Sorry to hear about the passing of legendary Findlay College football coach Dick Strahm, who died Tuesday at age 92. Sadly, his wife died on the same day.

Strahm led the Oilers to four NAIA national championships during a 24-year run. He’s enshrined in both the NAIA and National College Football Hall of Fames.

Strahm’s name is still remembered among older citizens that were raised in Warren as the first head football coach at Warren Western Reserve High School. He had a short run of four years before heading to the college ranks at the University of Toledo.

Strahm is arguably the founding father of West Side Pride in Warren. He led a sophomore-laden team in 1966 to an improbable 5-5 record, a season that was followed by three straight 9-1 records.

The records don’t tell the story of Strahm’s impact on Warren football. The rivalry between Reserve and long-standing Warren G. Harding quickly evolved into one of the most intense and unquestionably among the best in Ohio. In many ways the rivalry compared to the granddaddy of all — Massillon and Canton McKinley.

Strahm instilled an us-against-the-world mentality in his players. The same mindset filtered throughout the community as Raider Pride was more than the wearing of a t-shirt. It became part of the fabric in neighborhoods from Dodge Street on the northwest side to Austin Street on the southwest side. Harding was establishment; Reserve was Woodstock.

Dads would attend Quarterback Club meetings and bring home pamphlets with details about the “Blood” defense and “Blitzkrieg” offense.

It was arguably the Golden Era of football in Warren, and Strahm, who was born outside of the Warren tradition in Toledo, didn’t just embrace his role in the center of it. In some ways he made it his own.

When Harding and Reserve met for the first time, in 1968, Strahm, in a brash move that undoubtedly ruffled a few feathers, had his players’ jerseys read “We Will Win” across their chests.

The Raiders needed a controversial goal-line stand to salvage a 14-8 win before about 14,500 fans at Mollenkopf Stadium. Strahm made good on his brash jersey statement. He would follow with a 30-0 win over Harding the next season before leaving for the college game and turning the coaching reins over to Jim Hilles.

Nothing turned on west side fans quite as much as when the victory war dance was performed. Defensive players would double tap their thighs and double clap their hands late in a game that was securely in the win column.

Detractors likely called it poor sportsmanship. Today it would be considered mainstream celebration.

The foundation laid by Strahm at Reserve led to a run of successful teams after his departure. It culminated with a win over Cardinal Mooney in the first “big school” (Class AAA) state championship game in 1972.

Strahm’s legacy on Warren football would likely still invoke heated discussions among those of us that attended one of the high schools in the 1960s. What might be considered good-natured talk today didn’t always qualify as such decades ago.

Following a speech he gave to students inside the Harding auditorium long after his departure from Warren, Strahm reminded me during an interview for The Tribune that if he was seen in that same room years before he might not have survived.

It was a humorous comment that might not sit well in today’s overly sensitive society (his comment was actually more descriptive). Strahm didn’t care then, nor did he care what opponents thought of him 60 years ago. There were football games to win, young men to mold and a side of town that needed an identity.

The passage of time has eroded many memories of the Harding-Reserve rivalry. Strahm spent so much of his coaching career at Findlay that he’s barely remembered in Warren.

Unless you lived in the 1960s and attended Warren Western Reserve. You remember it all with a fondness that makes one yearn to relive those days one more time.

Thanks for the memories coach Strahm. RIP.

Mike McLain is a former sports staff writer for the Tribune Chronicle.