46. Dean Steinkuhler
Football / Burr / Born: 1961
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Sterling High, Nebraska Cornhuskers and Houston Oilers
Best moment as an athlete: Before the "fumbleroosky" and the NFL, Steinkuhler was an all-state eight-man lineman when he received one of Nebraska's final scholarships for 1979. "Coach Osborne called me the night before the bowl game (Nebraska's 31-24 Orange Bowl loss to Oklahoma)," Steinkuhler said.
Dean Steinkuhler, a 1983 All-America guard, led a Nebraska line that produced more than 400 rushing yards per game, and he swept the Lombardi and Outland Trophies that season and even scored a trick-play touchdown in the 1984 Orange Bowl.
The Houston Oilers took Steinkuhler second overall in the 1984 NFL draft and he played eight seasons.
Steinkuhler grew up playing three-on-three football in the front yards of Burr, which had a population of about 100. He never considered himself a dominant athlete.
"I was always the fat kid. I still don't think I was the world's greatest athlete. A lot of it was that's just what I wanted to do."
You can outperform guys with more talent, said Steinkuhler, who credits his father for helping to nurture his work ethic.
In practices, he prided himself on finishing first in running drills. "When I went to Nebraska, I wasn't the best guy there, by far. I think I just outworked them and stayed with it."
His labor landed "the fat kid" on the Walter Camp Football Foundation's All-Century team in 2000 along with fellow Huskers Johnny Rodgers and Dave Rimington.
--Dirk Chatelain
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Sterling High, Nebraska Cornhuskers and Houston Oilers
Best moment as an athlete: Before the "fumbleroosky" and the NFL, Steinkuhler was an all-state eight-man lineman when he received one of Nebraska's final scholarships for 1979. "Coach Osborne called me the night before the bowl game (Nebraska's 31-24 Orange Bowl loss to Oklahoma)," Steinkuhler said.
