We’ve lost another of the Old Guard.
Joe Strain Sr., there when the Denver Prep League ruled high school play and lasting well past the preliminary days of suburban takeover, died last week from prostate cancer. He was 83 and had squeezed in as much city academics and athletics as he possibly could.
“That’s what those guys did,” said his son, Joe Strain Jr. “They were all coaches. And to coach, they became teachers. That’s what they did.”
And they won. And they taught, not just in the classroom. And they knew how to be a mentor.
The elder Strain was not only born in Denver but in many ways was Denver. A graduate of Denver South in 1948 and a player in the big three sports of football, baseball and basketball in the golden era, he left to attend college, only to return for one of the great careers in coaching annals.
A history teacher and counselor, Strain was originally at what now is Cole Middle School and Red Shield Community Center, then Manual in 1958 as assistant coach in basketball and football, and head baseball coach, until 1963.
Next was a 14-year run heading South basketball to back-to-back state titles in 1969 and 1970, followed by George Washington for a nine-year stretch in which the pre-Chauncey Billups Patriots earned big-school titles in 1982 and 1986. The latter was significant in that it was led by Tracy Jordan and edged Mark Randall and Cherry Creek in an epic final.
“He was a classy guy,” said Dick Katte, the former Denver Christian coach who won a state-record 876 games and nine titles, including one the same year as Strain, in 1970.
Strain completed his career at Metro State.
Here’s another thing about a Denver guy, whose services will be at the South Broadway Christian Church, on Lincoln just off Ellsworth, at 11 a.m. Monday: For more than six decades, he was married and lived in the same house, on South Forest Street.
And family ties? Joe Jr. was an infielder for the Giants and Cubs; currently, he’s San Francisco’s West Coast supervisor of scouts. Junior, not surprisingly, also taught and coached. At Cherry Creek, he led the Bruins and Michael Ruffin to the 1995 title.
The grandkids rocked, too, as former Bruins — Whitney played soccer at Iowa and Ryan was a baseball player at both North Carolina and Nevada-Reno. He’s now an assistant with Southern Illinois.
“We had a good teacher,” Joe Jr. said. “When asked, he said he was a coach and very, very proud of it.”
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin @denverpost.com or
