Joseph Coy, Jr. had backpacked and bicycled his way over a good bit of Europe in several different trips.

When a school friend asked him to be in his wedding in California he went by train and took his bicycle along, intending to get off at various cities and do a little sightseeing. Sunday as he was cycling on a road near Lake Tahoe, he was struck by a car. He died yesterday at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nev., without regaining consciousness.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Independence Methodist Church, 6615 Brecksville Rd.

Mr. Coy, 29, of Independence, became physical director of the West Side WMCA in Ohio City last month. For the previous four years he was youth and physical director of Southern Hills YMCA in Brecksville.

He played varsity football at Mayfield High School and Ohio Wesleyan University, where he also was a varsity wrestler. After graduating in 1973 with a degree in English he went into the Peace Corps in the Philippine Islands.

Mr. Coy sang in the choir at Independence Church, played on the baseball team and was a member of the Young Couples Club. At college he had belonged to Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.

His mother, Betty, is a teacher in Mayfield, and his father, Joseph, is a Cleveland lawyer. Also surviving are brothers William, a television reporter in Greensboro, N.C. and Thomas; and his grandmother, Elizabeth Corbeau of Largo, Fla.

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 27, 1980;