Former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman, local H.S. coach

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Obituary - Pittsburgh Steeler Joe Krupa. Defensive line, standing left to right: Ernie Stautner, Joe Krupa, Lou Michaels and in front kneeling is "Big Daddy" Lipscomb. Archived Friday, September 16, 2011 | Family Courtesy Photo

Updated: November 24, 2011 12:25AM

Joseph S. Krupa Sr. was a defensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the days when professional football players had to find side jobs to make ends meet.

In the off-season, Mr. Krupa, a Chicago native, worked at Harrison High School as a teacher and athletics coach. Despite his wall-of-muscle reputation, former students remember him as the kind of gym coach who’d catch them in mid-fall to keep them from hurting themselves.

“He was a very, very, very tough guy,” said Steelers owner Art Rooney Jr., whose draft picks were key to the Steelers’ domination of the NFL in the 1970s. “He was a defensive lineman. He played with Ernie Stautner, who was our Hall of Famer. They were both really strong, tough guys, and he was a really nice man, and a gentleman.”

Mr. Krupa — who wore No. 75 before Mean Joe Greene — was so well-liked, the Rooney family still kept in touch with him, decades after his 1955-1964 career with the team. They also sent him a tie tack with four diamonds for the team’s four Super Bowl victories between 1975 and 1980.

A member of the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, Mr. Krupa, 78, died Sept. 13 of a heart ailment at the University of Illinois Medical Center.

Like his five older siblings, he was born in the family home in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side. His parents, Stanislaw and Macjanna, were from Krakow. His father was a crane operator with a handshake so crushing, Rooney still remembered it, decades later. His mother, Mr. Krupa joked, was a “night secretary” — a janitress.

He grew up in the Five Holy Martyrs parish and learned some of the finer points of scrimmaging at Davis Playground. He wound up getting a scholarship to play football at Weber High School, which educated many Polish-American boys like Mr. Krupa.

He was an impressive physical specimen, jut-jawed and strong, said his daughter, Annette Strucinski.

“He was 6-3 and very, very chiseled. He had thin legs, but he was just solid, solid as a rock, and he had curly blond hair, and the prettiest blue eyes.”

Once he graduated from Weber, Purdue University offered him a four-year scholarship, and after the Boilermaker graduated in 1955, the Steelers drafted him.

“My dad was grateful to play for nine years, 110 consecutive games,” his daughter said.

“He started every game with the Steelers for nine years. He never missed a game, and he started every game at Purdue,” she said.

He made it to the Pro Bowl in 1963.

During his playing years, he and his first wife, Irene, raised their family in two cities. During football season, they were in Pittsburgh. The rest of the year, they lived in Oak Lawn. It meant a lot of snow-tired cross-country rides on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Suitcases and boxes filled their sedan. The kids napped on a makeshift car-bed: an ironing board.

“They didn’t get paid very much and they never had contracts,” Annette Strucinski said. “My dad would just shake Art Rooney’s hand and say ‘I’ll see you next season.’ ”

In the off-season, he coached and taught P.E., history and drivers’ ed at Harrison High, relatives said. Mr. Krupa earned a master’s degree in history at Loyola University to make him a more attractive teaching prospect.

“It was all about trying to make more money and provide for his family,” his daughter said.

After his pro ball career ended, he worked at Oak Park and River Forest High School. At 60, he retired from Proviso East, where he also taught history, driver’s ed, and coached football, relatives said.

Like many immigrants and their children, he venerated education. He told his own children: “You will go to college. There is no excuse.”

Mr. Krupa worked at training camps and as a scout for the Steelers. At one point, Rooney wanted him to check out a Midwestern prospect who was rumored to be not very intelligent.

But Mr. Krupa assured Rooney the youth just had a hearing impairment.

“I gave him my own personal IQ test,” Mr. Krupa told Rooney. “I took him to a nice restaurant. I told him, ‘Read the menu.’ ”

The boy successfully pronounced the word ‘rhubarb,’ Mr. Krupa told Rooney: “If he can read ‘rhubarb,’ he’s smart enough to play.”

The player wound up in the NFL, Rooney said.

Mr. Krupa and his first wife divorced in 1980. Later he married wife Connie and they settled in Riverside.

He enjoyed Polish fare including sauerkraut, pierogi and czernina (duck’s blood soup). He considered no Christmas complete without the breaking of the oplatek, a traditional wafer.

A coin collector, he liked to mark special occasions by giving people proof sets from the year they were born. Mr. Krupa loved watching shows about World War II.

His former student, Michael D. Gerhardt, remembered Mr. Krupa for his sheer strength.

Gerhardt, once captain of the Proviso East gymnastics team, said that when an athlete tripped and flew off the rings or the high bar, “He’d literally just grab you out of the air and put you back on your feet.”

He commanded respect, but not from fear, said another former Proviso East student, John Passarella, the assistant principal at Riverside Brookfield High School.

“There was a calmness about him, and when he walked in a room, there was a presence. He cared about you. When he spoke to you, you weren’t scared of him,” he said. As any good teacher knows, Passarella said: “Fear goes away — respect lasts.”

Mr. Krupa is also survived by his brothers, Chester and Steve; his sons, Joseph Jr. and Gary; his stepson, Michael Gaberik; six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

His funeral service was Saturday. He was buried wearing his Steelers tie, his NFL alumni jacket, and his Polish National Alliance pin. His family picked out a blue rosary for him to hold that matched his eyes.