Kragthorpe attended Utah State University in Logan, where he excelled as a two-way tackle for the Aggies from 1951 to 1954. In addition, he was also on the baseball team. Despite all his athletic obligations, Kragthorpe graduated with double bachelor's degrees in physical education and recreation education in 1955. A short time later, he returned to Utah State and earned his master's degree in secondary education.
Coaching career
Kragthorpe was an assistant coach for two seasons at Montana and two at South Dakota State, he was promoted to head coach in 1969, and posted a He then served as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at Brigham Young University, under LaVell Edwards. The Cougars were one of the first programs committed to throwing the football in the 1970s, a time when "three yards and a cloud of dust" was still the dominant sentiment in college football. After a winless in 1979 under Bud Hake, Idaho State athletic director, I. J. Babe Caccia, decided to try to import some of the passing magic to Pocatello from nearby Provo, Utah. He hired Kragthorpe as his head coach in and the Bengals improved to in 1980 and came within nine points of eventual national championBoise State in the season finale. The best results were definitely in his second season in 1981, when the Bengals won the Big Sky Conferencetitle, hosted two playoff wins, and won the Division I-AA championship in Texas for a season. They were led by senior quarterbackMike Machurek, a JC transfer from California; he was sixth round pick in the 1982 NFL Draft and was a reserve player with the Detroit Lions. During the 1981 season, Idaho State outscored its opponents The following year, the Bengals fell to Kragthorpe was in three seasons at ISU, from 1980 to 1982. In June 1983, Kragthorpe stepped away from the sidelines to take over as athletics director at his alma mater, Utah State in Logan. Eighteen months later, he returned to coaching in December 1984, as the head coach at Oregon State University and implemented a pass-oriented offense in 1985, penned the "Air Express." This offense did not correlate to much success in the Pacific-10 Conference, as Kragthorpe failed to have a winning record in any of his six seasons with Oregon State, compiling an overall record of In recognition of how difficult the Oregon State job was perceived to be in those days, Kragthorpe won the Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors in 1989, despite having a losing record that year with the Beavers.
1985 Oregon State vs. Washington
Despite Kragthorpe's record at Oregon State, he will be forever linked to one of the greatest wins in Oregon State history. In his first season under the helm at Oregon State, Kragthorpe took his in to Husky Stadium in Seattle to take on the Washington Huskies as 37-point underdogs. After sixty minutes of play, and a blocked punt with 1:29 left to go in the game that was recovered for a Beaver touchdown, Oregon State pulled off one of the biggest upsets in college football history,
Later life
In 1994, Kragthorpe was hired by the USU Alumni Association to resurrect the university's alumni chapters program. Despite officially retiring in 2001, Kragthorpe can still be found at his desk in the Alumni Office, overseeing the USU alumni chapters in Idaho and northern Nevada. Kragthorpe is a huge supporter of USU and Aggie athletics. He is a member of the Old Main Society, Alumni Sustaining Membership program, Big Blue Club, and the Emeriti Association. In 2005, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award. His love of sports continues to live on in his children also. His son, Kurt, is a sports writer for the Salt Lake Tribune. Another son, Steve Kragthorpe, was the head football coach at the University of Louisville from 2007 to 2009, but was fired in November 2009. He is currently the quarterbacks coach at LSU. Kragthorpe and his wife, Barbara, split their time between Logan, Utah and Louisville, Kentucky.
