LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Steve Kragthorpe, a Missoula native who was head football coach at Louisville and Tulsa and also served as an assistant coach at Northern Arizona, died Sunday after a 13-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 59.
Kragthorpe’s father, Dave, was an assistant at Montana when he was born in 1965. Steve played high school football in Pocatello, Idaho, when his dad was coaching Idaho State to the NCAA Division I-AA national championship in 1981, and later was a college quarterback at both Eastern New Mexico and West Texas.
Steve Kragthorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2011.
Kragthorpe’s career began at NAU in 1990 — he was offensive coordinator in 1992 and 1993 — and lasted more than two decades. He was an assistant at North Texas, Boston College, Texas A&M and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills before Tulsa hired him as head coach in 2003.
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Kragthorpe led the Golden Hurricanes to three bowl games in four years after a 12-year drought and was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame earlier this year. After Tulsa, he was head coach at Louisville from 2007-09, succeeding fellow Montana native Bobby Petrino.
Kragthorpe’s overall record as a head coach was 44-43.
He was hired as LSU’s offensive coordinator in 2011 but resigned after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s the same year. He stayed with LSU in other roles for several more years.
Kragthorpe’s son, Brad, is a coach with the Cincinnati Bengals. His brother Kurt is a sports columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune.
