The story behind the TCU coach who turned in his own team to the NCAA
Kenneth Davis shed more tears than he cares to admit 37 years ago when he was told he was being suspended from TCU‘s football team.
He may shed a few more tears Saturday, tears of joy, when he sees his alma mater playing the kind of high-stakes game he and his teammates dreamed about before the unthinkable happened.
Just prior to the second game of the 1985 season, a season filled with promise for the Horned Frogs, TCU coach Jim Wacker turned in his own team to the NCAA after learning that several players, including Davis, had been accepting illegal payments from boosters. Davis was coming off a season in which he had finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting after rushing for 1,611 yards and scoring 17 touchdowns.
“Yep, the same thing that’s legal now,” Davis told ESPN, referencing NIL. “It was devastating. I just cried and couldn’t quit crying. I think today that I’m still not over it because there was so much we could have done and would have done. They just brushed us out of there for what everybody else was doing in the Southwest Conference back then. And I mean everybody, a lot of it much worse at other schools.
“We didn’t set up any of it. The boosters set it up. They came to us. What kid isn’t going to accept that money if they’re offering it to you, especially the kids coming from tougher backgrounds?
“It was a hard time, not just for us, but for a lot of people who loved TCU.”
As dark as those days were for Davis and the Frog Nation, he said it would all be worth it to see TCU beat Michigan on Saturday in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, then finish off this dream season with a victory in the national championship game Jan. 9.
“They get a chance to do what I always wanted to do, to win a national championship, and maybe this is finally our time,” Davis said. “I’ll always wonder what we could have done because we had the right players, the right coaches, the right team, the right everything.”
They also had a head coach who was anything but conventional. He was deeply committed to doing what he felt was the right thing — even if that meant dropping a dime on his own team.
“Not many coaches would have done that, then or now,” said former TCU athletic director Frank Windegger, who will turn 89 next month. “What a hard decision, but the right decision despite everything we had to dig out of after that. It was a different time in college football. But Jim was determined to stand by what he had been preaching, that we weren’t going to try to win games by breaking the rules.”
Wacker, the son of a Lutheran preacher, died in 2003 at the age of 66 from cancer. Those closest to him said he was tormented by the aftermath of the scandal, but not by his actions.
“Dad never regretted his decision to do what he did because that decision had already been made,” said oldest son Mike Wacker, who played basketball at Texas and coached basketball for 37 years, recently retiring from Texas Lutheran University. “The last thing he was going to be was a hypocrite. He had said very publicly that he wasn’t going to buy players. He didn’t say it once. He said it a million times. He genuinely believed they could win at TCU without cheating.
“What Dad did regret was how much that decision adversely impacted so many people’s lives. He never wanted that to happen.”
Seven players were suspended, some of whom may have had potential pro careers stunted, and there was shame and embarrassment across the board at TCU. All after Wacker, who had come to the school from the NAIA and Division II ranks, had revived a moribund program that had 16 losing seasons in the previous 17 years before his arrival.
Tom Mueller was Wacker’s defensive coordinator and worked with him for 21 years. To this day, Mueller believes some people in the upper administration at TCU failed Wacker because they weren’t completely truthful with him when he took the job about whether players were getting paid.
“There was a meeting, and he looked the people in that room right in the eyes and said, ‘I need to know if we’re cheating because that’s not the way we’re going to do it. We’re going to do it the right way,'” Mueller recounted. “Maybe Jim was naive, but he believed you could win without cheating and was assured that wouldn’t be the case while he was the coach.”
Those close to Wacker, who was the eternal optimist with his catch phrases like “Unbeleev-able,” said he was surprised and disappointed by how harshly the NCAA penalized TCU even with Wacker being so cooperative. Wacker was insistent on turning over all the information the school uncovered from a payment plan that had been launched by boosters, including trustee Dick Lowe, before Wacker was hired. Lowe, a Texas oil man, died in 2020. He told the Orange County Register in 2010 that the payments were “stupid” and were born out of frustration because “everybody else was doing it and we were getting our asses kicked.”
Much to Wacker’s chagrin, the NCAA hardly took it easy on TCU, which was hit with a one-year bowl ban, the loss of 35 scholarships over two years and the forfeiture of its 1983 and 1984 television revenue. Those sanctions were a precursor to SMU receiving the so-called death penalty because of recruiting violations. The Mustangs had to shut down their program in 1987 and 1988. The sanctions against the two schools were part of a series of events that in many ways were the beginning of the end of the Southwest Conference.
“Jim went as far as to find out when NCAA investigators were coming to town and would send a car to pick them up at the airport,” said Bob DeBesse, TCU’s quarterbacks coach at the time. “Jim just felt by doing the right thing, calling the NCAA and handing over everything, that the NCAA would also do the right thing. But, no, it was just the opposite.
“We always said that SMU got the death penalty, but that we got life because we had to keep playing through impossible sanctions.”
In a flash, all the momentum of the TCU football program was gone. The Horned Frogs went 8-4 in 1984 and played in their first bowl game in 19 years. But over the next eight years, they would have just one winning season. It was 15 more years before they would make it back into the AP Top 25. And with the Southwest Conference’s demise on the horizon, TCU ended up bouncing around from one conference to another (WAC, Conference USA and Mountain West) until finally latching on with the Big 12 in 2012.
Davis, who played nine seasons in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills, has talked very little publicly over the years about the way it ended for him at TCU. The same goes for the other six players suspended for taking cash from boosters: Marvin Foster, Gary Spann, Gerald Taylor, Egypt Allen, Darron Turner and Ron Zell Brewer, who died in 2010.
“What happened happened, and there was a lot of anger over it at the time, but we’re all still Frogs,” said Davis. “A lot of the guys from that team keep in touch.”
Kevin Dean was a defensive end on the 1985 team and has remained close with Davis and some of the others who were suspended.
“Some people say they were suspended. I’d say they were more sacrificial lambs,” said Dean, who organizes get-togethers to watch some of the TCU games on television in the Dallas area. “Those guys paid a heavy price, but they’re not bitter. What happened in the past doesn’t define you, and TCU as a university didn’t turn its back on them. Most of them got degrees, and they’ve all been very successful.”
As the SMU investigation heated up in 1985 — and with Texas A&M and Houston also in the NCAA’s crosshairs — the NCAA got word that something might be going on at TCU after talking to other coaches and recruits, and informed TCU officials that it was coming to campus to take a look.
Wacker had already angered some fellow Southwest Conference coaches by sending out a letter soon after he took the job imploring them to clean up their acts in recruiting. Part of that letter, dated March 3, 1983, read: “The major violations — the blatant buying of athletes — is what must come to an end, or we will self-destruct before it is all over. At TCU, we did control our alumni this past recruiting season. We did not buy one athlete. It can be done if we let the alumni know that we will personally turn them in to the NCAA if they are involved in any illegal recruiting practices.”
Mike Wacker said one thing his father regretted was sending that letter because it immediately turned off other coaches in the conference and painted him as holier-than-thou even though that was not his intention.
“I think it became: ‘Who is this guy from Southwest Texas State, a Division II school, coming in here and telling us what we should be doing?'” Mike Wacker said. “That’s one he wished he could have back.”
The letter sparked a well-documented feud between Wacker and then-Texas A&M coach Jackie Sherrill, who called for an onside kick in the fourth quarter in a 53-6 rout of TCU at Fort Worth in the final game of the 1985 season. The following year, Sherrill had the Aggies go for a 2-point conversion late in a 74-10 rout of the depleted Horned Frogs.
Two years after writing that letter, Wacker’s worst fears came true. It was the Thursday before the trip to Kansas State in Week 2 of the 1985 season, and Wacker had given his team an impassioned speech about how proud he was that TCU was having success without cheating. He knew the NCAA was about to pay a visit to campus and wanted to make sure he had nothing to hide.
“Coach was convinced that any payments that had been going on before he got there had stopped, and in his mind, we were an open book for the NCAA and anybody else,” said David Rascoe, the quarterback on that 1985 team. “He was exactly who he said he was, nothing fraudulent about him.”
Tom Perry was the TCU running backs coach. He suspected that some players on the team might be getting money from boosters simply by looking at their cars, expensive boots and jewelry.
When Wacker quizzed his assistant coaches that Thursday about whether players were receiving extra benefits, Perry found himself in an impossible situation. He said he was one of two assistants in the room to raise his hand when asked by Wacker if there was reason to believe that boosters were still paying players.
Later that day, Davis met with Perry and asked if there was any way Wacker would know if players were indeed getting paid. That’s when Perry went to Wacker with the bad news.
“He just kept saying, ‘Why did you have to tell me? Why did you have to tell me?'” Perry recalled. “I know he was hurting because of how outspoken he had been that we weren’t cheating, and I don’t think Jim was complicit in any way. But I was doing what he’d asked us to do. So, yes, I was pissed at the way he reacted. I just think he was one of those guys who always thought the best of everybody. He was that naive, like he’d just fallen off the turnip truck.”
One by one, the players involved admitted they had been taking money from boosters. Six players were suspended late that Thursday night. Wacker went to meet with the chancellor, called the NCAA and conference officials and also alerted some in the media.
Longtime Dallas television personality Dale Hansen broke the story and remembers interviewing Wacker sometime around midnight on campus after doing his newscast that evening.
“There were some in the media who thought Jim was a fraud, but my argument, and I still stand by this, is that Jim knew they were getting paid when he took the job because everybody in the Southwest Conference was getting paid,” Hansen said. “But Jim also made it very clear to everybody at TCU, ‘From this day forward, it stops.'”
Hansen was doing a regular TV show back then with former Dallas Cowboys receiver Butch Johnson, and they showed a clip from Wacker’s introductory news conference where he said, “Wacker don’t cheat and Wacker don’t pay.”
Johnson looked at Hansen on the air and quipped, “Well, Wacker ain’t winning no football games.”
Gil LeBreton was a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram during that time and was on the team’s charter flight to Kansas State. He said TCU and Wacker wanted to be as transparent as possible and offered the seat.
“It was awful, like being on a flying funeral procession,” LeBreton said. “You could hear players just openly bawling and crying with their heads down in their laps. Their faces were red, like they’d been up all night. It was a surreal scene.”
Somehow, TCU won the game, and the Star-Telegram’s headline the next day read: TCU wins anyway.
The number of suspended players grew to seven after the Kansas State game when Brewer admitted that he, too, had been taking money.
“He felt badly for his teammates and didn’t want them to fall on the sword for something he knew he was also doing,” Dean said. “That tells you a lot about him and a lot about the brotherhood on that team.”
Wacker had his supporters on campus after disclosing the violations, particularly among students. A group of them held up “Wacker Backer” signs in the stands of home games. But not everyone was onboard with Wacker’s decision, particularly some of the more prominent power brokers. That was never more apparent than in 1991, the final year of Wacker’s contract, when he guided the Frogs to a 7-4 finish after they struggled through six straight losing seasons.
“We had [officials from] several bowls in attendance at our last game and knew we were going to one of them after we beat David Klingler and Houston in a great game,” Mueller said. “We’re all standing around in the locker room waiting to see where we were going, and Jim gets the call telling him the administration had declined a bowl bid. It was obvious Jim no longer had the support he needed. He didn’t want to leave TCU, but Minnesota came after him and he knew the time was right to leave.”
Wacker coached at Minnesota from 1992 to 1996, resigning after five losing seasons.
Davis said he rarely talked with Wacker after leaving TCU, although Davis said he doesn’t begrudge his former coach for going to the NCAA.
“It was his job to do what he did and to protect the team, and that’s what he did,” Davis said. “I understand and respect him for that. I don’t have nothing against him.”
Perry never coached college football again after leaving TCU, but went on to earn a doctorate degree. He hopes what people remember most from that time is the way Wacker came in and turned around the program and “did it his way by getting kids to believe.”
Mike Wacker said his dad will undoubtedly be smiling down from above when the ball is kicked off Saturday afternoon.
“He’d love this team,” Mike Wacker said. “And you know how he loved crazy things, all the rhyming and joking around and coming up with nicknames.
“The thing he’d really love is the Hypnotoad thing.”
“We know it hasn’t always been easy for TCU, and that’s going back a long way,” current TCU quarterback and Heisman finalist Max Duggan said. “There’s been a lot of tough times, so we’re playing for those guys and those teams as much as we are for anybody.”
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Kristen Shilton
Dylan Strome can’t stop outdoing himself. And that’s a good thing — for Strome, and the Washington Capitals.
Strome is the Capitals’ leading scorer (with 12 goals and 46 points in 49 games) and is on pace to put up a third consecutive career-best season. Washington’s top-line center has been a backbone to the club’s surprising success and helped carry the Capitals through their challenging stretches.
The 27-year-old stepped up offensively when frequent linemate Alex Ovechkin was sidelined five weeks because of a fractured fibula, notching five goals and 10 points while shouldering 18:24 of ice time per game. And he has been markedly consistent in his production, with a recent six-game pointless streak the only real “drought” to date.
But Strome doesn’t need to be on the scoresheet to have an impact. What he does well — at 5-on-5 and the power play — is reflected in a strong 200-foot game that has elevated the Capitals into Stanley Cup contenders. If that reality caught anyone around the league off guard, well, let’s just say Strome knew Washington was something special — and that eventually, he’d prove to (former) doubters that he is, too.
DYLAN STROME LEAVES quite an impression. And not just on the ice.
Conor Sheary recalls the early days around his former Capitals teammate with a hearty laugh over Strome’s puzzling — but undeniably infectious — personality.
“My first thoughts on Dylan? That’s a loaded question,” Sheary said. “I think with his appearance, he comes off like a pretty goofy kid. He’s always in a good mood. He almost seems lazy at times, just because he’s kind of laid back and just doing his own thing.
“But then he goes into a game and is the ultimate teammate. It’s crazy. He’s someone who just fits in right away, and guys want to be around him.”
Alex DeBrincat recalled a similar interaction with Strome when he arrived to the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters — and swiftly discovered Strome’s magnetism.
“He was the guy who really welcomed me in and made me feel comfortable,” DeBrincat said. “During [training] camp, a lot of the guys would go over to his house and Stromer invited me to hang out there too with some of the older guys. He’s pretty goofy, always trying to have a good time. He runs with that and makes the most of everything. We just clicked right away.”
The pairing of DeBrincat and Strome on a line — which included Connor McDavid — led them to scorching the OHL in seasons to come. It wouldn’t be the only team on which Strome and DeBrincat found quick chemistry, either (but more on that later).
It was Strome’s reputation as a happy-go-lucky kid that preceded him to the NHL draft floor in 2015, where the Arizona Coyotes called his name with the third pick. The walk on stage that followed — with the hand shaking and the jersey acceptance and a wide-toothed grin at the cameras — was Strome taking his first steps onto an unexpected roller coaster that would jostle him through the next handful of years.
That wasn’t exactly the plan.
Strome, now 27, entered the league as a highly touted prospect who had just won the 2015 OHL scoring title with 129 points (he narrowly topped linemate McDavid, who was limited to just 47 games because of injury but still scored 120 points). The idea was for Strome to become a pillar of the Coyotes franchise.
Instead, he skated in just 48 games for Arizona over three seasons, accumulating only seven goals and 16 points before being traded in November 2018 to the Chicago Blackhawks. A tumultuous tenure there ended acrimoniously, and pushed Strome to the Capitals — the comfortable landing spot for Strome that he’d given DeBrincat a decade before in Erie.
It hasn’t been easy. But for better or worse, Strome is convinced he’s just getting started.
“You’re never going to completely shed [certain] labels and you’re always going to be drafted where you were drafted. I think that’s always going to be part of my hockey story,” Strome said. “It didn’t work out in Arizona. I thought it was going really well in Chicago until I hit a few speed bumps in the road.
“But then you get to Washington, and [in hindsight] those other places prepared me to be a good player on a good team. And I feel like that’s where I’m at now, where I’m trying to produce on a good team. And so far, it’s been fun.”
Fun, and then some. It was a long time coming.
STROME IS HARDWIRED to see the good.
It’s how he got through those early years being labeled a “bust” on whom the rebuilding Coyotes had wasted their coveted third overall selection. There was no escaping such narratives while Strome was struggling, shuffled between the NHL and American Hockey League when his peers were thriving in their own locales; McDavid, No. 2 pick Jack Eichel and No. 5 pick Noah Hanifin transitioned right to the NHL, while No. 4 pick Mitch Marner debuted in the NHL a season later.
“When you see guys around you doing so well and even playing [at all] in the NHL, yeah, it’s in your mind that you don’t want to be the guy that was drafted high and never made it or never played,” Strome said. “You never know if you’ll find your [place] and if the rest of that stuff and that talk will ever go away.”
The conversation around Strome hit a fever pitch when Arizona traded him and Brendan Perlini to Chicago for Nick Schmaltz after Strome had appeared in 20 games in the 2018-19 season. It was an initially positive switch for Strome when he was reunited on a line with former Otters’ teammate DeBrincat along with Patrick Kane — and broke out with the best numbers of his career to that point (17 goals and 51 points in 58 games).
Strome produced well in Chicago over the next two years as well — notching 21 goals and 55 points in 98 outings — and signed a two-year, $6 million contract extension in January 2021.
Then the wheels began to fall off.
The Blackhawks endured a brutal start to the 2021-22 season, going 1-9-2 and seeing coach Jeremy Colliton fired. Strome was a healthy scratch in seven of Chicago’s first 11 games, and it wasn’t until Colliton was out — and interim head coach Derek King stepped in — that Strome was back in a top-six position. But the previous benching had taken its toll.
“I feel like when you’re drafted high, you get a little longer leash and people know that the skill is there and it’s in you to play well,” Strome said. “So then when there are times where you haven’t played in five games and then you go in and you don’t play very well and then you’re out again and suddenly it’s like, ‘When’s the next time you’re even going to play again?’
“I always believed in myself, but you question, ‘What’s going to happen here?’ You think to yourself, ‘How long can I do this for? How long are they going to allow me to do this for?'”
King could see the strain on Strome when he took over from Colliton. The goofiness that defined Strome to others was kept well hidden — at first — by the player’s determination to be taken seriously.
“He put his nose to the grindstone and said, ‘I can do this and I’m going to do it,’ and he just worked hard,” King said. “I knew how good he was. I wanted to get him in and get him playing. When it was game time he would knuckle down, and he took advantage when he got his chance.”
Strome admits he didn’t walk through those rough patches alone. Reaching out for support kept the frustration and doubts from boiling over.
“When you get home after you’ve been a scratch, it’s easy to be disappointed,” Strome said. “My dad was someone I talked to every day about situations, and he was just trying to keep me positive and realizing chances are going to come. Family was the biggest factor in getting through that, but I also had a few good friends on the team, too, like DeBrincat and Kaner, that were there for me in tough times, and I’ll always be thankful for that.”
King had Strome back with his two favorite linemates so they could flourish like before — “those three always saw the game the same way,” King said — and it was a further testament to Strome’s tenacity that he could slide right back into a productive role despite inconsistent ice time.
“There was a lot of not wanting to be very positive,” Strome said. “But I was just sticking with it. I know it’s kind of cliche, but just trying to trust yourself and trust your skills so that when you do get back in you’re going to find a way to help the team win.
“It was actually a game here [in Toronto] that brought me back, I thought. I was scratched the night before, then got moved up to the first line for [the Toronto game], and then just tried to ride with it for the rest of the season from there. Sometimes all you need is that one little jump to get you going.”
Strome finished the season fourth on the Blackhawks with 22 goals and 48 points in 69 games. DeBrincat was a key figure in Strome’s flourishing on the ice, but more than that he provided a backbone of friendship to boost Strome’s spirits during one of his career’s hardest stretches.
“When you’re going to the rink and things aren’t necessarily going your way, it’s hard to keep that [positive] energy, but I tried to keep things light and just be there for him,” DeBrincat said. “I knew he was a great player, and he did have a tough time in Chicago that last year, but once he was playing every game, he was right back to his old self. And I think you saw him creating plays and creating offense like that every night. When he gets his opportunities, he proves he can really play well.”
The front office had apparently seen enough, though. Strome was an impending restricted free agent in summer 2022, and when it came time to receive a qualifying offer from the Blackhawks, one never came. Suddenly, he was a unrestricted free agent with an uncertain future.
Two days into free agency, he signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Capitals. It was a club Strome thought would have his back.
“I feel like it’s important in hockey that whenever you get a chance to try to take the ball you’ve got to run with it,” he said. “When a team or a coach or GM or just someone believes in you, you’ve really got to try to ride that as long as you can and hopefully get a contract and show them you can produce.”
Washington wouldn’t wait long for a significant return on their investment.
SHEARY WILL FREELY ADMIT now he knew nothing about Strome — player or person — before they were Capitals teammates.
And like so many modern relationships, it was social media that introduced them before they connected in real life.
“It was our wives,” Sheary said. “They noticed we had daughters the same age [Strome has two kids with wife Taylor; Sheary has three with wife Jordan], and they connected on Instagram. So we were virtual friends, and then after [Strome arrived in town], naturally we started hanging out with them a lot.
“It seemed pretty natural. We just had a lot in common. And then we started to play together on the ice, too, which only brought us closer.”
The early synergy with Sheary mirrored an equally easy transition into Washington’s lineup. The Capitals let Strome loose in a top-six role, and he put up a career-best season in 2022-23 with 23 goals and 65 points in 81 games. It was the most Strome had ever played in one NHL season, and the production wasn’t a surprise given his penchant for taking advantage of opportunities.
“Honestly, it just helps when you get a good opportunity to play every night. I was having fun again,” Strome said of his first season with the Capitals. “You’re playing good minutes and on the power play and you’re trying to help the team win. I think a lot of things meshed together at the right time for me and it was good.”
“He’s an incredibly smart hockey player,” Sheary added. “He’s got great vision, he’s an incredible playmaker and he’s really strong on his stick; he rarely misses a pass. And those kind of things add up throughout a game where, if you can just get it in his area, and he’s able to handle it or make a play, it’s pretty impressive, and his poise with the puck when he does get it, is something that you can’t really teach.”
The stronger Strome’s game became, the more he distanced himself from that portrait of a failed draft pick. Sheary couldn’t relate to Strome on that level — he was undrafted — but the veteran has been around long enough to know how pressure can make or break even the top-tier skaters.
“When you’re an 18-year-old kid and you come in as a third overall pick, the expectation is immediate, and if that’s not met, sometimes I feel like that can hurt a player,” Sheary said. “But I think once Dylan moved on to Chicago, he became more of a player that he wanted to be. And then when he moved on to Washington, he was able to flourish in a bigger role, and he started playing on the top couple lines, and he proved that he could do that, night in and night out.
“He’s grown more into the player he was expected to be right away, but sometimes that takes some time. I think he just finally came into his own once he came to Washington.”
And how. Strome is aging like a fine wine with the Capitals, setting new benchmarks year over year that have served in propelling Washington atop the NHL standings midway through this season. Strome paces the Capitals in points since arriving with Washington to start the 2022-23 season (with 178 in 209 games) and is second in goals only to — you might have guessed — Alex Ovechkin.
Strome has been a regular linemate of Ovechkin’s, too — a privilege he holds in the proper perspective.
“It’s been an honor to play on his line,” Strome said. “I mean, you see how serious he is, but also how much fun he has. The guy loves scoring goals more than anyone I’ve ever seen, but he also loves being on the ice when someone else scores a goal more than I’ve ever seen. He wants you to score. He wants to score. He wants to be on the ice in key situations, and he wants to shoot the puck and he wants to get open. That’s a good combination to have.”
0:17
Alex Ovechkin scores his 872nd career goal to increase Caps’ lead
Alex Ovechkin nets his 872nd career goal and is 23 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record.
The lift from Ovechkin is only part of why Strome might now be in his greatest season yet, having collected 12 goals and 46 points through 46 games. He’d been centering a line with Ovechkin and Aliaksei Protas when Ovechkin fractured his fibula in mid-November. It was then on Strome to be a crucial piece of propping up the Capitals’ attack — with six goals and 13 points — while the team’s captain sat out for five weeks.
Washington coach Spencer Carbery suspected Strome would step up in Ovechkin’s absence. It falls in line with the “ultra competitive” player Carbery met when he joined the Capitals.
“A lot of people wrote him off early in his career, whether it was in Arizona or Chicago, and he’s continued to press forward and want to get better and better and better,” Carbery said. “[He’s] not just settling into, ‘Well, I’m just going to be an OK player in the National Hockey League.’ He’s still trying to get better and still trying to push the envelope to become an elite player in the NHL and be a top center, and he’s continued to prove it. And now I think this is his third year in a row where he’s trending to be a better player than he was the year before. And you see that at times, but it’s pretty rare.”
It also hasn’t come by accident. Strome has put in the work behind the scenes to become this version of an NHL player.
And, if Sheary is correct, it’ll shift Strome into another chapter of his life, too, when it’s time to hang up the skates:
“I always joke that he’s going to be a GM someday.”
MOST PEOPLE REFUSE to take the office home at night. Strome is not one of those folks.
“He’s a big-time hockey nerd,” Sheary said. “In Wash, we were all fascinated by his hockey knowledge. He can spit anyone’s statistics without even looking them up. He loves knowing that stuff, knowing points and goals, which was pretty intriguing. I’ve never seen someone know so much about the game of hockey.”
The obsession likely started early for Strome given his family’s hockey lineage — Strome’s older brother, Ryan, plays for the Anaheim Ducks and his younger brother Matthew was a fourth-round pick by Philadelphia in 2017. Staying curious about the game appears to be part of Strome’s DNA. And his dream was larger than just making the league; he wanted staying power. And never gave up on finding it.
“I think I’m pretty close to what I thought I would be as a player,” Strome said. “It took a little longer than I thought to be a guy that’s consistently in the lineup every day. I am more of a pass-first guy. I do try to be a good teammate. But I also feel like that’s what I thought I could do the best in the NHL and now it looks pretty close to what I’ve become.”
There’s just one thing missing for Strome now — and the Capitals are on track to check it off his list this spring: a real run at contending for a Stanley Cup.
If the league-leading Capitals can reach that level, it will be with Strome at the forefront. After years of searching for it, he has found a home in Washington. And now more than ever, there’s no place like it.
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