where brother Richard La Salle arrived in 1948. Conrad, a Mechanical Engineer, who graduated from Montana State College, where he played Bobcat football, owned and operated, along with partner, Mark Annin, Hydropoint Engineering. Vivian La Salle (Manning), also a Montana State College graduate, grew up in Hysham, the daughter of legendary Montana State Senator David Manning who served 52 continuous years in the state legislature.

Mike, along with brother Rich, shared a lifelong passion for multiple sports. At Hamilton High School, both were All-State athletes in football, basketball, track-and-field– star players for the Hamilton Broncs.

Armed with a full-ride scholarship to play football for the Montana Grizzlies. La Salle attended the University of Montana where he majored in English Literature and Philosophy as well as joining Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.

In 1967, while in college, Mike met and married his first love, Alexa Cannon with whom he would have two children, Jael and Zachary.

Following the UM, La Salle, always curious about new cultures, headed to Europe, living three years in France, four years in Germany where he was hired as a Business Planner for Dow Corning GmbH in Munich. Three years later Dow Corning transferred him to their office in Brussels, Belgium where he would live for the next twenty-three years (subsequently becoming fluent in French and German).

In the late 1970’s Mike decided that what Brussels really needed was a genuine Big Sky Bar. The Montana Feed and Fuel Company was born, instantly the indispensable expatriate hub for all things American: Newspapers, cheeseburgers, frosted mugs of beer. Toss peanut shells on the floor? You bet.

The hottest, most important thing on the menu, however, was American football. Importing weekly tapes of the latest NFL games from his brother Rich, La Salle splashed them across the bar to the invariably packed house. “Montana Mike,” Brussel’s own, true cowboy ambassador, was a popular figure around town. Montana Mike frequently showed up in newspaper articles, and TV interviews (La Salle would go on to open two more restaurants, the Rainbow and the Rock Palace).

Not surprisingly, he was never far from sports, coaching the Brussels Sports Association Baseball team to the 1984 European Little League Championship. The Brussels American School, meanwhile, brought him on to coach (American) football and track and field. It was there that he met another expat American, Tamis (Tammy) McCullough. The couple eventually married and had three children, Aaron, Alysha, and Averyl.

Montana Mike settled into the role of a family man. He worked as a businessman across Europe, but his one true passion was always coaching. For his part, La Salle, required to constantly travel between Italy and Brussels where his family lived, treasured his home weekends, coaching his children’s sports teams along with his beloved Brussels Raiders (American) Football team. Taking to the field himself, Mike suited up until age 50, when two fluid-filled, blown-out knees finally benched him.

In 1997, ever the entrepreneur, Mike opened Pony Espresso, the first Starbucks-like shop of its kind in Belgium. Offering hard-to-find American staples, doughnuts, bagels, cookies, and soft-serve frozen yoghurt.

After spending 30 years in Europe, it was time to come home. In 2000 Mike and his family returned to Hamilton to care for his ageing parents. Over the next two decades La Salle worked as a salesman while continuing to coach. During warm Montana summers, he would escape to his cherished Cabin on Painted Rocks Lake where, whenever he could get away, he loved hosting his five children and three grandchildren.

Mike is survived by his children: Zachary, Aaron, Alysha (Joseph) Himes, and Averyl La Salle and his grandchildren Porter Nelson, Heather, and Preston La Salle. He is predeceased by his parents, Connie and Vinnie, his brother Rich, his wife Tammy, and his daughter Jael Marx.

Funeral Service: Friday May 12, 2023, at 11:00 am (MST) St Francis Catholic Church 411 S Fifth St, Hamilton, MT 59840 The Live Stream will be available at www.stfrancishamilton.org/livestream starting at 11:00am (MST) Please share your thoughts and stories on this platform. The family would love hearing how, why, what happened when you ran into our dad, somewhere in this world, throughout his life. He was a very interesting man with a larger-than-life personality, and we love hearing all the stories about him and how we can, similarly, have an impact on the people we come across in our lives or live through him. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial tributes be directed to Mike La Salle's funeral fund to assist with expenses, you can do so via Averyl La Salle.