Undamaged photo of Joe Steele and I unearthed

I had a copy of this pic for many years but due to neglect it got damaged. But it turns out my dad still had a copy. This is Joe Steele and 8-year old me, Aug 1979.

Yes there I am in my Dallas Cowboys hat and jacket + my UW Huskies shirt. As we posed for the photo, Joe hunched down. I saw this and hunched down too. He said, "You don't need to do that, I'm just doing this so we're at the same level." But I still insisted on semi-hunching down.

Joe Steele became UW's all-time leading rusher that season, and held the mark until it was broken by Napoleon Kaufman in 1994. Joe Steele would have had a productive career in the NFL but he suffered a devastating knee injury in the LA Coliseum against UCLA in late October 1979. ACL surgeries were far more invasive back then than they are now. He got drafted in the late rounds by the Seahawks but he never played in a regular season game.

Fast forward years later to 1994 or 1995. My dad was working in downtown Bellevue at an office building. Lo and behold, he spots Joe Steele in the lobby a few times. Joe was working for Caldwell Banker if my memory is accurate.

My dad is not an outgoing person by nature, but one day he got in the elevator and Joe Steele was in there. My dad said, "Mr. Steele, if you have a moment, there's something I'd like to show you."

Joe said sure so he followed my dad into his office. My dad had a 5x7 copy of this photo framed on his desk. My dad said Joe got a big chuckle out of it.

Fast forward to 2006 when I was interviewing Joe Steele for Husky Football in the Don James Era. I mentioned that story about my dad and Joe remembered it.

CSB