Dick Strahm, who coached the University of Findlay to four NAIA national championships, has been elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
Strahm was selected in the divisional class that includes NCAA Divisions I-AA, II, III and NAIA.
He was 183-64-5 with the Oilers from 1975-98. Findlay made 12 playoff appearances during his 24 seasons and he was named NAIA national coach of the year four times.
Strahm, a 1952 graduate of Libbey High School, led the Cowboys to a City League championship his senior year. He went on to play at the University of Toledo. Strahm, 68, still lives in Findlay.
After coaching at three high schools, Lakota, Bryan and Warren Western Reserve, he joined the UT staff in 1970 as defensive coordinator, a position he held for three years. The Rockets ranked first in the NCAA in total defense those seasons, the final two unbeaten years during UT s 35-game winning streak.
He left UT after the 1972 season and spent two years as an assistant at Kansas State before taking the head coaching position at Findlay. The Oilers won NAIA national titles in 1979, 92, 95 and 97.
The year s class will be inducted Aug. 13-14 at the hall in South Bend, Ind.
Among the other nine people selected yesterday were former Washington Redskins defensive back Darrell Green (Texas A&I) and Marshall back Jackie Hunt.
The nine men join a class of 13 former Division I-A players announced earlier, including Green s former Redskins teammate, Joe Theismann.
First Published May 12, 2004, 10:37 a.m.
