Hooray! For Eight-Man (& Six-Man)

[IdaGriz01]

... McElmurry was 11 man

Damn! Another "Gotcha" since Troy is also listed as being 8-man now.

 

[IdaGriz01]

Okay, I don't want to give up on this thread. But I've been "burned" by changes in the Eight/Six-man divisions over the years … so I figure I should leave it to those who are, and have been closer to HS football in Montana. (Looking at old rosters just doesn't seem to cut it.)

Here’s a summary of what we have as Griz players so far (I think):

Dan Beaudin, Noxon.
Seth Breding, Harlowton.
Shayne Cochran, Culbertson.
Curt Colter, Hysham.
D.J. Colter, Hysham
Colten Curry, Valier.
Scott Curry, Valier.
Terry Falcon, Culbertson.
Patrick Foster, Savage.
Spencer Fredrick, Scobey.
Greg Hardy, Fairview.
Josh Hoehne, Phillipsburg.
Clay Pierson, Twin Bridges.
Chase Reynolds, Drummond.
Alex Verlanic, Drummond.
Rory Zikmund, Harlowton.

Any more?

 

[MTCowpoke]

Don't think Fort Benton plays 8-man ball. Anyway, I know they didn't in the fairly recent past.

There is a lot of flux between B and C; Forsyth just recently went down to C (8-man) in football, not Bball. Also within C from 8 to 6. Bridger recently moved from 8 to 6.

Yep, I found that out the hard way. Hard to find reliable information (on the web) about what level some of the smaller schools played at in any given year.

Example: I dug up another old roster (1999) and found three players from Plentywood on it (Jeff Nikolaisen, Travis Walker, and Nick Walker). Plentywood is now at 8-man, but I found an article that told me it was probably 11-man back then. Sigh.
That roster also had Josh Hoehne, Phillipsburg, DB, so I assume that was okay.

Also dug up the 1995 (championship) roster, which had two "candidates":
Blain McElmurry, Troy, FS. Three seasons in the pros with Green Bay and Jacksonville.
Scott Curry, Valier (6-man), OT. Drafted by the Packers in the 6th round and played 5 games for them in 1999. Did not play in 2000 and “retired” after that. (Grizrule16 posted him earlier, but I found a bit more info on his pro career.)

Plentywood has only been playing 8 man for the past 3 or 4 years. But the Walker boys were amazing. Travis had a great run with the griz, while Nick left the program to play for Dickinson State.

 

[Zirg]

It's really rare. I know of only a few other NFL players from sub-11-Man football (besides Chase):
1. Chad Greenway-9-man So Dakota-Vikings (current)
2. Riley Reiff-9-man So. Dakota-Lions (current)
3. Karl Klug-8-man Minnesota-Titans (current?)
4. Scott Shanle-8-man NEB-Cowboys
5. Marv Kellum-8-man KS
6. Jerry Hill-6-man&8-man WY-Colts
7. James Hanna-6-man TX-1st 2 yrs of hs Cowboys
8. Jack Pardee-6-man TX

Casey Fitzimmons from my hometown of Chester, MT (8 man). Played for caroll then was tight end for detriot lions for a stint.

I can't believe I omitted Casey. Good Call.

 

[Zirg]

Terry Falcon from Culbertson. Played for Griz in mid-70s and 3-4 years in the NFL.

He was one big dude.

Another good call. What man-fb was Culberton at the time? He played 31 NFL games.

 

[Zirg]

I am sure there are dozens more former-Griz, but I don't have time for that deep-dive. I am only concerned with NFL-ers from sub-11-man fb. Other more well-known guys I have discovered include:
Rashaan Salaam-CA 8-man (Heisman Winner)
Dean Steinkuhler-NE
Roland Woolsey-ID
Nolan Cromwell-KS
Josh Brown-OK