SWX Local Sports Digital Journalist
He kept student athletes healthy and on the playing field for over three decades. 34 years to be exact as Chuck Karnop played a huge role in the success of Montana State athletics.
The Montana Football Hall of Fame will induct its 2024 Class on June 22, 2024 at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. Until then, SWX will profile each of the eight inductees in the weeks leading up to the ceremony.
Not all inductees into the Montana Football Hall of Fame are being recognized for their efforts as a player or coach on the gridiron. The Support category recognizes individuals who dedicated themselves to the game and made a significant contribution.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in the Support category is Harlowton’s Chuck Karnop.
He kept student athletes healthy and on the playing field for over three decades. 34 years to be exact as Chuck Karnop played a huge role in the success of Montana State athletics.
Raised in Harlowton, Chuck enrolled at Montana State as a walk-on rodeo cowboy. While there, he met legendary athletic trainer Marshall Cook, and later interned under his mentorship while attending graduate school in 1967. Karnop graduated from MSU and spent the next year teaching at Dickinson State. In 1968, he returned to Bozeman were he was named the school’s athletic trainer.
Over the course of his career at Montana State, Karnop served as the Bobcats’ athletic trainer for two national championship football teams. In 1976, Montana State, under head coach Sonny Holland, won the NCAA Division II Championship, defeating Akron in the Pioneer Bowl.
The second championship came in 1984, this time as a Division I-AA program. Led by Dave Arnold, the Cats defeated Louisiana Tech 19-6 in Charleston, South Carolina. In addition to those national championships, Karnop was the head trainer for nine Big Sky titles in football, along with five Big Sky Conference basketball titles.
In 1997, Karnop was honored by the National Athletic Trainers Association for his many years of service and in 2003, was inducted into the Montana Coaches Association as an honorary inductee.
His 34 years of service to Montana State are believed to be the longest tenure of service in Bobcat athletics in the school’s history. Karnop resides south of Bozeman with his wife, Janie. They have a daughter, Lauryn.
For his 34 years of overseeing the health care of athletes in all sports at Montana State, Chuck Karnop is a 2024 inductee into the Montana Football Hall of Fame.
Editor’s note: Thank you to Montana State Sports Information, the Karnop Family and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle for their contributions to this story.
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SWX Local Sports Digital Journalist
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