BILLINGS - It’s a sport built on precision. A steady trigger finger. A sharp eye. And the discipline to stay calm under pressure.
Pat Spurgin-Pitney earned an Olympic gold medal in women’s air rifle when she was just 18 years old - a few months after graduating from Billings West High School.
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She was known as Pat Spurgin then. She began shooting when she was just a young girl at the Yellowstone Rifle Club in Billings with other family members.
“The more I got into it, the better I was. And then it was just a challenge of how precise I could be,” she said.
Her longtime coach, Ralph Saunders, still remembers those early days.
“It just seemed like she was one of my kids almost,” Saunders said.
Saunders first coached Spurgin in the Yellowstone Rifle Club junior program, and today he continues working with young shooters hoping to follow a similar path.
One of them is Ainsley McFarland, who discovered her love for shooting at a young age.
“I started shooting stuff at the family ranch — targets and prairie dogs, stuff like that,” McFarland said.
Now McFarland is preparing to attend Murray State University in Kentucky — a powerhouse in collegiate rifle competition.
Fittingly, the school’s world-class rifle range carries the name of Pat Spurgin.
“Every time that she has been in town she has stopped by and gave me some pointers,” McFarland said.
Spurgin-Pitney was an eight-time first-team All-American at Murray State and two-time national champion in the 10M Air Rifle and the Smallbore Rifle.
Spurgin later would be inducted into the USA Shooting Hall of Fame, and recently retired after a long career in public service and higher education in Alaska, including serving as president of the University of Alaska.
But back in Billings, where her Olympic journey first began, her legacy still resonates.
“So that was a very, very memorable time to be right behind her when she shot all the way and won the gold,” Saunders said. “It was a warm feeling because I didn’t feel like I was her coach at that time. I felt like I was closer than that—like family.”
For Spurgin, the moment brought more than pride.
“I had that expectation of myself — pride, but really a sense of relief,” she said. “I had a mission and that was what I was meant to do.”
