Bill Starr Passed Away


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.

Thanks for posting this, Chris

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

Sad to see him go.

My thoughts are with his family,

But as long as weights are used to get better at sports, Starr’s legacy will live on!

Oh boy. Rest in peace. Every few months I’d check on him and be astonished that he’s still around. Not anymore I guess :confused:

Even before I found this site, I stumbled upon one of his 5x5 templates … tremendous influence in my interest in lifting.

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.