That wasn't a lie, exactly, it was just Baby Boomers not realizing how much the world changed since they were in school. It used to happen that way. My mother got her first job out of school when the employer came to campus to recruit through a job fair.
I literally have never come across a job posting that asked for GPA. Unless it's like an academic internship or something. Get the degree, and nobody cares about your grades.
I don't know if they still do, but Epic Systems (the medical records company) asked for GPA when I looked at their job applications. I'm not sure if they care about the GPA, per se, so much as using it as a way to practice their notorious (but hard to prove) age discrimination.