Longtime college football coach Steve Kragthorpe, who was a former coach of Louisville and Tulsa, has died at age 59 following a years-long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Louisville confirmed it to the Courier-Journal.
Kragthorpe started his career as a quarterback for Eastern New Mexico and West Texas. His coaching career started in 1990 with Northern Arizona, he coached at North Texas, Boston College, and Texas A&M.
He had a long career of 20 years as a coach associated with various teams. In 2001, he joined the Buffalo Bills to coach the quarterbacks under Gregg Williams. Two years later, Drew Bledsoe had his fourth and final Pro Bowl season in 2002 with spectacular stats. He throws 4359 yards with 24 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
After that, he left the Bills job to take the first head coaching job at the University of Tulsa. He replaced Keith Burns at the university.
After that, the Golden Hurricanes went to three bowl games in four years with the Kragthorpe after not having had a winning season since 1991. He was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Following his stint at Tulsa, he landed a head coach position with Louisville and spent two years with them. He finished his coaching career with a 44-43 record.
A year later, he was with LSU as offensive coordinator but stepped down from the job after the diagnosis of Parkinson’s. He couldn’t take any official role but stayed with the Tigers for multiple years in an off-field capacity.
