But that didn't deter Gratton from becoming a rock-solid linebacker and stellar special teams player for the Grizzlies for four seasons, from 1979 to 1982, and earning all-conference honors as a senior, when Montana captured the Big Sky championship.
In both his junior and senior seasons, Gratton was awarded the Golden Helmet by his teammates as the Grizzlies' hardest hitter. He was named honorable mention All-Big Sky in 1982.
Meanwhile, the Idaho Vandals had made Gratton a full scholarship offer and he was - reluctantly - prepared to accept it.
At the last minute, UM assistant coach Gary Ekegren convinced Carlson to extend a partial scholarship, and Gratton jumped on the opportunity.
Growing up in Seeley Lake before moving to Missoula, Gratton regularly attended Griz football games with his father, starting with the team's back-to-back undefeated seasons in 1969 and 1970 under Coach Jack Swarthout.
"I remember watching Steve Caputo, Karl Stein, Barry Darrow, Steve Okoniewski, Larry Miller, Pat Dolan," says Gratton, now an attorney in Billings. "I can just about name 'em all. Those were my heroes. I had the chance to go to Idaho, but all I wanted to do was play for the Griz."
Carlson was fired after Gratton's freshman year, in which he ended up playing extensively because of injuries to veteran linebackers, earning him a full scholarship.
Larry Donovan was named Montana's coach in 1980.
"Larry comes in, and my first meeting with him, it was 'you're too small to play in the Big Sky,' " recalls Gratton. "But he moved me to inside linebacker from outside linebacker. And I started lifting weights like mad."
Mike Van Diest, now the coach of four-time national NAIA champion Carroll College, was the Grizzlies' strength coach under Donovan.
"Van Diest showed us how to lift weights," Gratton says. "I spent hours and hours in the weight room. And I did a lot of running, got my 40 time down to 4.65 seconds."
With his improved speed and added strength and weight - 225 to 240 pounds - Gratton became a fearsome defender.
He was particularly ferocious on special teams as a "wedge-buster" on Montana's kickoff coverage unit.
Explaining his kamikaze zeal for attacking opposing kick returners, Gratton told the Missoulian in 1982 that he relished playing "on the lunatic fringe."
Although both he and the team earned more accolades his senior year, Gratton says he actually had a more productive season as a junior, when he recorded more than 100 tackles.
Much of the success of the Grizzlies' Big Sky championship in 1982, according to Gratton, can be attributed to quarterback Marty Mornhinweg.
"When Marty was pulling the trigger," says Gratton, "you knew you were going to be in every game."
Following his graduation at UM, Gratton attended the UM Law School, while working as a part-time sports writer at the Missoulian and loading beer trucks at night.
After receiving his law degree, he served for one year in the prestigious position as clerk of the Montana Supreme Court.
In 1988, he joined the Brown Law Firm in Billings, where he is now one of its 15 attorneys.The firm specializes in personal injury and product liability cases.
Gratton and his wife, Kathy, are raising six athletically inclined children:
Son, Konner, 17, is a four-time all-state soccer player and football kicker at Billings Central. Sam, who just turned 17, is a junior at Billings Senior, where he was an all-state receiver in football as a sophomore last year, and was among the top receivers in the state again this past season.
Daughter, Karly, 15, is a sophomore and soccer player at Billings Central.
Zach, 13, plays football and soccer and wrestles in junior high school. The two youngest are Allie, 11, and Tanner, 8.
Gratton has been a loyal Griz football fan since his playing days. And he even played against the Grizzlies in three of the four alumni contests organized by Coach Don Read.
In the first of those alumni games, Gratton was living in Helena while clerking for the Supreme Court, and he rode a bicycle to Missoula to play. The alums won that game.
A biking aficionado, Gratton raced for a while after college, but now rides mostly for fun and exercise.
He's traveled to France twice to follow the Tour de France by bicycle.
Gratton also is an avid whitewater kayaker who has pursued the sport all over the world. He was a good friend of renowned paddler Brennan Guth of Missoula, who died in a kayaking accident in Chile in 2001.
Gratton, who got an e-mail from Guth the night before he died, says he loves kayaking the new Brennan's Wave whitewater site that was created in Guth's honor on the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula.
He frequently travels to Missoula for Grizzly games every year, especially for I-AA playoff games, Gratton says. He'll most likely be in Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday to cheer on the Griz against McNeese State.
And, says Gratton, the Grizzlies will be tough to beat in the playoffs.
"There's no question they have better athletes, and they're bigger and faster than when I played," he says. "But those guys just know how to win. When you know how to win, you can will yourself to make a play."
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)