When Washington State University faces the Air Force Academy at Friday's Cheez-It Bowl, it will mark the first meeting between the two teams.

Though the Cougars and Falcons have never met on the gridiron, the two institutions share a permanent bond.

The bond was created by individual whose life spanned experiences from a collegiate star at Washington State College, playing for the Cleveland Browns, an assistant football coach at the Air Force Academy, to a serviceman who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Vietnam War.

And though his story was never forgotten by his family or friends, it was a Sports Illustrated piece that brought Don Steinbrunner's story back to the forefront.

In 2001, Sports Illustrated published a cover piece for its July 23 issue about Bob Kalsu, an All-American lineman at Oklahoma who played for the Buffalo Bills during the 1968 season.

Following the season, Kalsu left the NFL to serve in the Army during the Vietnam War. He was killed in action, July 21, 1970.

The text inscribed on the cover stated that Kalsu, "became the only pro athlete to be killed" in the Vietnam War.

However, three years earlier, almost to the day that the Sports Illustrated edition came out, an Air Force Major Steinbrunner was part of a five-man UC-123 crew that was shot down while conducting a defoliation mission in South Vietnam. There were no survivors.

After learning of the Sports Illustrated story, Steinbrunner's family contacted the Pro Football Hall of Fame to inform the organization of their father's story, including his time with the Browns.

"It is a tragic story, but we do not want it to be forgotten," Saleem Choudhry, Vice President - Exhibits/Museum Services at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said of Steinbrunner in a 2007 story. "Our mission is to promote pro football and preserve the history of the game." 

In 2001, the Hall of Fame invited the Steinbrunner family to its inaugural Veterans Day ceremony, now held annually, on the front steps of the Hall of Fame building. 
Steinbrunner's family donated items, including his Browns' jacket and Purple Heart, for an exhibit at the Hall of Fame named "Football and America." 

Time as a Washington State Cougar

Born in Bellingham in 1932, Steinbrunner was a 1949 graduate from Mount Baker High School where he participated in football, basketball, baseball and track. It was football and basketball that Steinbrunner excelled at and he played both sports while at Washington State College.

He played on the freshman basketball team in 1950 and saw action in all 35 games during the 1951-52 season for head coach Jack Friel, averaging 3.9 points a contest.

At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, it was in football where Steinbrunner excelled. A three-year letterwinner, Steinbrunner doubled as a defensive linebacker and offensive right end in the last seven games of the 1951 season. His three interceptions were second-most on the team and he was selected to the AP All-Coast defensive team after the 1951 season.

Steinbrunner was elected team captain heading into the 1952 season, but injuries hampered Steinbrunner during his final season at WSC.

In the season opener against USC, Steinbrunner suffered what was thought to be a broken collarbone but the X-ray revealed no break and he went on to play the next week against Stanford.

The highlight of his season was Oct. 25 against Oregon State. Down 20-6 heading into the fourth quarter, Steinbrunner scored the Cougars' first touchdown of the quarter, and recovered a fumble that set up Washington State's final touchdown in a 27-point fourth quarter outburst that propelled the Cougars to a 33-20 win.

A knee injury forced Steinbrunner to the sideline for the California and Oklahoma A&M games but he returned to play in his final collegiate game, a 33-27 loss to intrastate rival Washington.

From the NFL to Coaching at Air Force

Steinbrunner was a sixth-round selection by the Cleveland Browns in the 1953 NFL Draft. He played offensive tackle for a Browns team that compiled an 11-0 record in the regular season.

In a tight contest, the home underdog Detroit Lions scored a late touchdown to edge the Brown 17-16 and deny the team an undefeated season and an NFL Championship.

After just one year, Steinbrunner left the Browns to fulfill his two-year ROTC commitment with the Air Force. After his commitment was over, Steinbrunner had the option to return to the Browns but he chose a military career instead.

Steinbrunner remained with the Air Force and in 1961 joined its football coaching staff.

"(Browns) Coach Paul Brown kept him signed while he was doing his commitment," son David said for a 2007 Memorial Day tribute story about his father. "Coach Brown really liked Dad and wanted him to come back to the team but Dad really enjoyed the military. I think he wanted to get into coaching."

Steinbrunner remained with the Air Force and in 1961 joined the football coaching staff with the academy.

"He really enjoyed teaching the kids," David said. "One of my fondest memories is of all the Cadets coming over and watching film. He enjoyed having those guys around."

The highlight during Steinbrunner's tenure as an assistant was the 1963 season. That year, the Falcons upset Washington and Nebraska, at Lincoln, en route to a 7-4 season and a berth to the Gator Bowl. The win over Nebraska was the only loss of the season for the Cornhuskers in their 10-1 Orange Bowl championship season.

The Vietnam War

Steinbrunner served on the Air Force coaching staff until 1964. Then it was time for him to serve with another unit.

With the war in Vietnam escalating, Steinbrunner went overseas in 1966. There, he served in Operation Rand Hand, a mission that was the spraying of herbicides from U.S. Air Force aircraft in Southeast Asia. The purpose was to expose the roads and trails, and to remove the vegetation cover used by enemy forces for concealment.

Serving as an Air Force navigator in the Vietnam Way, Steinbrunner was wounded during an aerial mission in 1966. Upon his recovery, he was offered the option of a less dangerous assignment, but he chose to return to his unit with the rationale that he was better able to serve his country than many of the younger, less experienced soldiers he had observed. 

On July 20, 1967, Steinbrunner's plane was shot down over Kontum, South Vietnam. There were no survivors among the five-man crew.

A note on virtualwall.org, a website honoring those named on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., describes what happened that July day:
On 20 July 1967 the 12th Air Commando Squadron lost its second aircraft, UC-123B tail number 54-0630, while conducting a RANCH HAND defoliation mission near Gia Vuc, some 30 miles southwest of Quang Ngai. The aircraft was making a spray run at 150 feet when it was hit by a hail of small arms fire, crashed, and burned. All five crewmen were killed: 

•    Major Allan J. Stearns, Girard, PA, pilot 
•    Lt. Col. Everett E. Foster, Beacon, NY, copilot 
•    Major Donald T. Steinbrunner, Bellingham, WA, navigator 
•    SSgt. Irvin G. Weyandt, Claysburg, PA, loadmaster 
•    Sgt. Le Tan Bo, RVN Air Force, observer 

For his deeds, Steinbrunner was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
His citation read in part: "Disregarding the hazards of flying the difficult target terrain and the opposition presented by hostile ground forces, he led the formation through one attack and returned to make a second attack. The outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Major Steinbrunner reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force." 

Denver Post sportswriter Ralph Moore wrote a tribute for Steinbrunner, published in the Aug. 1, 1967 edition. 

In the piece titled, "Above All, He Was Air Force," Moore described the funeral procession that laid Steinbrunner to rest at the Air Force Academy cemetery.

"We moved slowly past the Academy's football stadium, a large 'Air Force' painted white on the VIP, or west, stands," Moore wrote. "Steinbrunner, former Washington State standout end, had sweat our many a Saturday afternoon there cajoling his young end charges to play their best – that's all he asked.

"There were both success and failure there,' Moore continued, "But to the former Cougar giant the word failure didn't exist. There was always next Saturday…"

Moore concluded his tribute with this passage:

"I had known Don Steinbrunner as a coach. I knew he was a tenacious and aggressive athlete who hated to lose. As a sportswriter, I appreciated his bluntness, his deep loyalties and the frustrations he knew in working against rugged odds. I knew he disliked sports stories with frilly phrases…that he hated excuses, respected ability and loved a party. I knew he was Air Force. I'm not Air Force, but I am a father, and Monday I cried a little…Inside where it hurts most."