Westminster University Hall of Fame
Through the years, Tom Steinke has won many honors, his teams have celebrated many victories, and he has played many roles at Westminster.
But there is something that means more to him than any of those achievements. Everyone who played for him, anyone who worked with him, anybody who knows him, calls him “coach.”
Long after he left the bench and retired, he is still “coach” because he is a man who taught people more than how to play a game. He taught his players how to live their lives—how to work with others; how to identify goals; how to define success and failure…and live with both of them. So in Tom’s case, “coach” is more than the title of the job he held: it is tribute to the larger role he played; it is an indication of how important he was, is, and always will be to the people he taught and touched. That is because what Coach Steinke taught endures long after the ability to make a jump shot fades. He helped young people learn to become adults.
However, the fact that he taught more than basketball did not mean that he didn’t know the game or how to get people to play it.
Tom Steinke was an outstanding athlete. He was the MVP of his high school team and selected for All-State. At BYU, he was selected for First Team Little All-America, Second Team Helms All-America, played in the East-West College All-Star Game, and was recognized as the Skyline Conference Player of the Year.
And he was able to teach others the skills that he had developed. As a coach at Westminster, his teams competed in two NAIA district tournaments, were RMAC champions three times, and won 62 percent of the games they played for him between 1966 and 1976, a better record than any school in the RMAC League. He was named Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Coach of the Year three times and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) District 7 Coach of the Year twice. He served as Westminster’s Athletic Director and as Chair of the Department of Physical Education. He was here when the basketball program was discontinued, and he was here when it was resurrected. He received an Honorary Doctorate from Westminster in 2000.
Just as Westminster recognized his talent, so did others. He worked for the Utah Jazz as a scout and consultant. He was appointed to the Utah State Athletic Commission. And he served as the athletic-fitness instructor for the Utah Police Academy for 26 years.
And it is for these achievements and the contributions that he has made to the College that we decided the first person chosen for Westminster’s Athletic Hall of Fame had to be Tom Steinke.
