Cowboys never quit.
Gunnar Brekke would never advertise himself as a cowboy, even if he can be caught wearing boots now and then. But Chad Newell certainly sees the toughness, raw values and unwavering work ethic customary of the son of a rancher, which is exactly what Newell’s senior teammate and friend is.
“Gunnar defines the cowboy attitude,” said Newell, himself a senior captain running back with Montana roots tracing back to Billings. “He’s a cowboy at heart and that’s how I know he’d want to be remembered. That’s the legacy he has left. He’s going to get knocked down but he’s the first one to get back up. Every single time.”
Cowboys never turn their backs on their families.
Brekke, a Helena native, has faced the music as often as any Bobcat during the midst of a disappointing senior season filled with downfalls and heartbreaks. Montana State is the only team among 13 in the Big Sky Conference without a league win. MSU’s play, from an offense plagued by turnovers to a rebuilding process across the board that no one including Brekke expected, has been inconsistent. But Brekke’s pride in the way he carries himself and the dignity he represents for the program have not wavered. He’s shown accountability and leadership at every turn, never making excuses or turning on his teammates.
“The one thing I try to embody is hard work goes a long way but at the same time, hard doesn’t mean you are going to be given something,” Brekke said. “That’s one of the hardest lessons in life to learn, especially with kids in this generation. Kids expect things to be handed to them but I’ve always tried to earn everything I’ve got. There’s a big price to pay for hard work but it always paid off even if it doesn’t happen for years down the road.
“My grandpa and my dad, they are the hardest working cowboys I know. Those type of people in rodeo and agriculture really, they are the type of people who go out and work day in and day out and they don’t stop until it’s done. I was fortunate to have my father show me that if you start something, you never quit it. It may take you awhile. It may take longer than you think. But you always came back around and finished it. I always want to be a finisher in everything I do.”
Brekke joined the Bobcats the season after Montana State hung its third straight Big Sky Conference championship banner. Brekke, Newell and J.P. Flynn are the only 2016 seniors who played pivotal roles on Montana State’s 2014 playoff team.
Coming out of that campaign two years ago, Montana State’s program burst with optimism both on the conference and national levels. The Bobcats returned a potent offensive arsenal headlined by superstar quarterback Dakota Prukop, anchored by a veteran offensive line spearheaded by Flynn that paved the way for MSU’s bruising running game with Brekke and Newell as featured playmakers.
The fall from grace has been both steady and rapid for the Bobcats. MSU endured its first losing season in 14 campaigns last fall, finishing 5-6. After beginning the season as the preseason Big Sky favorites and the No. 9 team in the FCS, the dissatisfying performance resulted in the firing of Rob Ash, the head coach who won more games than any Bobcat coach before him.
In Jeff Choate’s first season, the gut punches have kept coming. Brekke, a senior captain expected to finally be a featured ball carrier in MSU’s two-back offense, missed the season opener at Idaho with pneumonia. Newell suffered a hand injury that required surgery in the 20-17 loss in Moscow. Two weeks later, Newell suffered a deep bone bruise in his left knee that has hampered him since. Meanwhile, Brekke has tried to carry the load whenever he can, lining up at quarterback, running back, wide receiver and even cornerback two weeks ago in a 41-16 loss to Eastern Washington. The loss is just the latest in the sudden rebuilding of a once-proud program.
“The bottom line is sometimes you have to break some eggs to make a cake,” Choate said. “If there’s a guy on this roster that exemplifies a go to work every day, maintain a positive outlook attitude, it’s Gunnar. Things don’t always go your way and one of the hardest things to learn in life is patience. As coaches, we aren’t patient people and fans aren’t patient.
“I have a ton of respect for Gunnar, not just the player he is but the type of young man he is. I know his parents are very proud of how he’s matured and he’s going to be very, very successful in life. When those things that come up that don’t go his way, he will keep his chin up and persevere and come out on top.”
As hard as Brekke has tried to cowboy up and, as Choate constantly emphasizes, ride for the Bobcat brand, success has been fleeting. MSU is mired in its five-game losing streak to start league play since Brekke was six years old. But each Tuesday, Brekke handles his seemingly never-ending string of interview requests from the media with grace, speaking articulately of a senior season he could have never imagined going so awry four years ago.
“We put so much work in and you don’t always reap the benefits but that’s just life,” Brekke said. “That’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about this game. It’s brought me so many great things, so many blessings but at the same time, it throws you down, beats you down and keeps beating you and beating you until you get to the point where you want to quit. But I won’t quit.”
In Brekke’s mind, the fortitude cultivated by watching his father, Ray Brekke, wake up at 5 a.m. to run his construction company only to return home and work the family’s herd of cattle late into the night has not stopped when you leave the family homestead.
The hardness bred within Brekke as the last of the string of standouts who prepped at Helena Capital is also apparent. The Bruins personified grit and irreverence during one of Montana’s most successful modern runs. The Bruins won nine Class AA titles between 1996 and 2011, including six between 2000 and 2011, Brekke’s junior year.
Brekke grew up idolizing his father, who rode bareback broncos in rodeos across Montana when he wasn’t running Brekke Excavating & Construction or herding the family’s 100-head of cattle. He also grew up looking up to the seemingly endless string of Capital roughnecks who trademarked the Bruins’ tough-nosed style, from Greg Carothers to Andy Petek to Kyle Samson to Bobby and Brad Daly to teammates like Matt Miller (MSU’s wide receivers coach) and Caleb Kidder, an All-American defensive end at Montana.
“The way they played the game, they just had this aura about them,” Brekke said. “They were half crazy and they did every thing the hard way, the tough way, the blue collar way.”
After rushing for 190 yards and two touchdowns to lead Capital to its 11th state title over Billings West as a junior in 2011, Brekke’s stock shot up. He attended an individual camp at the University of Montana. The Griz offered a scholarship and Brekke verbally committed soon after.
But Montana State did not let the commitment sit. Former offensive line coach Jason McEndoo, MSU’s primary in-state recruiter, kept calling Brekke and kept getting his voicemail. Eventually, Brekke called McEndoo back. After an official visit in the winter following his senior season in 2012, Brekke flipped his commitment and signed with Montana State in February of 2013.
At the time, Montana State was fresh off a second straight run to the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs. Prospects for the 2013 season seemed high with the return of two-time Big Sky Offensive MVP quarterback DeNarius McGhee, record-setting All-Big Sky running back Cody Kirk, future Buck Buchanan Award winner defensive end Brad Daly and a slew of other talent. The Bobcats won in Missoula for the second straight time in the 2012 season. Everything around the two programs pointed to MSU’s continued rise and UM’s continued swim to shore amid a sea of controversy stemming from off field issues.
Brekke will have one more shot at the Griz in Missoula on November 19. He has never played on a Bobcat team that has defeated Montana. The Griz have made the playoffs each of the last three seasons and, with three more wins, will sew up a fourth straight appearance. Meanwhile, Brekke’s sophomore season in 2014 is the only time he’s played beyond the Cat-Griz game in his career.
“I told myself as soon as I signed here, no looking back now,” Brekke said. “It’s never really crosses my mind now. I think I have been so happy here with my entire life in Bozeman. I’m thankful for this experience. Would I have had a good time there? I’m sure. But I’ve met people here who I will be friends with the rest of my life who have been through so much with me.”
The 5-foot-10, 180-pounder was a first-team All-State selection at running back and cornerback his junior and senior seasons at Capital, earning Gatorade Player of the Year during the state title season. Many thought he might play cornerback in college; he got his chance against Eastern Washington, playing about a dozen snaps and sometimes lining up against reigning FCS Offensive Player of the Year Cooper Kupp and holding his own.
During his four years as a Bobcat, Brekke has worn many hats. His 2,861 all-purpose are 106 behind Demetrius Crawford for 10th all-time in school history. His 308 all-purpose yards in a 59-56 win over Sacramento State in 2014 were the second-most ever by a Bobcat. His sophomore season, statistically speaking, was his best. Brekke rushed for 424 yards and four touchdowns while catching 21 passes for 204 yards and two more scores. He averaged 27.1 yards per kick return and earned All-Big Sky honors at the position. His 74-yard return set up Mitch Herbert’s game-winning TD in that Sac State shootout.
This season, he has rushed for 331 yards and a touchdown while catching 17 passes for 101 yards and another score. In his career, Brekke has 222 carries for 1,126 yards (5.1 yards per carry) and 63 catches for 676 yards (10.7 yards per catch). He’s scored 11 total touchdowns.
Brekke has had some explosive performances — he rushed for 108 yards on just 10 carries in a 41-38 loss at Sac State this year and he had 101 yards receiving on just three catches in last year’s 49-41 loss at Northern Arizona — but it’s been his attitude that has impressed his position coach Michael Pitre most.
“It’s been very refreshing and that’s what we talk about a lot is this is our platform to teach you life lessons,” Pitre said. “One of the things we’ve had to talk about these last few weeks is things aren’t going the way we wanted to but that’s life. Things won’t always go the way you want them to and it’s about how you handle that adversity, attack whatever is in front of you and not make an excuse about why things aren’t going the way you want them to. Gunnar understands that.”
Cowboys never cry. And Brekke isn’t about to start now. Brekke will graduate with a degree in business finance in the spring. A return to Helena to help his father with his business, his ranch or both might be in the cards. His plans are uncertain other than he knows he will not leave Montana under any circumstances. Despite a less than storybook ending to a career marked with person achievements but devoid success in his older years, the Capital City native wouldn’t change his last four years for anything.
“The one thing I will never forget is this season and this entire year,” Brekke said. “What we have done as a team, how much we’ve come together through the struggle, through the losses, the grit of all this, all the tough stuff, we have always had each other’s backs. I don’t think we have ever turned or split on each other and that’s something that happened in the past.
“I’ll never forget all these memories I have had in the locker room with these guys, all the stuff outside the locker room, doing all the stuff crazy college guys do. This experience has meant the world to me not just because it’s given me a free education but because it’s shown me how life really is. It ain’t a bed of roses all the time. But at the same time, all you can do is keep pushing and pushing and pushing until maybe someday you reach the top. Hopefully as seniors, we can lay the foundation where the next couple of years, these guys can get to the top.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
