Origin Stories :: Jaxie Klucewich

The front-page, above-the-fold headline of the Missoulian on Thursday, Nov. 26, 1981, featured just two words: Coming home. It was a day for giving thanks indeed.

The lead article that morning told the story of Jim Klucewich, who would have needed little introduction to the people of western Montana who dug into Annette Taylor's article.

He and his brothers -- his twin Josh, his older brother Joe, who came to Missoula to play football for the Grizzlies under coach Larry Donovan -- had made a splash since they arrived in town from Southern California prior to the 1980-81 school year.

Oh yeah, they stood out, and not just for their athletics.

"When they moved here, they had really long hair and mustaches, and they drove this great big truck that was lifted high with these great big wheels," says the then Gaylene Lukasik, who was a student at Big Sky High. "Nobody in Missoula had anything like that or looked like that."

Jim and Josh had square jaws, hair that dangled in front of their eyes and reached the tops of their shoulders in back. And they could play. They were the complete package for the girls in town, at least most of them.

"A lot of my friends liked Jim and Josh. They thought they were so good looking," says Gaylene. "Why does everyone like them? With their long hair, I don't think they are very cute."

Thirteen months before that Thanksgiving edition, in October 1980, the sports headline deeper in the newspaper declared: Klucewich brothers tackle Big Sky country.

Josh would eventually join his older brother on the Griz football team. Jim? He might have been one of the best prep athletes in the history of Missoula.

In his first year in town, as a junior, he played football at Big Sky, then wrestled his way to a state title that winter. The twins transferred to Sentinel High in the spring and joined the Missoula Mavericks, the city's American Legion baseball team.

By that time, Jim had offers to play football from both Montana and Montana State, but it was baseball that was the true love of the power-hitting catcher. Oregon State reached out with a scholarship offer. Arizona too.

"He had the world by the tail," says Gaylene.

So it was major news in late July 1981 when word spread of Jim and Josh being in a car accident. Pre-social media, it would have been word of mouth and phone calls, otherwise waiting for the next day's newspaper to land on the porch.

The twins began that morning, on July 29, at the family's ranch near Hamilton, where their father, also named Joe, a former football player at Cal Poly, had retired after a career in Southern California. It's what brought the Klucewiches to western Montana in the first place the year before.

The Mavs had a doubleheader in Kellogg, Idaho, that day, and the boys were headed to Missoula to join their teammates for the bus trip.

Josh was asleep in the passenger seat of the Volkswagen Beetle as they approached Florence. It's believed Jim likely dozed off as well. The car rolled, rolled again and then rolled some more.

Both boys were thrown from the vehicle. People who rushed to help got to Josh first. When they asked if he was okay, all he kept telling them was, "My brother was with me." They found Jim, unconscious.

He was 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds of potential, of bright future. At his funeral years later, people would say he'd been not only the strongest athlete in Missoula but the fastest. Like lightning, if it could bench 400 pounds.

"Everyone knew him by his handshake. He didn't realize his own strength. His forearms were about the size of my waist," says Gaylene.

At Community Hospital later that day, doctors told his family there was a 30 percent chance Jim would survive the accident.

He spent months in a coma. They were warned that the brain damage he'd sustained from the rollover could very well leave him in a vegetable state should he pull through.

That's why it was worthy of front-page coverage the day he finally was released, in late November, and went home, nearly four months later.

He was a shell of his former self, physically. He'd dipped to 130 pounds in the hospital. The front-page photo that day showed Jim walking across the family's lawn, his brother Joe and his mom Sherry bracing him on either side. He was wearing a Missoula Mavericks baseball cap.

His words could only come in a whisper. Vocal-cord damage during a surgery had cost him most of his voice. And his left arm was hardly functioning.

He set two goals for himself: to learn how to walk again and to get his high school diploma from Sentinel, and right on schedule with his classmates. He accomplished both that spring, walking across the stage to a standing ovation.

"He never looked back on what his sports dreams were. He was just thankful he was alive," says Gaylene, who would later marry Jim Klucewich when they were students at Montana.

The accident had robbed him of sports but not his spirit.

"He was just happy all the time. A friend said at his funeral that if Jim knew you, you were special. He made you feel like you were worth a million bucks," says Gaylene, who would have three children with Jim. The youngest was one when her father died in an accident.

Joe would play four years at Montana, Josh would letter twice. And Jim was there for all of it from his student job in the equipment room.

When the Volkswagen had finally stopped rolling over that July morning, one of the first people there was Larry Donovan, Joe's football coach at Montana. He recognized the boys immediately.

He had someone call Joe and Sherry at the ranch. Joe answered. He was told, "The boys were in an accident. One was walking around, one was not."

Donovan had offered Jim Klucewich a scholarship, and he kept his word. "Josh has a special place in his heart for them for doing that for Jim when he wasn't able to play," says Gaylene.

Bobbie Jo arrived first to the married couple, born in San Diego after Jim and Gaylene moved to Southern California for a short period of time. Joey and Jacqueline would be born in Missoula, after their return.

You might know -- or you will know -- the third child better as Jaxie Klucewich, freshman on the Griz softball team.

"Jim nicknamed her Jaxie. At the hospital he said, 'Jacqueline is too long. I'm calling her Jaxie.' And she's been Jaxie ever since," says her mom.

Jaxie never knew the man who nicknamed her, but she has heard the stories. You likely never knew Jim Klucewich either, but you can see him in his daughter.

"It was a lot of hard work for him after the accident, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, but he was very determined," says Gaylene.

"Jaxie takes after Jim in that regard. She has that determination. We've since nicknamed her The Beast, because she's just so tough." And "she has speed that is unmatched," says Griz coach Melanie Meuchel.

But he also passed something else along as well. "She brings joy to people," adds Meuchel, something Gaylene was able to learn about Jim once she was able to get past the long hair and the big truck.

He was able to do the same thing to others, before passing the gift on to his daughter.

"Anyone who has had Jaxie on their team, she brings everyone up to another level with the ability to have fun doing it. Just her excitement and her drive and her passion for it," says Gaylene.

"That's just me," Jaxie says. "That's been my personality since I was little. I have a lot of energy. I like to go 100 percent all the time. That's what makes softball fun for me."

The Klucewiches moved to Eagle, Idaho, following Jim's death, and that city northwest of Boise became their home. But Missoula was always a second home, if not more so.

"My cousin, my grandma and my aunt all live on South Avenue. Then my sister and her family live up the hill and my other cousin lives out by Walmart," says Jaxie, who would spend every holiday in Missoula.

"All my family is here, and I'm really close with my family. I really like being around them"

She attended Lady Griz basketball camps growing up. There was a time she considered becoming a Grizzly through cheerleading, like her cousin had done.

Then the news that would change everything. Montana announced that it would be adding a softball program, with its first season of competition scheduled for the spring of 2015.

Then a pitcher -- now a middle infielder, maybe a future outfielder?-- she made her first appearance at a Griz softball camp as an eighth grader.

She won a softball state title as a freshman at Eagle High, played two years of volleyball and four years of basketball, winning a championship in that sport as a senior.

But softball was always it, from the days she and her brother would go down to the field and play home-run derby. "Softball has always been my passion," she says.

The only thing that matched it was her love of the Grizzlies. If she was going to marry the two, she would need to get busy.

When Meuchel was hired in October 2016, replacing Jamie Pinkerton, Klucewich's sophomore year of high school, she found her target.

In most cases, it's coach pursuing athlete. The roles were flipped in this case.

"Right away I started emailing her a ton. I literally stalked Mel at tournaments," she says. "I even emailed (Pinkerton) after he left. Hey, if you know Mel super well, please send this over to her so I can get noticed."

She joined the Northwest Bullets, a travel team based in Portland, seven hours from home. The team had Maygen McGrath, Montana's future shortstop, so Meuchel was around a lot as the team went from tournament to tournament.

"She literally stalked Mel when she'd play in these out-of-state tournaments. She'd track her down. She always knew where Mel was," says Gaylene.

"She came to camps, corresponded, made us aware of who she was," says Meuchel, the only person interviewed for this article who does not use the phrase "literally stalked," perhaps out of courtesy.

"It's what she wanted to be, so she chased it. I'm glad she kept chasing it, because she bleeds Griz. Seeing her ability and then her passion and love are what kind of drew the connection for us."

She came to Montana's camp the summer before her senior year. The artificial turf at Grizzly Softball Field may as well have been composed of pins and needles.

She had an offer in hand from Portland State but was keeping those coaches on hold. That was a safety school at best. There was Montana. Everything else could be lumped together as Not Montana. And unacceptable.

"It's been her dream to play for the Grizzlies her whole life, so she didn't even really consider them," says Gaylene.

This was it. This is when it had to happen. After camp on the last day, Meuchel asked Klucewich to stop by her office.

Was an offer coming? Was she going to be able to become the Grizzly athlete her dad never had the opportunity to realize? Or was this a "Sorry, but" meeting, and Meuchel wanted to give her the bad news in private?

"I didn't want to get my hopes up. Then she offered me," says Klucewich. She was told to take a day to decide, as if she needed it. Didn't Meuchel know Klucewich had been born for this?

She didn't need a day. She didn't even need minutes. But she gave it five hours anyway, just to appease the coach. She couldn't make it any further than that.

"I'm ready to commit," she told Meuchel over the phone. "It's an honor to play for the Griz, because that's been my dream since I was little."

Gaylene moved back to Missoula recently, wanting to rejoin family, follow her daughter's career and cut down the distance needed to dote on her first grandchild, Bobbie Jo's son.

Joe Klucewich, Jim's older brother, would be a graduate assistant coach for the Grizzlies back in the day with a guy named Bobby Hauck. He now lives in Great Falls.

Josh, Jim's twin brother? He has a ranch near Frenchtown and three kids of his own. The athletic gene for both Jim and Josh trickled down to their third child. Jace, Josh's third, is one of the most sought-after football prospects in the state.

"We all want him to come to the Griz," says Jaxie, who heard from Josh after she committed to Montana. "He said (my dad) would be over the moon that I'm here."

"Coming home" was the headline in the local newspaper that November day, now nearly four decades ago. It fit Jim Klucewich back then, it applies to his daughter today.

Born in Missoula, she was raised in Idaho but not all of her heart would go with her. Some of it stayed behind, waiting for the day she would return for more than a holiday visit or summer vacation.

And if Missoula makes that heart whole? Then it's attending Montana and being a Grizzly -- and Jim Klucewich's daughter -- that makes that joy overflow, having nowhere to go but into our lives.

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