2014 MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class: Kathy Strahan
9/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist | @GrinzOnGreen
Twenty-four hours after Kathy Strahan retired as the Sacramento State head softball coach in 2013, she put the color white back into her daily attire.
"Sacramento State's colors are green and gold, so I could always tell people I bleed green with a straight face," Strahan said. "But being that Sac State was the one sending me my paycheck, I didn't want to be driving around campus attached to another school.
"Of course, the minute it was all over, it all changed back to green and white. The next day, my phone cover changed to the block S and my license plate frame changed to Michigan State. I was getting a hard time about that but I've always been a Spartan and will always be a Spartan.
"I'm a Spartan for life."
If there were a hall of fame strictly for loyalty to Michigan State, Strahan would have been inducted before graduating from kindergarten.
The Lansing native who spent many of her formative hours at Spartan Stadium and Jenison Field House didn't know any other way.
"My dad had Michigan State games on (radio or television) all the time when they were playing," she said. "He took me out to football games and I remember seeing Terry Furlow play basketball in those real early days."
Decades before Mo'Ne Davis became America's girl of summer by pitching in the Little League World Series last month, Strahan made the Harry Hill High School boys varsity baseball team as a senior in 1974.
Her athletic prowess notwithstanding, the proud daughter of Title IX was bound for MSU no matter what.
"It never occurred to me to go anywhere else and I was excited to go," she said. "Tuition was $300 a quarter and my parents took care of everything. Then, halfway through my career, I was offered a tuition-only scholarship which I was thrilled for. I'm like, `Wow, we get paid for doing something we love. This is really cool, it's a bonus.'
"There was innocence to it all."
As one of the key faces of MSU's bourgeoning women's varsity athletics program, Strahan established her MSU Hall of Fame credentials on the softball diamond from 1975-78 and lettered in basketball during the '75-76 season for good measure.
As a hot-hitting sophomore, Strahan led the Spartans to the program's unequaled high-water mark - the 1976 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women National Championship. From her leadoff spot, Strahan hit MSU-high seven triples, scored a team-best 25 runs and struck out just once in 93 at-bats.
The following year, Strahan and the Spartans finished third in the AIAW College World Series. She wrapped up her career with MSU Outstanding Softball Athlete honors in '78 and bowed out with a four-year team record of 90-37-1.
Those were halcyon days for women's sports, but Strahan still doesn't consider herself a pioneer.
"I've talked to my athletes recently about never forgetting about the things that impact your life and never forgetting about where you come from, but I don't hang on to it too much," she said. "Things I might have mentioned to the student-athletes I was coaching even a year or two ago regarding the early days of softball, I think they all understand Title IX and get that it was a game-changing event for them as female athletes specifically.
"But other than that, they don't really know about the `70s, life back then and how things really were. The young people today know that scholarships are out there, and they're abundant if you're that good."
Being ranked coming out of high school and having a variety of colleges competing for her services would have been a foreign concept to Strahan 40 years ago.
"All this recruiting stuff..., gosh, comparing that to back in the day when I decided to go to Michigan State, I wouldn't even have considered any other school," she said. "Every time I go back home, I visit campus religiously, walk around and just try to remember the good old days.
"It was really an exciting time, just eyes wide-open and the excitement and thrill of competing for a great university. I've been all around this country and on a lot of college campuses and Michigan State University is the most beautiful. It's just stunning."
Since leaving the Banks of the Red Cedar, Strahan's path continued to trend upward. She won Amateur Softball Association National Championships in '77, '78 and `80 with the Raybestos Brakettes, of Stratford, Connecticut. She played on the 1978 U.S. World Championship team and won a gold medal with Team USA in the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico.
Strahan returned to Michigan State in '80 to begin her coaching career as a graduate assistant under former teammate and new Spartan coach Gloria Becksford. After earning a master's degree, with honors, in physical education in '81, she took an assistant-coaching position at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
With her sights set to the west to escape the cold and snowy weather, Strahan took an assistant's job at Santa Monica (California) Community College in '83 before landing her first head-coaching position at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She became a different sort of Spartan in '86 at San Jose State, where she posted a seven-year record of 201-187-1 and earned Big West Co-Coach of the Year honors in '89.
Strahan turned back to green in '93 with Sacramento State where she led the Hornets to a 21-season record of 576-535-2 and NCAA Regional appearances in '93, '95 and '08. She picked up her 800th win as a head coach in '12 and retired with an overall mark of 823-780-3.
During her career, Strahan found time to author the book, "Coaching Girls' Softball" (Three Rivers Press, 2001), a 224-page guide geared for players in the 7-to-13 age-group. She was inducted into the Michigan Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame in '95, the Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Fame in '01 and again in '13 as a member of the Lansing Laurels '74-75 fast-pitch team.
"It was a wonderful career and I'm so glad I chose it," Strahan said. "I got to work with young people all my life in college, so I never felt like I was getting older. There were some up and downs and times I thought, `Oh my gosh, I have to deal with the things 18- and 19- and 20-year-old kids go through.'
"But, I just look back and am thankful for the opportunity to impact so many lives. It's just so doggone important, and I was always aware that everything I say and everything I do and everything I make is going to leave and impression on somebody, so I always tried to do the right thing.
"It's been such a fantastic journey and a wonderful life movie of my own. Go green."