Just found out that strength legend Bill Starr passed yesterday at 77 years old.
He was writing about strength training for 50+ years, probably best known for the 5x5 routine from his book The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football that got high schoolers focused on “The Big Three” - squats, power cleans, and benching.
He was also the strength & conditioning coach for several NFL and college teams (actually one of the first NFL S&C coaches ever), was an editor for Strength and Health magazine, a national-level Olympic lifter, as well as mentoring Mark Rippetoe way back in the day.
Might not be a “recognized name” by bodybuilders, but Starr did a ton to teach lifters how to build a foundation of strength, and kept writing strength training articles into recent years.
I’m not exactly an avid historian of strength and conditioning, but when I was a kid and my da was teaching me to lift, his top 3 references were Dan John, Louie Simmons, and Bill Starr. I think one could say I was influenced by Starr as I built my football training around squats, bench, and power cleans.
I’ve moved on through different arenas of fitness since, but I think the foundation built as a teen - not of physical strength, but the understanding of training principles (regardless of disciple), commitment to the basics, importance of consistency - has stayed with me.
As one of the world's worst lurkers, I'll break my silence for this. I was really sad to read this. I never met the guy, but Starr was my biggest influence as a teen in the 90's. When it's time for my kids to pick up a bar, I'll teach them the same way.
It was only in the last couple months that I actually started searching out and reading some of Starr’s articles. I’d, of course, heard of him for a long time, and actually thought he was a football coach rather than a weightlifter for the longest, since my only reference was knowing he wrote “The Strongest Shall Survive”.
Some of his articles are here: billstarrr.blogspot
I remember reading his “Strongest Shall Survive” book that one of my jr high coached had. I bought my own copy several years later. I enjoyed his articles in the various magazines. I followed his principles for a long time and received great gains from them. He will be missed. RIP.