Listen to the entire interview with Shawn Samuelson
Family ties made it seem obvious that Shawn Samuelson would be a Bobcat rather than a Grizzly.
His uncle played football at Montana State between the school's most recent national championship years.
"I think there's a lot of people that anticipated that I would end up at Montana State," Samuelson recalled. "We'd spent quite a bit of time since I was young attending football games there, and we'd watch basketball games on occasion."
But his recruiting trip to Missoula turned things around.
"Things felt right," Samuelson said. "I liked the players (and) the coaches. The community was more of a welcoming feeling for myself, personally."
Samuelson said he really didn't think about coming from a small school in Broadus to a Division I basketball program.
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"I played against my dad for so many years," Samuelson said, "and he was an excellent basketball player. I had played against good competition."
He also got to play against some UM players while attending camp in Missoula between his junior and senior years in high school.
"I felt, at that point, if I got a little stronger I could play at that level," Samuelson said.
Basically his thought process then was the same one he uses in life now.
"I went in, wanted to work hard and prove that I deserved to be there," Samuelson noted.
Prove it he did.
Samuelson still ranks as UM's eighth-ranked career scorer with 1,293 points and is fifth in career rebounding.
He led the Grizzlies in scoring for the 1995-96 season with 447 points and topped the team in rebounding as a sophomore, junior and senior.
"Sammy" capped his career by receiving the C.R. Dragstedt Award as the team's most valuable player.
"Rebounding was always something natural," Samuelson said, "something that I focused on even when I was younger."
Samuelson said he enjoyed playing for head coach Blaine Taylor.
"Blaine was very, very intelligent with (schemes)," Samuelson recalled, "breaking teams down and breaking the film sessions down. And he was a very demanding coach."
Samuelson said Taylor's offbeat sense of humor served to keep the team loose.
Currently Samuelson and his wife, Kim, live in Billings with their two boys, Jared, 11, and Shane, 9.
Shawn and Kim met on one of their first days on the UM campus and forged a friendship that blossomed into something far more serious by the time they were juniors. They were married while they were still in school.
Samuelson, who graduated in business marketing, has worked for Western States Insurance based out of Missoula, for 10 years.
After he finished his eligibility in 1996 he hung around Missoula to watch some of the guys he matriculated with finish their Grizzly basketball careers. That's because some of them redshirted, but he didn't. Guys like Chris Spoja, Kirk Walker, Brandon Dade and Nate Colville.
During that year he worked for Landa-Harbaugh Insurance in Missoula.
That year was
followed by what Samuelson referred to as a "short stint" playing
basketball overseas.
"I did it more for the experience," Samuelson said of his brief pro career, noting that in addition to being married Jared already had joined the family.
He started playing in Germany, something he said wasn't all that great. After returning home, Samuelson went back, this time playing in Sweden. Kim and Jared did not go with him to Germany, but they were with him in Sweden.
"It was great," Samuelson said of the overall venture. "The experience was fabulous. If it had worked out longer, that would have been fine."
The move to Billings put them closer to Shawn's family in Broadus and Kim's in Bismarck, N.D., although her family since has moved to Phoenix, Ariz.
"I enjoy, and have always enjoyed, the time at the (Samuelson) ranch," Shawn said, "and being close to the family and being able to do that has been great."
"Just had a city league game last night" was Samuelson's response when asked if he still plays some hoops.
"We're 9 and 0," Samuelson said. "We've got a good group of guys, and (I'm) having fun with it."
Time is an issue because his kids are actively pursuing athletics. Samuelson coaches Jared's traveling basketball team and helps coach Shane's baseball team as well.
"Priorities have kind of shifted (onto) taking care of the kids," Samuelson said. "I'm pretty loose with them. I stress having fun, doing things right and working hard. So we're not too demanding or negative with them.
"There's always time for that later on."
Samuelson tries to stay in touch with Spoja, Walker, Dade and Colville and last fall resumed his friendship with Matt Kempfert. He also tries to visit with former Griz guard Travis DeCuire and Taylor, now coaching together at Old Dominion.
"We still get after each other," Samuelson laughed. "There's always old stories from locker rooms and hard practices that get brought up or different times in film sessions when you (got) singled out."
He also talks with Griz head coach Wayne Tinkle as often as possible.
Asked about funny things that happened during his Griz career, Samuelson played the artful dodger.
"I don't know where to start," Samuelson joked. "There's too many of them."
But he wasn't at a loss for words when it came to reflecting on his days at UM.
"Coming to Missoula, I met so many great people through basketball (and) through the university as well as into the community," Samuelson said.
"The relationships that I've made with these people, it's been phenomenal," he went on. "The knowledge that I learned from the coaching staff as well as the players, it's allowed me to carry things over into work and just to be able to deal with different people from different backgrounds.
"I grew up on a ranch in rural southeastern Montana and some of the close guys on the team were at the opposite end of the spectrum," Samuelson added. "They grew up in the city and we hit it off immediately.
"So a lot of it was to be able to blend and interact with people from a variety of backgrounds. I just wish I was young and could go back into that time frame."
