Truly one of the good guys of area sports, Ed Strauss becomes the 30th contributor to be enshrined in the YSU Athletics Hall of Fame with his induction in today’s class.
Born on Nov. 3, 1927, and raised in the Buckeye Plat section on the city’s south side, he is a 1945 graduate of Woodrow Wilson H.S. where he studied in the college preparatory course.
He played football (center/linebacker) and basketball (center) for the Redmen (known then as the Presidents) under head coach Howard Hartman and his able assistant coach Mike Mitchell (the latter would later become the film coordinator for YSU’s football team), earning letters in both sports while helping the grid team to an undefeated season as a sophomore and the 1942 City Series title.
He entered the military upon graduation and served in Japan during the occupation from the latter part of 1946 and until his discharge in 1947.
While in the service, he played both basketball and baseball with the First Cavalry Division while his coach, Second Lt. John Capka, would later become the Director of Athletics at West Point.
Upon his discharge he looked to enter college and it was Mitchell, an alumna, who steered him to his alma mater, Shepherd College in historic Shepherdstown, W. Va.
He enrolled in the fall of 1947 and played football, basketball and baseball for the Rams, earning 11 letters (four each in football and baseball and three in basketball) during a stellar varsity career.
He served as vice-president of both his junior and senior class, earning his AB degree in Physical Education (he minored in Social Studies) in 1951.
For his exploits in all three sports, but most of all as one of its top all-time gridders, he was inducted into his alma mater’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000.
Upon graduation he began his teaching and coaching career when he was hired at Capon Bridge High School (Capon Bridge, W. Va.) where he taught American and World History, and served as head coach of its basketball and baseball teams.
He stayed there just one year and from 1952-54, became an assistant football and track & field coach at John Handley High School (Winchester, Va.) where he taught geography.
An old classmate from his high school days at W.W.H.S., Bob Gibson, a former Penguin football star (he played for the late coach Dwight “Dike” Beede from 1946-49) and YSU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee (1988) who was the head football coach at East Liverpool High School, then added Strauss to his staff.
He stayed with the Potters from 1954 to 1957 and from 1957-61, moved back to the area for good when he became an assistant football coach and then the head grid coach at Struthers High School.
He first taught at Fifth Street Elementary School and later the high school where among his many notable players was former NFL assistant coach Ron Lynn, and former Major League Baseball standout Andy Kosco.
From 1961-62, he then moved over to East High School as a teacher/coach and from 1962-86, was a teacher, assistant football coach and guidance counselor at Boardman High School.
When an administrative post took him away from the sidelines, he began to film Spartans football games and for the next three decades was in such demand that he would film a high school game on a Friday night, Hiram College (when former YSU Athletics Hall of Famers, first Bob Dove and then Joe Malmisur served as the head coaches of the Terriers) on Saturday afternoon, and had a pick of teams without photographers for a Saturday night game.
He became YSU’s head softball coach in 1985 and in the fall of 1986, three weeks before the football season started, was appointed the Penguins’ film/video director.
It was Strauss who led YSU during its transition from 16mm film to its current usage of video, upgrading an area that is now considered one of the most crucial to the success of both its men’s and women’s athletics teams.
He retired as softball coach after the 1995 season, later retiring from his video duties in July 2005 after 21years with the department.
He counts among his many noteworthy memories the six championship appearances that he filmed for the football program, missing just one assignment during his tenure; that coming in 2000 when he was inducted into the Shepherd College Athletics Hall of Fame.
Over the course of his distinguished teaching/coaching/film career, a career that spanned seven decades, he has called it an honor to be associated with all seven YSU Presidents and all six of its head football coaches.
He earned his Master’s in Guidance from West Virginia University in 1967 and has taken additional courses at both Kent State University and Westminster College.
“I would like to thank the athletic department for allowing me to become a member of one of the most prestigious teams on campus; the Hall of Fame,” he said.
Strauss and his wife, the former Mary Ann Sabol of Struthers, have been married for 56 years and they are the parents of four children; daughters Kathleen, Susan and Michele, and son Eric.
They reside in Boardman.
