• Played football and basketball for the Golden Bears (1962-1966).
• Named Bears Rookie of the Year in 1962 and drafted by the Calgary Stampeders in 1965.
• Member of Bears football teams that were four-time WIFL champions and 1963 Golden Bowl winners.
• Director of athletics and intramurals at NAIT (1968-98).
• Senior executive member of the ACAC and builder for 20 years.

Good intentions are never enough. It is through daily actions carried out year after year that major goals are won. Irwin Strifler has lived his professional life, his career as an athlete, and his career as a builder following this belief. Irwin was an outstanding athlete at Victoria Composite High School, starting in football and basketball. It was his on-field performance during the 1958 and 1959 seasons with the Edmonton Wildcat Junior Football Team that attracted scouts from the US college system to watch him in action. They were impressed with what they saw, and in 1960, he was offered a full athletic scholarship to Oklahoma State University. While on this full scholarship, and in his second year in Oklahoma, he elected to play with Cameron Junior College (Lawton, Oklahoma) - an affiliate of Oklahoma State. It proved to be a wise decision. On December 19, 1961, his team won the Junior Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

However, Irwin missed home, family, friends and high school sweetheart, Joyce, whom he later married. He enrolled at the University of Alberta for the 1962-63 academic year. Over the next four seasons, he played both football and basketball for the Golden Bear teams. While a member of the football team, the Golden Bears won four consecutive WIFL championships, as well as the 1963 Golden Bowl—a challenge match between the best team in the east (Queen's Golden Gaels) and the best team in the west (U of A's Golden Bears). Irwin set records as a fullback, and was the Golden Bears' backup punter and quarterback. He was named Golden Bear Rookie of the Year in 1962 and in 1965 was drafted by the Calgary Stampeders, a team for which he played briefly until electing to pursue his career as a teacher, coach, and sports administrator.

1968 proved a landmark year for Irwin. He was appointed the Director of Athletics and Intramural Programs at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). It was a position he successfully occupied until his retirement in 1998. During those 30 years, he became the architect of one of Canada's most respected college athletic and intramural programs . Philosophically, Irwin Strifler stressed the importance of academic achievement over athletic success, and by actively demonstrating Irwin’s set of beliefs, NAIT emerged as a national leader. During this time, team: and individual athletes won 157 ACAC (Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference) gold medals, 12 CCAA (Canadian College Athletic Association) national team championships, and 17 individual gold medals. NAIT also won the CCAA Award of Excellence for a quarter of a century for Men's Ice Hockey Supremacy (7 national titles) - a rare recognition of excellence.

Irwin was also a builder of excellence in other ways. He played a major role in the development of the ACAC saving on its senior executive for 20 years - 8 years as secretary, 4 years as vice-president, and 8 years as president as well as serving 4 years as Executive Director (1998-2002). He was also a founding director of the 4-West Championships (the predecessor of the CCAA) and a founding member of the CCAA, on which he was Vice President. Irwin's commitment to the CCAA extended to the playing level. Under his leadership, NAIT hosted three CCAA badminton, two men's ice hockey, and one men's basketball championships. He served for 16 years as the convener for ACAC badminton, cross country running/skiing, golf, and curling championships and alternated as the chair of “Face-Off,” an annual competition between the U of A Golden Bears and the NAIT Ooks Men's Hockey teams.

Family and community were always an important part of Irwin's life. He coached minor league hockey and the Edmonton Wildcats (1968-1971), served on the Westmount Community league Executive Committee, was a volunteer for the 1978 Commonwealth Games and the 1983 Universiade Games, and during all this, found time to help his wife raise four children. NAIT recognized this outstanding leader in 2003 when they named him to their Wall of Fame. The University of Alberta is honoured and proud to add Irwin Strifler's name to their list of outstanding athletes and builders of sport programs.