Farewell to a C.R. native who jumped so high

On April 18, Cedar Rapids native Steve Stepanek died of cancer at 59. He was a University of Iowa graduate, a veteran of the U.S. Army and Navy, and most recently, an assistant professor of communications at Georgia Southern University.

When he was a student at LaSalle High School in Cedar Rapids, Steve won the Class A state high jump title in 1973 and 1974. He also was a starter for the LaSalle boys' basketball team, and achieved a cult status in the school for not only being able to dunk, but for doing it in games. It was illegal back then.

When the Lancers had a game in hand at home and the opportunity availed itself, Steve would dunk the ball and send the student body into euphoria.

But I also remember someone who, on a bus ride to a basketball game at Dyersville, would encourage teammates to play '20 Questions” with him. I remember Tex stumping his pals with 'Mr. Peanut” as the answer.

How many high school kids play '20 Questions?” Maybe more should.

Steve's high school nickname was 'Tex.” I don't know why, because he didn't seem at all like a 'Tex.” Which made it a perfect nickname for him, really.

Many former high school classmates of Steve's posted comments on the Statesboro Journal's Web page containing his obituary. This was written by Mike Teply of Cedar Rapids:

'… without Steve's help I would have never survived Chemistry and Physics. On the other hand, Steve may have never learned to drive a manual transmission. Steve and I would meet to study, play garage ball in his one stall garage and toward the end of the night, take a drive in my 1962 VW 'beetle.” Tex desperately wanted to learn how to drive a stick shift, manual transmission. I would let Tex drive the VW to Dairy Queen, he taught me F=ma. From that time on, after our paths diverged, anytime I drove a vehicle with a manual transmission, I'd remember those nights with Tex, in the VW, driving to get a Dilly Bar. To say he was a good man is an understatement.”

That's a pretty good obituary in itself, isn't it? An inquiring mind, exchanging knowledge for knowledge with a friend, and having fun along the way.

I was two years younger than Steve and never had exchanged as much as hellos with him in school. I sat on that team bus to Dyersville and wished my friends were more like him, because he was so smart and witty but never seemed to care about acting cool, and didn't act like he was anybody special though he probably was the smartest kid in the school. So it was a jolt 30-some years later to start getting emails from him from Georgia. Here's an example:

Don't even know why I dwell on a subject that long ago ceased to interest me - maybe it is just being lodged on a college campus that the topic keeps resurfacing before me ... anyway, if the NCAA wants to take a major step towards reforming its image and deflating the aura of ludicrousness that now surrounds the term 'student-athlete,” why doesn't it resurrect the vintage freshman-ineligibility rule that applied up until the time we were in high school? Of course, this strips schools of one-quarter of the opportunities they have to exploit their dexterous minions but it would enforce a one-year term on kids during which time they could demonstrate they have a capacity to be on a college campus beyond merely parceling out pancake blocks or draining 3-pointers.

Yours for the purity of the turf,

Steve Stepanek

When he was back in Cedar Rapids to visit family a couple years ago, he invited me to lunch and picked my brain about how I do my job, though I was much more interested in his work.

I stopped hearing from him. I have no idea when he started getting sick, and had no idea he had cancer until I read his obituary today.

I couldn't not write about someone who, once upon a time, flouted the rules and dunked for fun and made a lot of kids happy.

Cancer. Damn.

Here is Steve Stepanek's obituary in the hometown newspaper he followed online, The Gazette.

A Celebration of Life will be held for Steve Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at LaSalle Middle School in Cedar Rapids.