TODAYS NOTABLE TEXAN FREDDIE STEINMARK NOTE: This is my final posting on Native Texans My future posting can be viewed on my Everybody Loves Texas Facebook page. Freddie Joe Steinmark (1949–1971) was a University of Texas football player who became a national symbol of courage and determination, was born on January 27, 1949, in Denver, Colorado. Freddie had an early introduction to football, playing during his elementary and junior high school years and at Wheat Ridge High School. He lettered in football, baseball, and basketball; throughout his entire sports career. He was a valuable addition to the Texas Longhorn team and played defensive back on the freshman team and started in that position on the varsity during his sophomore and junior years. As a sophomore he was the teams leading punt returner and was named an All-Southwest Conference athlete-scholar while majoring in chemical engineering. In 1969, when Texas and Arkansas were ranked first and second teams in the nation coming into the season’s final game in Fayetteville. This game has come to be called the Big Shootout, and it gave the national championship to the Texas Longhorns. Six days later Steinmark was hospitalized at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston; what was thought to have been a deep bruise on his left leg turned out to be a tumor, a bone sarcoma, originating from the bone itself, and not the result of a football injury. His left leg was amputated. When just twenty days later he attended on crutches the Texas-Notre Dame football game in the Cotton Bowl, he gained national recognition for his determination and stamina and became an inspiration to thousands of cancer victims. The game, won by Texas, was dedicated to Steinmark by his teammates. Despite extensive therapy the disease continued to progress. With the help of sportwriter Blackie Sherrod, he wrote his autobiography, I Play to Win (1971), a lively account of his life as an athlete and of his faith in God. He entered the M.D. Anderson Hospital for the last time on April 20, 1971 and passed away there on June 6, 1971.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 08:21:38 +0000
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