Freddie Joe Steinmark

Freddie Joe Steinmark
Texas Longhorns
Position Safety
Career history
College
High school Wheat Ridge High School
Personal information
Date of birth (1949-01-27)January 27, 1949
Place of birth Denver, Colorado
Date of death June 6, 1971(1971-06-06) (aged 22)
Place of death Houston, Texas
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight 165 lb (75 kg)
Career highlights and awards
  • National Champion (1969)

Freddie Steinmark (January 27, 1949 – June 6, 1971) was an American college football player. He played at the position of safety for the University of Texas Longhorns.[1]

Football Career

Steinmark was a member of the 1969 Texas Longhorns football team, who won a national championship.

Two days after his performance on a painful left leg against the 1969 Arkansas Razorbacks football team in the "Game of the Century", played on December 6, 1969 and won by Texas, 15–14, x-rays revealed a bone tumor just above his left knee. A biopsy confirmed the tumor was malignant osteogenic sarcoma, and he was treated at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. On December 12, 1969 his leg was amputated at the hip.[2]

Twenty days later, he stood on the sideline with his team as Texas defeated Notre Dame in the 1970 Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year's Day. Steinmark's fight against cancer inspired the United States Congress to write the National Cancer Act of 1971 and President Richard Nixon to sign it into law, thus beginning the "War on Cancer".

Autobiography

In 1971, with the help of Dallas Times Herald sports editor, Blackie Sherrod, Steinmark wrote and published his autobiography I Play to Win.[3] The book was published posthumously, almost 3 months after Steinmark's death. Steinmark is the subject of the 2015 movie My All American, and a coinciding biography Freddie Steinmark: Faith, Family, Football, published by the University of Texas Press (September 1, 2015).[4] Steinmark died on June 6, 1971 at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston, surrounded by friends and family. [5]

Legacy

In a pregame ceremony prior to UT's game with the University of Miami on September 23, 1972, the scoreboard at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was dedicated to Freddie Steinmark. The current version of the Freddie Steinmark scoreboard, nicknamed Godzillatron, stands forty-seven-feet high.[6]

On November 7, 2015, the UT Longhorns rededicated the scoreboard to Steinmark in a ceremony attended by the Steinmark family and many previous Longhorn players.[7] The Longhorns wore throwback uniforms similar to those worn by the 1969 squad for their game against the Kansas Jayhawks, removing the "Texas" wordmark from the front of the jerseys, the TV numerals from the shoulder pads, and names from the back.[8] The helmets featured the decal for college football's centennial, which was celebrated in 1969.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Yousse, Bower; Cryan, Thomas J. (1 September 2015). Freddie Steinmark: Faith, Family, Football. University of Texas Press.
  2. ↑ Eldon S. Branda, "STEINMARK, FREDDIE JOE," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 19, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
  3. ↑ Little Brown & Company (September 1971) ISBN 978-0316812504.
  4. ↑ Yousse, Bower and Cryan, Thomas J. Freddie Steinmark: Faith, Family, Football University of Texas Press ISBN 978-1-4773-0821-9.
  5. ↑ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fst32
  6. ↑ TexasSports.com, Freddie Steinmark Scoreboard .
  7. ↑ "Texas Longhorns football re-dedicates Freddie Steinmark Scoreboard". 8 November 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  8. 1 2 Texas dons throwback uniforms
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