What is important to this accomplished all-around athlete are the wins and championships he helped create with his teammates.  Kurt Steger is first and foremost a team player.  

"I don't care about records," he says.  "I care about helping the team win.  I care about the camaraderie, and having fun playing.  I played with such great people, and they made it fun to be there."  

A high school all-stater from Roselle, Steger was a star quarterback and pitcher at the University of Illinois in the mid-1970s.  He was drafted by the New York Mets, but a knee injury would keep him from ever realizing his dram of playing either pro baseball or football.  So Steger turned to softball to satisfy his competitive urges.  

Over a 17-year career, the rifle-armed third baseman compiled a .630 lifetime average, with over a thousand home runs.  Early on, he helped one of John Lilly’s original teams capture the USSSA Class B state title in 1978.  The next year he began playing with a group of friends on ZZZ Fasteners out of Champaign.  Steger was tournament MVP in 1982 when they exploded out of the loser’s bracket to win the State Class A title.  Steger moved to the powerhouse Lilly Air team in 1983, starting out on the bench.  He was soon a starter at third, however, helping a solidify an infield that consisted of himself, Al Van Gampler at shortstop, Ron Olesiak at second and Earl "T-Bird" Funderberg and Ken Parker at first.  

"His arm was as strong as any I've seen," recalls Joe Black pitcher/manager Tom Starck.  

"We were all great athletes," says Steger.  "We used to beat the big guys, the home run hitters, because we played defense and got base hits."  

The Lilly team would make its mark at the highest levels of softball over the next three years, and one of Steger's most satisfying softball memory was created during that period.  Lilly Air beating Howards Furniture 28-17 in a loser's bracket game at the 1985 USSSA World Series.  

"The best time I ever had in softball was with Lilly," he said.  Following the 1986 season, Steger moved to a team in Kalamazoo, Mich., sponsored by Sunset Technologies.  That team became the powerhouse Bunca Car Wash in 1987.  Through it all, Steger put the needs of the team first and foremost.  

"We were not individuals on the softball field," says Steger.  "We played as a group of guys making things happen."  

By the end of the 1990s, Steger was looking to retire from ultra-competitive softball. But try as he might, when the 4th of July rolled around, he inevitably found himself in Wilson park, in Milwaukee, playing in the USSSA NIT against the big boys.  Finally, after the 1993 season, Steger did leave "AA" ball.  The following season, he played his team finish second at the USSSA Men's 35 and Over World in Detroit.  

"It couldn’t have been any better," he said. "It was a great honor, to play with (the people) I did.  My teammates, coaches, and sponsors, they were just great people to play with and socialize with."