Writing Dave Kragthorpe’s obituary was difficult. Not because capturing what he meant to the Idaho State football program was so complicated, because anybody who was around Pocatello in 1981 already knew that.

And if they weren’t here then, they’ve probably heard the stories about the miracle rise from 0-11 to national championship in just two seasons. Dave only coached here three seasons, and the last one was a loser. Yet you’ll find his name in the ISU Ring of Honor along with Mike Machurek and Case DeBruijn, two of his All-American players who were instrumental in flying that national championship flag, and the entire 1981 team as a whole.

No, it was difficult trying to capture the measure of Dave the man, because he was such a good and decent human being and, more than that, he was part of an extraordinarily good and decent family. In these days of division and rancor and acrimony, to lose one good man is to lose a lot. To see a good family impacted is even more painful.

“With Dave, it was a package deal with him and his family,” said Glenn Alford, longtime Idaho State sports information director who worked closely with Kragthorpe the three years he was in Pocatello. “His wife Barbara is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. His son Kurt was a sportswriter. He was always pleasant, always nice to talk to, generous with his time.”

Alford also remembered Dave’s youngest son, Steve, who followed him into the coaching profession. Idaho State was playing North Texas State back in the 1995 season, and Alford and trainer Phil Luckey were wandering around the Mean Green stadium during ISU’s walkthrough the Friday before the game when they heard someone shouting, “Phil, Glenn!”

It was Steve Kragthorpe, who was serving as North Texas State offensive coordinator at the time, who came sprinting across the field to greet Alford and Luckey.

The Kragthorpes are just those kinds of people. Scott Berger, who played linebacker on that 1981 national championship team, has gone on to a long and successful career as head coach at Skyline High School in Idaho Falls. When Dave and Barbara Kragthorpe would make one of their annual journeys north from Logan to attend an Idaho State game each fall, they’d encounter the Bergers and Barbara would interrogate Scott about his team’s game the night before, how the Grizzlies’ season was shaking out, and specific details about their season that only someone who was paying attention would know.

“Barb, what a great gal she is,” said Berger. “She’d say, ‘Scott you had a close game last night.’ She knew about everybody.”

That was the thing about the whole Kragthorpe family — they paid attention to what the rest of the world was doing around them. If you’ve known a lot of football coaches and their families, that is not always the case.

They tend to lead insular lives, the boundaries of their consciences being the locker rooms, the stadiums and the meeting rooms where they conduct their business. Some coaches are kinder and more engaging than others, but they live in their own worlds, often out of the necessity of the demands of the coaching profession.

And some coaches are just simply jerks. Alford knows that only too well. He left the sports information profession a few decades ago largely because of one ISU football coach who treated his staff, assistants and the people around him terribly.

That was never the case with Kragthorpe.

“When I interviewed him on Sundays for the next week’s press release, I wouldn’t have known if he won or lost the previous day by his demeanor,” said Alford. “He was always pleasant, always respectful, always courteous.”

That was the way Dave treated pretty much everybody around him. Oh, I’m sure he had some bad days, and I’m sure he had moments of irritation or disappointment. I’m sure it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows at the Kragthorpe house. I’m also sure that no coach who spent just three years at Idaho State ever left such an indelible mark as Dave. And it wasn’t just because he won a national title.

(I should add parenthetically that the current ISU football coaching staff seems to be made up of the same kind of good and decent people.)

The Kragthorpe family is going through some tough times now. Steve, who coached in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, had head coaching positions with Tulsa and Louisville, and was the offensive coordinator at LSU, had his career cut short by the effects of Parkinson’s disease. He passed away in 2024.

Barbara is still living in Texas, but is struggling with the passing of both Dave and Steve, according to her son Kurt. She is trying to figure out where life will take her. Kurt, now 65 and retired as the former sports editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, is left to try to comfort his mother through the losses.

“She’s had a hard road to hoe as my dad has declined,” said Kurt. “The burden of that has worn her down mentally and physically. She is five and a half years younger than my dad, and for a long time it felt like she was 20 years younger. Now it’s almost like that bridge has closed.”

It’s ironic that Idaho State played Utah State, Dave’s alma mater, all three seasons that Kragthorpe was head coach at ISU. The Bengals beat the Aggies soundly during that national championship season. And Kurt Kragthorpe was a student at Utah State during all three of those games.

“ISU put 50 points on them (in 1981),” he recalled. “I probably enjoyed that more than I should have.”

The Bengals will face the Aggies again this year, in the second game of the season in Logan. While Kragthorpe kept coming back to Pocatello to reconnect with the Bengals in retirement, he was the athletic director at USU and maintained strong ties with his alma mater over the years. It would be entirely appropriate if USU and Idaho State could conceive some kind of joint memorial for Kragthorpe and his family at that game. Whatever plaque or commemorative they come up with should carry the inscription, “For a good and decent man.”

Funeral services for Dave Kragthorpe will be held at 10 a.m. on Sept. 5 at Allen-Hall Mortuary in Logan, Utah.

Brad Bugger has been following athletics in eastern Idaho since 1979, as a sports writer, broadcaster and fan. He can be reached at bpbugger@gmail.com.