Christian Steinmetz

Did You Know?

• Steinmetz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Chris, a Milwaukee real estate man, and Frances Steinmetz.
• He attended Milwaukee's South Division High School, where he led the basketball team to the state high school championship in 1902 and was the state champion in the high jump that year.
• Steinmetz wore moleskin pants because otherwise opponents would have torn them off the way they hung on.

University of Wisconsin

Steinmetz enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and was a member of the Badgers' track and basketball teams from 1903 to 1905. Despite his modest size at 137 lb, he became one of the greatest scorers in basketball history. One writer who saw him play described him as a human dynamo on the basketball floor, with an uncanny eye for the basket and a bulldog on defense, always seeming to be at the right place at the right time. Steinmetz was credited with being an innovator in technique.

In an era when the underhand, two-handed shot was the norm, he often used a "one-hander." Steinmetz later recalled that the one-hander was always good for three or four baskets before opponents caught on to it. He also had the ability to rebound or catch a pass and shoot while in the air, a feat that was unheard of in those days. In 1958, Steinmetz told a reporter that the modern game was as different from the game he played as hearts is from poker.

He concluded that the biggest change was eliminating the center jump, in which there was a jump ball at center court after every score, noting that it made basketball a percentage game where whichever team hit the best percentage of their shots won. Steinmetz played on the 1905 Wisconsin basketball team with College Football Hall of Fame coach Bob Zuppke and recalled that the game was rougher in its early days. He said that Zuppke and he played nine games in 10 nights and were in every minute, and that basketball in those days was football for lighter fellows, with officials allowing rougher play.

Basketball was in its infancy at the University of Wisconsin when Steinmetz arrived. The team was jokingly called the "squat tag team," had no coach, and received no financial support from the university. Players supplied their own equipment, and Steinmetz later recalled the worn condition of the balls they had to use, saying they seldom saw a new ball and the ones they used had lumps and corners on them.

Later years

Christian Steinmetz spent five decades as a lawyer in Milwaukee after finishing his studies. For many years, he also coached and officiated basketball. He spent 19 years choosing the All-Western basketball team for Spalding's Official Basketball Guide. Later in life, he received several honors.

In 1954, a dinner at the Milwaukee Athletic Club named him the "Father of Wisconsin Basketball." The Milwaukee Sentinel sports editor said the event honored one of the great figures in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the South Side. Steinmetz entered the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame in 1957, the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1958, and the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961. At his Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame induction, he joked that modesty kept him from discussing his records, which spoke for themselves.

He also said he had been waiting for the honor since the board's first election and that sitting and waiting to be called was the hardest part. In November 1908, he married Bessie Engel. They had three sons—Christian, Allan, and Don—and a daughter, Ruth. All three sons played varsity basketball at the University of Wisconsin and became lawyers.

At his Helms Foundation induction, Steinmetz said his proudest achievement was having three sons earn basketball letters at Wisconsin, adding that when they were all home, four of them sat at the table, a rare sight. Steinmetz had a stroke in 1962 and another in 1963. He died at St. Luke's Hospital in Milwaukee three weeks after the second stroke at age 80.