Montana Grizzlies running back Xavier Harris warms up before a college football game between the Montana Grizzlies and the Weber State Wildcats on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Washington Grizzly Stadium.

Frank Gogola

MISSOULA -- Xavier Harris was hit by the fact he's down to his final few months with the Montana football team.

The fifth-year senior was talking with his counselor last week and was struck by the graduation date and how quick it was approaching. He still has plenty of games to play, stats to accumulate and championships to chase before then.

Yet, that degree will mean something special to him on a different level than his on-field success. He's the first person in his immediate family to attend college and will become the first college graduate by the end of the year.

"Hopefully I made my family proud," Harris said prior to UM's game against Northern Colorado at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

"That's what I really came here to do. It's wild, though. It's so surreal coming from a young kid growing up the way I did. I'm just happy I made it out, happy I made it here."

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Being the first in his family to have this college opportunity is one piece of the motivation for Harris. His main goal was getting that sociology degree so his parents and grandparents have something besides sports to brag about him.

It was a long road for Harris to even be here coming from Southern California. He was born to an 18-year-old mother, Latoya Nurse, who had just graduated high school and had split up with his father, King Harris, before he was born.

Nurse raised him early on as a single mother for a period while working multiple jobs. She credited her family members with creating a village that helped bring him up properly. Still, her impact has stuck with Xavier.

"I feel like that's what drives me the most is seeing how she never gave up on me and my little brother," he said. "She always tried to make sure that we were always sticking together and we were always working hard.

"She didn't stop. She never bent. She never folded. That's a role model right there. That's where I feel like I get my mentality from."

King was also in Xavier's life when possible. He went to prison twice. The first time came when Xavier was a child. The second was when his son was a star athlete for Oxnard High School, which he kept tabs on by reading about.

Xavier bounced back and forth living with both parents over the years. That included a period in his early years where his mother moved out of town to work for the United States Army as a human resources specialist.

He lived with his uncle and grandparents during the majority of his high school years. It all left him feeling like he didn't have a stable home for more than two or so years at a time, but he still felt loved and supported.

"One thing about my dad, both my parents, is they never gave up on me," he said. "They never shunned me away. They never did anything wrong. They've tried their best to make sure that me and my siblings were good.

"They always worked their best and their hardest to get what they needed to get done. You see how I came out. Never going to stop working, never going to give up, always going to work and find a way like they did."

Another piece to the puzzle of wanting to make his family proud is trying to set a good example as the first-born child. At 22 years old, he's the oldest of nine siblings who are separated by about 20 years.

That role model aspect didn't always register with him as a kid growing up. It has been impressed upon him more during his time in college as his siblings look up to the brother they're thrilled to watch play football on television.

"Sometimes I feel bad because it's like, bro, these are some big shoes to fill," he said. "I feel like I created a path for them, but it's a rough one, and not everyone can do it. It's not just going to keep happening to everybody.

"I just want them to follow their heart. I don't want them to do it just because I did it. I want them to follow your dreams and do what you want to do."

Xavier was in many of his siblings' lives growing up as his parents maintained a relationship while moving on to other partners. Missing his siblings' birthdays and their growth has been hard on him but is part of being away at college.

Nurse considered moving to Montana when Xavier signed to play with the Griz starting in 2020. She saw being closer to him as a way to make it feel like home but was talked out of it because he needed to venture out on his own.

"Now that I see him, I'm proud," she said. "He finished school. He's a smart, intelligent young man. He's not in trouble. Of course, X has never been in trouble. He's never been that type of kid. He never turned to that side. I'm proud. That's what I'm very blessed about."

Not being able to always take his siblings' phone calls every time has weighed on him mentally. He has felt at times that he was being "a terrible brother" because he was too busy with football and school work to talk with them.

It's a bit of trial and error for Xavier. That's what it was like for King raising a child for the first time when he was just a teenager himself. Xavier was the "guinea pig" who helped him become a better father to his later children.

"He's done more than make us proud," King said. "All the stuff I went through and now looking at myself in the mirror and to say he did that, I don't look at myself as bad. We're way overly proud of him. He's a hero. He's a legend."

"Hero" and "legend" are two words that can also describe Xavier's high school football career. He starred for the Oxnard Yellowjackets along with current Griz teammate Aaron Fontes while they finished as the state runner-up.

John Mack, who coached Xavier at Oxnard, appreciated how dedicated his pupil was to studying film. He did not remember Xavier ever missing a lift or a practice and did recall him always being on time and having good manners.

"It was rough on him when he was younger, but by the time he got to high school, he really had his head squared away," Mack said. "I think that made him so much more mature. He was a very mature player even as a freshman. He was very unselfish, very much about the team. He was raised really good."

Xavier credited all the family members who raised him, including cousins, with instilling important lessons. It was a lot about handling business and staying on the right track in order to achieve the highest levels of success possible.

He admittedly did have mental breakdowns over the years. He wondered if he was going to be good enough to play at Montana and if he would be able to handle the classroom workload to even stay eligible to keep playing.

He starred at running back his freshman year in the Grizzlies' monumental win at Washington in 2021. Montana then won the Big Sky crown and finished as the FCS national runner-up his junior year. After being a 1,000-yard rusher, he switched to wide receiver his senior year, showing his team-first mentality.

He credited the day-by-day approach of focusing on the present and not looking back at the past or ahead to the future with getting him through the mental hurdles in his time playing at Montana for head coach Bobby Hauck.

"I started getting mentally stronger throughout the years," he said. "Coach Hauck, a coach like him, you survive four years here, you're going to be mentally strong. I feel like my brain got whipped into shape and I've been mentally strong for like two years now."

Xavier hopes to stay around football in some capacity once his playing days wrap up. He could see himself potentially coaching, a profession where he could impact others who might find themselves in a situation like he was.

The fact that college is winding didn't just hit him last week. Nurse tried to hold back tears when talking with her son about graduation. She'll finally get to see him play in Missoula for the first time next month on senior day.

Graduating college isn't the end. It's the starting point where Harris tries to take the lessons he's learned through sports into the real world as he continues to strive to make his family proud and create a brighter future.

"I'm built for this," he said. "I was born under pressure, so it's nothing new."

Frank Gogola is the Senior Sports Reporter at the Missoulian and 406 MT Sports. Follow him on X @FrankGogola or email him at [email protected].

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