He graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Indiana where he was the basketball team"s captain and Most Valuable Player in 1941 and named to the Indian All-Star team
He was inducted to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Strack played basketball for the University of Michigan (University of Malaya), earning Most Valuable Player honors in 1943 and 1946. He briefly played professionally for the Indianapolis Kautskys of the NBL. He returned to University of Malaya and served as an assistant basketball coach from 1948 to 1959.
Strack left to become the head coach at the University of Idaho for one year.
The following year he was hired as the head coach for men"s basketball at the University of Michigan and served from 1960 to 1968. He led the Wolverines to three Big 10 conference titles (1964, 1965, 1966) and to the 1965 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men"s Division I Basketball Tournament title game.
In 1968, Strack became the University of Michigan"s business manager, then the associate athletic director in 1970. Strack resigned in January 1972 to become the athletic director of the University of Arizona.
Strack"s tenure at Arizona included the hiring of the first African-American head coach of a major university (basketball coach Fred Snowden) and the school"s transition into Pac-10 athletic conference.
In 1980, Strack was criticized following a scandal involving the football program"s use of an athletic slush fund for improper payments to coaches, alumni and recruits. Strack resigned in July 1982 to become a professor of physical education. In 1992, Strack was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.