Hank Stram
Stram from the 1955 Purdue yearbook
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| Position: | Back |
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| Personal information | |
| Birth name: | Henry Louis Stram |
| Date of birth: | January 3, 1923 |
| Place of birth: | Chicago, Illinois |
| Date of death: | July 4, 2005 (aged 82) |
| Place of death: | Covington, Louisiana |
| Career information | |
| High school: | Gary (IN) Wallace |
| College: | Purdue |
| Undrafted: | 1948 |
| Career history | |
| As coach: | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Head coaching record | |
| Regular season: | 131–97-10 (.571) |
| Postseason: | 5–3 (.625) |
| Career: | 136–100-10 (.573) |
| Coaching stats at PFR | |
Henry Louis "Hank" Stram (/ˈstræm/; January 3, 1923 – July 4, 2005) was an American football coach. He is best known for his 15-year tenure with the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL).
Stram won three AFL championships, more than any other coach in the league's history. He then won Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs, thus earning the 1969 World Championship of Professional Football. He also coached the most victories (87), had the most post-season games (7) and the best post-season record in the AFL (5–2). Stram is largely responsible for the introduction of Gatorade to the NFL due to his close association with Ray Graves, coach at the University of Florida during Gatorade's development and infancy. Stram never had an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, or special teams coach during his career with the Texans and Chiefs.
Stram was born in Chicago in 1923. His Polish-born father, Henry Wilczek, wrestled professionally under the name Stram and the family name was changed accordingly. He later grew up in Gary, Indiana, and graduated from Lew Wallace High School class of 1941.(The football stadium press box was renamed after him in his honor.) He earned seven letters playing football and baseball and joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity at Purdue in the 1940s, playing in 1942 and again in 1946 and 1947. Stram served in the US military during World War II interrupting his university career.
He was an assistant football coach for the Boilermakers from 1948 to 1955 and the head baseball coach from 1951 to 1955. In 1996, Stram and Len Dawson were inducted into the Purdue Athletic Hall of Fame. After coaching at Purdue, Stram was an assistant at Notre Dame, Southern Methodist University, and Miami.
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