Bob Steele (2022) - Hall of Fame - Michigan State University Athletics

Bob Steele

Induction:
2022
Class:
1967

Bob Steele
Men's Track and Field (1965-67)
Plymouth, Mich.
MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2022

HIGHLIGHTS:

Two-time Outdoor Track All-American – 440 yard hurdles (1966, 67)
Two-Time NCAA Champion – 440 yard hurdles (1966, 67)
1966 Big Ten Outdoor Track Champion – 440 yard hurdles
Member of 1965 and 1966 Outdoor Big Ten Championship Teams
Undefeated in 480 yd shuttle hurdle relay throughout MSU career

HALL OF FAME FEATURE: CLASS OF 2022

Bob Steele came to East Lansing in 1963 to be on the Michigan State track & field team and he hasn't ever left, still living in East Lansing, with his wife, Judy, just a few blocks from campus. Every fall during MSU Hall of Fame Weekend, Bob and Judy host a bunch of his old teammates and their families, and since many of his old teammates are already members, the talk is always about when Bob will be selected for the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame. Well, this upcoming fall, they will be gathering at not just Bob and Judy Steele's house, but MSU Athletics Hall of Famer Bob Steele's house.

Steele was recently at the Spartan Summer Conversation, exploring the storied history of Race, Sport and Social Change, to hear one of his former teammate's daughter, Maya Washington, speak. She is the daughter of Spartan football great Gene Washington, who played football and ran track & field at MSU, and was a part of the Spartans' back-to-back Big Ten and National Championships in 1965-66 on the football field and MSU's 1965 and '66 Big Ten Track & Field Outdoor Championships, and the 1966 Indoor Championship.

After the program, MSU Vice President/Director of Athletics Alan Haller gave Steele the news that he had been selected to the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2022.

"All of my teammates and some of my buddies who are already in the Hall of Fame, they've all been pushing hard for me, and it was beautiful to hear Mr. Haller tell me I was selected," Steele said. "I had just talked to Gene earlier in the day about it, so after Alan told me, I went up and told Maya the good news, and she was so excited, and insisted that we had to call her dad right away and tell him the news."

Steele along with Washington and Clinton Jones, formed a sweeping trio in the 70-yard low and high hurdles, going all season of the 1966 outdoor campaign without an opponent amongst them, finishing 1-2-3 throughout the season and the Big Ten Conference titles.

"Clinton Jones was the number one high hurdler in America and Gene Washington was number two, and I was number three, and we all ended up on the same team," Steele said. "Clinton and Gene were All-American football players here, but what a lot of people don't know is that there weren't enough football scholarships for them, so Clinton and Gene were on track scholarships.

"So it was a beautiful thing for the track team since we ended up winning three Big Ten track & field championships as a team, but a lot of our stars were football players, with Jim Summers, who was the starting cornerback, Gene was the All-American end and Clinton Jones was the All-American at halfback, and George Webster was an All-American linebacker."

Along with being honored to have them as his teammates, Steele was also proud to be a part of MSU's involvement in advancing the integration of college athletics, spearheaded by legendary Spartan football head coach Hugh "Duffy" Daugherty.

"Gene Washington got recruited by MSU because of Bubba Smith, who's father told recruiters looking at Bubba about Gene and to get the two of them together, so Duffy Daugherty brought them both from Texas to East Lansing," Steele said. "I was proud to have them as teammates."

Steele witnessed first-hand the segregation his teammates faced.

"One time in 1965, we were in Columbus, Ohio, getting ready to compete at Ohio State, and we went to a diner just a couple doors down from our hotel, and all 18 of us walked in there. The place was empty since it was around 8 o'clock at night at this little diner, and we walked in in our Michigan State blazers with 'MSU track & field' kind of stuff. The 18 of us, eight Black, 10 White, we sit down at some tables in a little back room so we could all be together," Steele recounted. "This waiter comes to the doorway of the room and he was kind of looking at us apprehensive and cautiously, for what felt like about 10 minutes, but it was probably only a minute or two, and so I walked over to him and I said 'you'll be serving 18 people or nobody.' He walked away and didn't say a word, and a minute later, a waitress came in and served us. Even in 1965 in Columbus, Ohio, their looks said 'we don't serve Blacks,' even though they didn't say anything, but we knew what they were thinking. In East Lansing or even Ann Arbor, that was never an issue, but just 200 miles away in Columbus, Ohio, it was still an issue.

"I've had Gene and Clint, and their wives, stay at our house for many years, and there was never a word said about it, but they've always known I was on their side."

Washington and Jones were two of Steele's most impactful teammates, and they made him a better athlete as well.

"I came to Michigan State and gained 30 pounds and grew two inches my freshman year, thinking I was kind of a big deal, and here my new teammates are the best two hurdlers in America," Steele said with a laugh. "I was third behind them in the highs and lows hurdles, and Gene and Clint were 1-2, and we swept the Big Ten Indoors, but that's what made me tell myself 'you best be finding a new event.'

"We swept all the meets and the shuttle hurdle relay throughout my career, and went on to compete at the big relay carnival meets like the Drake and Penn Relays, and meets like that, where the winners got gold watches, so we had a gang of gold watches because we were the best hurdlers in the country. After that was when I switched up for the 440-hurdles, and that just ended up being a great move for me, because if I hadn't, I would have just been another college track runner."

Steele remains thankful to assistant coach Jim Gibbert for recruiting him to Michigan State, and head coach Fran Dittrich for their coaching.

He went on to win the 440-yard hurdles at both the Big Ten and NCAA Outdoor Championships in 1966 and repeated the NCAA title in 1967. He helped guide the Spartans to the 1965 and 1966 Outdoor Big Ten Championships.

After his eligibility was done at MSU, he continued working out and running on campus, training for Olympic qualifying, and running with Spartan greats Ken Popejoy and Bob Cassleman, among many others.

Following graduation and getting married, Steele went all over the world traveling to meets, competing to train for the Olympics. That is until a major injury put the breaks on Steele's Olympic hopes.

"I broke my leg at an indoor meet in Toronto, Canada, and I was in the preliminaries of the 60-high hurdles, and on the first hurdle, I felt a twinge and I went on through and won the race, but then I turned to walk back and I couldn't put my foot down, and it turns out I had broken my leg just above the ankle," Steele said.

The injury appeared to end Steele's running days, and he was ready to put his teaching degree to use. Having done his student teaching in East Lansing elementary schools, Steele was a part-time PE teacher, and had accepted a job as a high school PE teacher at East Lansing High School for an hour. However, he saw a track event on television and wasn't ready to hang up his track spikes just yet, so he called the principal back and apologized to say he was going to keep running.

He would go on to win several races and prizes in races around the world, including competing in the Superstar competition.

Steele and his wife Judy met in Case Hall, after they were set up on blind date by one of his track teammates, and went to an MSU hockey game for their first date. Bob and Judy hit it off at the hard-hitting hockey game, and were married in 1969. They've been married 53 years, now with two adult daughters. The oldest Steele daughter, Britten, is speech-language pathologist at an U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan. The youngest, A.J., lives in southern Illinois, near St. Louis, Missouri, and Steele is excited to have them all together for his Hall of Fame induction.

Once he finally did hang up his running spikes for good, Steele was the PE teacher at Whitehills Elementary School for 35 years. After 25 years there, the PTA hung a plaque in the gym dedicating it as "Steele's Gym," and just before the gym was to be torn down for renovations, Steele went in and rescued the plaque.

After starting teaching at age 21, before retiring in 2003, Steele made a lasting impact on several of his students, many of whom he would later teach their children, relaying messages to 'Mr. Steele' from their parents. He also earned several teaching awards from the East Lansing Public Schools.

He now plays tennis three days a week, with Steele noting that it's down from six days a week when he first retired, as well as playing cards with friends multiple days a week as well. And come this fall, he'll also be playing some cards and telling stories while hosting several of his fellow Hall of Fame members.