Highland alum and former college and NFL football coach Steve Kragthorpe passes away

Steve Kragthorpe, the son of former legendary Idaho State head football coach Dave Kragthorpe and his wife Barbara, and a great coach in his own right, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on Sunday.

He was just 59.

Kragthorpe, who played quarterback and was teammates with former ISU star and NFL running back Merril Hoge at Highland High School, graduated from that school in 1983. He then played two seasons at Eastern New Mexico and then transferred to West Test State, where he played quarterback and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Then began a long coaching career that included stops as head coach at Tulsa and Louisville, an assistant’s job coaching quarterbacks with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, and several assistant’s positions in the college ranks. Those stops included Northern Arizona, where he rose to the ranks of offensive coordinator at the age of just 26, North Texas, Boston College, Texas A&M and LSU.

Probably his most successful run was as the head coach at Tulsa, where he took a downtrodden Golden Hurricane program to three bowl games in four seasons. He was 29-22 with the Golden Hurricane, and was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Kragthorpe was hired as the offensive coordinator at LSU in 2011, but stepped down from the position a mere eight months later, after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He remained as quarterback coach for the Tigers through the 2012 season, then assumed the role of special assistant and chief of staff for the LSU program for two seasons.

Kragthorpe is survived by his wife and three sons, as well as his parents. Dave Kragthorpe, 91, was the head football coach at Idaho State from 1980 through 1982, leading the Bengals to the NCAA Division I-AA national championship in 1981.