Chuck Karnop enters Montana Football Hall of Fame

Karnop went through orientation and took in his new surroundings.

“And after I was here for about three weeks, you couldn’t have gotten me out of here in any way,” Karnop said.

Montana State College — later renamed to Montana State University in 1965 — became an integral part of Karnop’s life. After his time as a student, Karnop returned to Bozeman and spent 34 years (1968-2001) as an athletic trainer for the Bobcats. That included time spent with the football team, a group that won two national titles and nine Big Sky Conference titles during Karnop’s tenure.

For his time with MSU football, Karnop was inducted into the Montana Football Hall of Fame during a ceremony on June 22 in Billings. Karnop joined MSU’s Mark McGrath; Montana’s Matt Clark and Marc Mariani; Drummond graduate Chase Reynolds and Kalispell Flathead graduate Brock Osweiler in the class of 2024.

“It’s a tremendous honor and I just have a deep level of gratitude for that,” Karnop said. “It’s one of those things I definitely never expected.”

Growing up in Harlowton, Karnop tried any sport he could. He especially gravitated toward baseball, playing on a travel team starting when he was about 13 years old. Harlowton also had a football team that went undefeated during Karnop’s sophomore, junior and senior seasons.

“If they would have had state championships (for Class B) at that time, I think all of us believed that we would have been state champions a couple of times,” Karnop said.

He also tried his hand at rodeo, eventually walking on to the team at MSU after talking with Langston, who worked on ranches with Karnop growing up. Even though Karnop didn’t enjoy riding bareback horses and was “scared to death of bulls,” Karnop said he specialized in riding saddle broncs.