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John Stroeder: around the world and back home again
By BILL SCHWANKE of Missoulian.com
Former Grizzly basketball player John Stroeder, shown in this 1970s photo, has played basketball all over the world since playing at UM from 1976 through 1980.
When John Stroeder decided to take his basketball talents from Port Townsend, Wash. to the University of Montana in the mid 1970s, little did he know that he would be taking them a lot farther than Missoula.
Places like England, France, Spain, Sweden, Florida, Wisconsin, New York, Texas and California, for example.
The shy, unassuming, small-town 6-10 redhead - his UM nicknames would be “Big Red” and “Strodes” - traveled to all of those places to play basketball. Now he’s back home in small-town Port Townsend, coaching boys’ basketball.
And he’s a guy who never thought he wanted to be a coach.
The road has been a long and winding one since Stroeder was drafted in the eighth round by the Portland Trail Blazers following his senior season in 1979-80.
He said he knew he wouldn’t make the Trailblazers roster, but the team did him a favor by sending him to the NBA Summer League. He was noticed by scouts, and the result was a two-year stint playing professionally in England.
Following another summer league session Stroeder returned to Europe, this time to play in France for three seasons.
After that he hooked on with the Montana Golden Nuggets of the Continental Basketball Association, playing for future NBA coach George Karl. Stroeder continued his CBA career playing for coach Bill Musselman in Tampa Bay, where the team won the league championship.
That opened the door for Stroeder to take another shot at the NBA, and he signed with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he was a teammate of another former Grizzly and now the Bucks’ head coach, Larry Krystkowiak.
That 1987-88 Bucks roster also included Terry Cummings, Jack Sikma, John Lucas and Sidney Moncrief.
It ended up being Stroeder’s longest stay in the NBA.
In 1988-89 he signed a 10-day contract with the San Antonio Spurs when Ralph Sampson was injured. He hooked up once again with Karl, at that time the coach of the Albany Patroons, a team later coached by Stroeder’s UM teammate Micheal Ray Richardson.
Then came a pair of 10-day contracts with the Golden State Warriors, another short stint in the CBA, and finally the wrap-up to his playing days back in Europe on teams in Spain and Sweden.
Stroeder finally called it quits in 1992 after 12 years of playing pro ball at all levels.
It was Stroeder’s goal to play in the NBA, although his career in the league spanned a total of just 46 games, But he certainly was well-traveled.
He credited then-assistant UM coach Stew Morrill with grooming him. Morrill himself had played in Europe and had connections that helped Stroeder get there as well.
Stroeder was playing in the 1976 state tournament in Washington when he was approached by Grizzly head coach Jim Brandenburg about coming to UM.
“They flew me out there,” Stroeder recalled, “and I really liked the country out that way. I’d never been to Montana.”
Saying Brandenburg was “such a nice guy,” the big redhead also recalled how well he was treated by players like Craig Henkel and Allen Nielsen.
“I think I probably made my mind up before I even came back here after that recruiting trip,” Stroeder said.
Stroeder played just one year for Brandenburg, who left in 1977 to become the head coach at Wyoming. Mike Montgomery became UM’s head coach, and Stroeder said there was an obvious change in basketball philosophy.
“We had more of an up-tempo (offense) with Micheal Ray (under) Brandenburg,” Stroeder said. “We were more of a controlled, run-your-offense (style under Montgomery).
The Grizzlies ranked high nationally in defensive statistics with Montgomery as the head coach, but Stroeder said that might have been more a function of a slower-paced offense than a really tight defense.
Regardless, Stroeder said Montgomery’s emphasis on playing defense benefited him immensely after he left UM. And it’s benefiting him now as a high school coach.
“I think I got all of my defensive philosophies from Mike,” Stroeder said.
Another of Stroeder’s college teammates was Blaine Taylor, who went on to coach the Grizzlies in the 1990s and now runs the program at Old Dominion. Stroeder isn’t surprised by Taylor’s success as a college coach.
“He was so much fun to play with,” Stroeder remembered. “He’s a big-time coach now, and I think that carried over because he was always coaching us because he was the point guard.
“I think he was destined to become a great coach.”
Once his UM career was over and before heading overseas, Stroeder and some of his Griz teammates joined players from rival Montana State to form an unbeatable squad that won tournaments in Lewistown (the Western Invitational) and in Butte.
Stroeder’s memory is a bit fuzzy, but he believes former Bobcat star and head coach Mick Durham was part of that team.
“It was kinda strange because we had a big rivalry with Montana State and we didn’t like those guys very well at the time,” Stroeder said. “But then we got to know them a little better when we played together in those money tournaments and we just had a blast.”
Stroeder continues to stay in touch with Krystkowiak and Taylor. Some of his other UM favorites - even though he doesn’t stay in touch with them - were Rodney Brandon, Tim McCauley and Craig Zanon. The other Richardson - Michael John - was another close friend at UM.
Coming from a small town, Stroeder said the adjustment to college was made easy for him by coaches, players and professors at UM, a relatively small school where he didn’t feel like just another number.
For him the highlights were the coaches and the other players on the team.
Stroeder also made note of the change in philosophy toward weight training, recalling that he would sneak into the weight room in an effort to get stronger.
“I remember Monty kicked me out of there twice,” he said. “They caught me in there lifting weights. But they saw the improvement that I (made).”
Another highlight was playing with Micheal Ray Richardson, who became the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft when he finished his Montana eligibility. Stroeder said Richardson helped make him a better player.
He also remembered the mostly-disappointing playoff games against perennial Big Sky Conference power Weber State.
“It was kind of a disappointment but it also was a highlight because we played against some really good players,” Stroeder acknowledged.
Stroeder has been married to Nancy for almost 19 years. The two met while he was playing for the Bucks and she was the team’s executive secretary.
It was Nancy who got him into coaching after he retired from playing basketball and they settled in Port Townsend. She saw an ad in the paper for a girls’ basketball coach at Port Townsend High School and urged John to apply.
“I didn’t know if I even wanted to coach, especially girls,” Stroeder said. “But she said, ‘you should try it and just see.’”
So he did, and wound up coaching the girls for seven seasons.
“The program had been down for a few years,” Stroeder noted. “My defensive philosophy I think brought us back. We went to the state tournament four out of the seven years I coached the girls, so I was really happy with what I did with the girls.
“I kind of proved to myself that I did know a little bit about the game,” he went on. “The biggest thing for players trying to coach is if you can teach the game to other players.”
Stroeder resigned from coaching the girls but halfway through the next season was approached by players from the boys’ team who said their coach had been fired. They asked him to step in.
“I grew up here, went to school here,” Stroeder said. “And I did so well with the girls’ team they thought that I could take over.”
With two days preparation Stroeder guided the boys’ team to a victory, something he credited more to the adrenaline created by the coaching change than anything he might have done.
“We went on and won six or seven games towards the end of the year and we made the playoffs,” Stroeder said. “So I got really excited about coaching the boys. It was a new challenge for me. Now I’m going into my fourth year with the boys.”
The Redskins were 4-10 in the Olympic League and 6-14 overall last season as the only 2-A team in a league made up mostly of larger 3-A and 4-A schools.
Now Stroeder’s really glad he got into coaching.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of respect for coaches when I was playing,” Stroeder recalled. “But now I understand what the coaches go through. I have a lot more respect for the coaching aspect of the game now.”
Stroeder - a physical education major at UM - doesn’t teach at the high school. He works for Port Townsend Paper Co., which gives him the time off he needs to coach, something he really appreciates.
Even though Stroeder didn’t play very long in the NBA and the pay isn’t very good in the CBA he was able to effectively invest the money he did make with his father’s help. So he and his wife live quite comfortably.
There was no plan for the Stroeders to “move back” to Port Townsend. John and Nancy - a Kansas native - made it their home base while he was finishing out his playing days.
“It’s just kind of grown on her,” Stroeder said about living on the peninsula. “She really loves the area. It’s not too crowded. It’s very beautiful with all the mountain ranges and Mt. Rainier and Seattle. She really likes the water.”
The two have no children. They do have a dog named Rosie. Stroeder counts the players on his team as his kids.
“I think they’re keeping me young,” he said. “That’s why I think I like to do it.”
Even though Stroeder had never dreamed about returning to live in his hometown it’s been a dream-like experience.
“I was on that fast-paced life, playing ball and doing the whole thing in the NBA and all over Europe and all over the place,” Stroeder said. “Now it’s nice to be kind of like everybody else. I had a lot of attention … and I just kinda like the quiet life now.”
That quiet life includes plenty of salt-water fishing, so much that Stroeder has become a sort of area expert and celebrity, enough so that his nickname has become Big Fish in the Port Townsend area.
For a few summers Stroeder would return to UM to work at Grizzly basketball camps. After a break of a few years he and his wife came back about five years ago, and Stroeder was amazed at the changes just on campus.
In the meantime he has stayed in touch by reading as much about Montana and the Grizzlies as he can online.
“I’m a Montana Grizzly through and through,” Stroeder said, adding that he couldn’t be more pleased with the life he’s led so far.
“My wife, I couldn’t ask for a better person,” he said. “You don’t hear a lot of people still married for 18 years. Hopefully we make it another 18.
“I don’t think I’d change anything, and it all started at Montana because those guys really helped me out a lot. I owe Montana a lot, I really do.”
By BILL SCHWANKE of Missoulian.com
Former Grizzly basketball player John Stroeder, shown in this 1970s photo, has played basketball all over the world since playing at UM from 1976 through 1980.
When John Stroeder decided to take his basketball talents from Port Townsend, Wash. to the University of Montana in the mid 1970s, little did he know that he would be taking them a lot farther than Missoula.
Places like England, France, Spain, Sweden, Florida, Wisconsin, New York, Texas and California, for example.
The shy, unassuming, small-town 6-10 redhead - his UM nicknames would be “Big Red” and “Strodes” - traveled to all of those places to play basketball. Now he’s back home in small-town Port Townsend, coaching boys’ basketball.
And he’s a guy who never thought he wanted to be a coach.
The road has been a long and winding one since Stroeder was drafted in the eighth round by the Portland Trail Blazers following his senior season in 1979-80.
He said he knew he wouldn’t make the Trailblazers roster, but the team did him a favor by sending him to the NBA Summer League. He was noticed by scouts, and the result was a two-year stint playing professionally in England.
Following another summer league session Stroeder returned to Europe, this time to play in France for three seasons.
After that he hooked on with the Montana Golden Nuggets of the Continental Basketball Association, playing for future NBA coach George Karl. Stroeder continued his CBA career playing for coach Bill Musselman in Tampa Bay, where the team won the league championship.
That opened the door for Stroeder to take another shot at the NBA, and he signed with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he was a teammate of another former Grizzly and now the Bucks’ head coach, Larry Krystkowiak.
That 1987-88 Bucks roster also included Terry Cummings, Jack Sikma, John Lucas and Sidney Moncrief.
It ended up being Stroeder’s longest stay in the NBA.
In 1988-89 he signed a 10-day contract with the San Antonio Spurs when Ralph Sampson was injured. He hooked up once again with Karl, at that time the coach of the Albany Patroons, a team later coached by Stroeder’s UM teammate Micheal Ray Richardson.
Then came a pair of 10-day contracts with the Golden State Warriors, another short stint in the CBA, and finally the wrap-up to his playing days back in Europe on teams in Spain and Sweden.
Stroeder finally called it quits in 1992 after 12 years of playing pro ball at all levels.
It was Stroeder’s goal to play in the NBA, although his career in the league spanned a total of just 46 games, But he certainly was well-traveled.
He credited then-assistant UM coach Stew Morrill with grooming him. Morrill himself had played in Europe and had connections that helped Stroeder get there as well.
Stroeder was playing in the 1976 state tournament in Washington when he was approached by Grizzly head coach Jim Brandenburg about coming to UM.
“They flew me out there,” Stroeder recalled, “and I really liked the country out that way. I’d never been to Montana.”
Saying Brandenburg was “such a nice guy,” the big redhead also recalled how well he was treated by players like Craig Henkel and Allen Nielsen.
“I think I probably made my mind up before I even came back here after that recruiting trip,” Stroeder said.
Stroeder played just one year for Brandenburg, who left in 1977 to become the head coach at Wyoming. Mike Montgomery became UM’s head coach, and Stroeder said there was an obvious change in basketball philosophy.
“We had more of an up-tempo (offense) with Micheal Ray (under) Brandenburg,” Stroeder said. “We were more of a controlled, run-your-offense (style under Montgomery).
The Grizzlies ranked high nationally in defensive statistics with Montgomery as the head coach, but Stroeder said that might have been more a function of a slower-paced offense than a really tight defense.
Regardless, Stroeder said Montgomery’s emphasis on playing defense benefited him immensely after he left UM. And it’s benefiting him now as a high school coach.
“I think I got all of my defensive philosophies from Mike,” Stroeder said.
Another of Stroeder’s college teammates was Blaine Taylor, who went on to coach the Grizzlies in the 1990s and now runs the program at Old Dominion. Stroeder isn’t surprised by Taylor’s success as a college coach.
“He was so much fun to play with,” Stroeder remembered. “He’s a big-time coach now, and I think that carried over because he was always coaching us because he was the point guard.
“I think he was destined to become a great coach.”
Once his UM career was over and before heading overseas, Stroeder and some of his Griz teammates joined players from rival Montana State to form an unbeatable squad that won tournaments in Lewistown (the Western Invitational) and in Butte.
Stroeder’s memory is a bit fuzzy, but he believes former Bobcat star and head coach Mick Durham was part of that team.
“It was kinda strange because we had a big rivalry with Montana State and we didn’t like those guys very well at the time,” Stroeder said. “But then we got to know them a little better when we played together in those money tournaments and we just had a blast.”
Stroeder continues to stay in touch with Krystkowiak and Taylor. Some of his other UM favorites - even though he doesn’t stay in touch with them - were Rodney Brandon, Tim McCauley and Craig Zanon. The other Richardson - Michael John - was another close friend at UM.
Coming from a small town, Stroeder said the adjustment to college was made easy for him by coaches, players and professors at UM, a relatively small school where he didn’t feel like just another number.
For him the highlights were the coaches and the other players on the team.
Stroeder also made note of the change in philosophy toward weight training, recalling that he would sneak into the weight room in an effort to get stronger.
“I remember Monty kicked me out of there twice,” he said. “They caught me in there lifting weights. But they saw the improvement that I (made).”
Another highlight was playing with Micheal Ray Richardson, who became the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft when he finished his Montana eligibility. Stroeder said Richardson helped make him a better player.
He also remembered the mostly-disappointing playoff games against perennial Big Sky Conference power Weber State.
“It was kind of a disappointment but it also was a highlight because we played against some really good players,” Stroeder acknowledged.
Stroeder has been married to Nancy for almost 19 years. The two met while he was playing for the Bucks and she was the team’s executive secretary.
It was Nancy who got him into coaching after he retired from playing basketball and they settled in Port Townsend. She saw an ad in the paper for a girls’ basketball coach at Port Townsend High School and urged John to apply.
“I didn’t know if I even wanted to coach, especially girls,” Stroeder said. “But she said, ‘you should try it and just see.’”
So he did, and wound up coaching the girls for seven seasons.
“The program had been down for a few years,” Stroeder noted. “My defensive philosophy I think brought us back. We went to the state tournament four out of the seven years I coached the girls, so I was really happy with what I did with the girls.
“I kind of proved to myself that I did know a little bit about the game,” he went on. “The biggest thing for players trying to coach is if you can teach the game to other players.”
Stroeder resigned from coaching the girls but halfway through the next season was approached by players from the boys’ team who said their coach had been fired. They asked him to step in.
“I grew up here, went to school here,” Stroeder said. “And I did so well with the girls’ team they thought that I could take over.”
With two days preparation Stroeder guided the boys’ team to a victory, something he credited more to the adrenaline created by the coaching change than anything he might have done.
“We went on and won six or seven games towards the end of the year and we made the playoffs,” Stroeder said. “So I got really excited about coaching the boys. It was a new challenge for me. Now I’m going into my fourth year with the boys.”
The Redskins were 4-10 in the Olympic League and 6-14 overall last season as the only 2-A team in a league made up mostly of larger 3-A and 4-A schools.
Now Stroeder’s really glad he got into coaching.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of respect for coaches when I was playing,” Stroeder recalled. “But now I understand what the coaches go through. I have a lot more respect for the coaching aspect of the game now.”
Stroeder - a physical education major at UM - doesn’t teach at the high school. He works for Port Townsend Paper Co., which gives him the time off he needs to coach, something he really appreciates.
Even though Stroeder didn’t play very long in the NBA and the pay isn’t very good in the CBA he was able to effectively invest the money he did make with his father’s help. So he and his wife live quite comfortably.
There was no plan for the Stroeders to “move back” to Port Townsend. John and Nancy - a Kansas native - made it their home base while he was finishing out his playing days.
“It’s just kind of grown on her,” Stroeder said about living on the peninsula. “She really loves the area. It’s not too crowded. It’s very beautiful with all the mountain ranges and Mt. Rainier and Seattle. She really likes the water.”
The two have no children. They do have a dog named Rosie. Stroeder counts the players on his team as his kids.
“I think they’re keeping me young,” he said. “That’s why I think I like to do it.”
Even though Stroeder had never dreamed about returning to live in his hometown it’s been a dream-like experience.
“I was on that fast-paced life, playing ball and doing the whole thing in the NBA and all over Europe and all over the place,” Stroeder said. “Now it’s nice to be kind of like everybody else. I had a lot of attention … and I just kinda like the quiet life now.”
That quiet life includes plenty of salt-water fishing, so much that Stroeder has become a sort of area expert and celebrity, enough so that his nickname has become Big Fish in the Port Townsend area.
For a few summers Stroeder would return to UM to work at Grizzly basketball camps. After a break of a few years he and his wife came back about five years ago, and Stroeder was amazed at the changes just on campus.
In the meantime he has stayed in touch by reading as much about Montana and the Grizzlies as he can online.
“I’m a Montana Grizzly through and through,” Stroeder said, adding that he couldn’t be more pleased with the life he’s led so far.
“My wife, I couldn’t ask for a better person,” he said. “You don’t hear a lot of people still married for 18 years. Hopefully we make it another 18.
“I don’t think I’d change anything, and it all started at Montana because those guys really helped me out a lot. I owe Montana a lot, I really do.”
