Robert Stroh, who started high school wrestling programs at Hartford Public and Glastonbury, has died at the age of 86. He was also a long-time official.
Robert Stroh, who grew up in West Hartford and started wrestling programs at Glastonbury High and Hartford Public before becoming a long-time official, passed away recently at the age of 86 on April 11.
Stroh was around wrestling for much of his life. He wrestled at New York Military Academy in high school before attending Kansas State University, where he earned a spot in the Wildcat wrestling program.
According to his daughter Melissa and his obituary, an injury led Stroh to return to Connecticut where he attended and graduated from the University of Hartford. Stroh wrestled on the Hawks club team and their first varsity team in 1962-63, serving as the team’s co-captain.
After graduating from Hartford, he started a wrestling program in Glastonbury. After two years, he got a job at Hartford Public and started another wrestling program in Hartford.
He also spent one year back at the University of Hartford, serving as the wrestling coach for the 1965-66 season. The Hawks job was a part-time position so he coached at Hartford Public as well.
Wrestling at Hartford Public got Stroh’s full attention and from 1966 through 1975 and his Owls team never had a losing season, according to his biography with the Hartford Public Athletic Hall of Fame.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Connecticut high school wrestling was in its infancy. The State Open was the lone state-wide championship meet at that time and Stroh’s Owls finished in the top 10 seven times in nine years from 1966 through 1974. Their best finishes were a pair of sixth place finishes in 1967 and 1968.
At that time, there were regional qualifying meets to get to the State Open and Hartford Public won the Central Sectional championship twice in 1969 and 1970, according to the Hartford Public yearbooks. Three of his Owls wrestlers won State Open championships with John Daniels winning twice. Daniels was named All-American by Wrestling USA magazine in 1976.
Stroh was the head coach for one year at Trinity College in 1976-77. After that, Stroh’s focus in wrestling was an official and he officiated for many years. He was honored in 1988 by the Connecticut State Board of Wrestling Officials.
An English and reading teacher in Hartford, Stroh also was an long-time assistant to Lindy Remigino with the outdoor track and field program
Stroh was inducted into the Hartford Public Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. While the Glastonbury program still exists today, the Hartford Public program ended after the 2009 season — the last of the three public high schools in Hartford to end their wrestling programs.
He leaves his children, Jennifer Stroh Dunn and her husband Mick Dunn of South Windsor, Melissa Stroh of South Windsor, and Jason Stroh and his wife Christine of Walnut Creek, CA; his former wife and friend Kathleen Stroh of South Windsor; and seven grandchildren.
You can leave an online condolence at his obituary.
