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Viking Champions: Grant Grastorf
CHICAGO, IL (June 6, 2003) - Grant Grastorf began his collegiate basketball
career at North Central College in Naperville and played North Park his
freshman year. He transferred to North Park after that season, contributing
to the 1979 and 1980 title runs. He graduated from North Park in 1981 and
now works for an electronics company in the Chicago area and lives in
Naperville with his wife and four children.
"When I went to high school, Lyons Township, we were 23-2 my senior year,"
Grastorf recalled. "I was used to winning and when I got to North Central,
I realized that too much rebuilding needed to be done. It was not the right
fit."
As Grastorf considered transferring, he remembered Michael Thomas, North
Park's starting point guard and an opponent during high school. "I remember
playing Thomas when he was at Proviso East and one day I was reading a
Sports Illustrated article about small colleges and I saw his picture and
that got my attention. Other teams couldn't contact me (due to NCAA rules),
so I contacted other teams and I liked North Park. I heard that Dan
McCarrell was a great coach and the guys got along well. I almost decided
to go to College of DuPage, so it was the best decision I ever made to go
to North Park instead."
Grastorf went from being a star player on a subpar college team to sharing
minutes at forward with Jim Clausen and sixth man Keith French on a
national championship squad. After an ankle injury slowed Grastorf during
the 1979 season, he contributed more heavily during the 1980 title run. He
stated that while stars like Thomas, Michael Harper and Modzel Greer were
vital to North Park's success, the work of less known players like Clausen,
French and Scott Groot and the ability of McCarrell to get the most out of
his squad proved just as important.
"We were all in our right good players," Grastorf said. "Clausen was more
of a role player, but he was savvy and a great passer. French came (to
North Park) out of the blue and I don't think they knew he was so great. He
was one of the few guys who could compete with Harper (athletically) and
they had some great battles in practice. Groot was a tenacious hustler and
a good ball handler. He covered Thomas in practice. I would go against Bill
Murphy in practice - he was a physical player from the Catholic League.
"There was a lot of talent on that team," Grastorf continued. "You knew you
had to play your best in practice or you'd be embarrassed. Sometimes the
practices were harder than the games. The coaches would set it up so there
were some good challenges and it made us so much better. And McCarrell was
really good at orchestrating the talent and keeping people happy. He was a
unique person. He wasn't a screamer, but he knew when to get on you and
when to be your friend."
It wasn't hard for Grastorf to recognize the unique talents of his
teammates, especially in light of the fact that North Park was such a small
school. But the realization of how good his teammates were may not have
fully registered until his senior year, he said.
"We had Harper, who was 6-foot-10 and a very high jumper," said Grastorf.
"And then you had Greer, a 6-foot-7 guard which, in Division III
basketball, was unheard of in those days. I enjoyed playing the higher
competition (at North Park). And when I was a junior, NBA scouts were
coming to see Harper and Greer play and that brought it to a new level. The
Augustana College games were great games and we had some good battles with
other small schools like Chicago State. But the most eye-opening game my
junior year was when opened up against Illinois-Chicago and we beat them by
30 points and they had just started playing in Division I."
By the time Grastorf was a senior, Harper, Greer and French had graduated
and North Park wasn't as dominant as before. But the 1981 Vikings - with
Thomas, Grastorf, Clausen and Groot making key contributions - made the
NCAA Division III regional playoffs before losing to eventual title runner
up Augustana.
"We had a good year, not to the same magnitude we had been, but all in all
a good year," Grastorf said in reflecting upon his senior season. "The only
reason we didn't get too far in the playoffs was that we had to play
Augustana. It was almost like they had had enough of us beating them and
they had a lot of motivation. But the expectations were raised, the bar was
high and we had all grown as players. When you're younger, you look back
and you think you could've done more, but now when you're older you look
back and realize that was something special."
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