Joe Steele (born March 19, 1958) is an American former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

for the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

from

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

through

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. During his college career, he set Husky records for most single season rushing yards, most career rushing yards, and most career touchdowns.

High school

Born and raised in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, Steele attended its

Bishop Blanchet High School Bishop Blanchet High School is a private coeducational Catholic high school located north of Green Lake in Seattle, United States. The school was founded in 1954 by the Archdiocese of Seattle, and named for the first bishop of the diocese, A.M ...

and graduated in 1976. As a running back, he helped lead Bishop Blanchet to a 23-game winning streak over three seasons and a state championship in 1974. In the 1975

Metro League Metro League is a high school conference on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon, United States, that is a member of the OSAA. It is under classification 6A of the OSAA, and it contains six Beaverton high schools, and one priva ...

championship game against undefeated

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as ''Garfield'', it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his human ...

, Steele rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns, caught another touchdown, and threw for the game-winning score in the fourth overtime. During his high school career, he ran for 3,814 yards and scored 44 touchdowns.

College career

Actively recruited by many strong programs, Steele stayed close to home and played for head coach Don James at the University of Washington in Seattle. As a sophomore in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

, Steele rushed for 865 yards, scored fourteen touchdowns, and was named to the all-conference team. He led the Huskies in rushing in their 27–20 upset win over fourth-ranked

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

in the Rose Bowl. During his junior season in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

, Steele set a Husky single season record with 1,111 rushing yards. As a senior in

, he suffered a season-ending injury to his right knee in the eighth game, a 34–14 road win over

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. Steele finished his college career with a Washington record 3,168 total rushing yards and was again named to the all-conference team. He was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 1996.

After college

Steele was selected in the

fifth round Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash th ...

of the

1980 NFL Draft The 1980 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1980, at the New York She ...

by the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

, but was released in the final cut. Following his football career, he worked in the commercial real estate business.

External links

Sports Reference profile

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Joe 1958 births Living people Bishop Blanchet High School alumni American football running backs Washington Huskies football players Players of American football from Seattle

High school

College career

After college

See also

External links

References