4W HISTORY (EVENTS)
–On October 19, 1955, Steve was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Dunlap Elementary School and went on two field trips to the Drake Relays where he was introduced to world-class track and field. In 1968, Steve’s family moved to the Danbury, Wisconsin area (Dairyland) and graduated from Webster High School in 1974.
–After graduating from Webster High School in 1974, Steve worked at Hoerner-Waldorf in St. Paul, Minnesota before going to college. They made paper containers and boxes. Steve worked with a group of scientists that developed the paper products. One time, they taste tested a turkey roast that was packaged in one of their products. They tasted the chemicals so they had to go back to the drawing board.
–On September 21, 1974, Wisconsin football beat #4 Nebraska at Camp Randall Stadium. During the 1974 season, the team finished 7-4 and finished fourth in the Big 10. Steve was attending UW at that time and was at the game. John Jardine was the coach of the Badgers. That was the only winning season they had under Coach Jardine who died at 54 of heart disease. The Nebraska game was the best in his career.
–On November 10, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing all twenty-nine on board. On that morning, Steve was walking to class at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The wind was blowing extremely hard off the lake.
–Steve became a Christian in March 1976 at the University of Wisconsin-Superior after reading a Bible left in the student union.
–Steve ran 70,256 miles from 1971 through 2019, forty-eight years at 4.01 miles per day. He ran for Webster High School (WI) and the University of Wisconsin-Superior before transferring to Minnesota State University in Mankato. In 1977, MSU was third at the NCAA Division 2 Cross Country Championships. Steve got a BS-Community Health degree from MSU with honors.
–While going to Minnesota State University in Mankato. Steve worked for his dad buying walnut and elm trees from nearby farms. Loggers harvested them and laid them out near railroad tracks. The trees were used for veneer in various countries. Also, he worked at a gas station, pumping gas and washing windows.
–Steve was a graduate assistant coach at Western Kentucky University for the cross-country and track and field teams in 1980-81. They won the Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Championships with a perfect 15 points and were sixth at the 1980 NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships. He got his Master of Public Health degree with honors at WKU.
–From 1982 through 1992, Steve was a successful USA National Track and Field Club Coach for Athletes in Action (82-83), Lay Witnesses for Christ (83-88), and 4 Winds Christian Athletics (88-92). Team centers were in Eugene (OR), Dallas-Fort Worth (TX), and Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN). After 1992, 4 Winds Christian Athletics dropped the team to work with athletes on all teams.
–4 Winds Christian Athletics (now 4 WINDS USA) legally began in September 1988 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The final non-profit ruling was in 1994.
–While running near Danbury, Wisconsin in the summer of 1997, Steve saw two bears come out of the woods 175 feet in front of him. One was huge and the other was smaller. They did not run away as normal. He ran through the woods to the shore of Big McGraw Lake near Danbury, Wisconsin and stopped. Steve heard the bear chasing through the woods. He went out 20 feet from the shoreline. The smaller bear came to the shoreline and got into the water. As Steve threw muck at the bear’s face and shouted, the bear was clicking its jaws loudly and rotating its head like a robot. Twenty feet from the shoreline, he walked 200 feet as the bear walked away from the water and kept coming back. A pontoon picked Steve up.
–Since 1981, Steve has been to most USA Track and Field Championships, Olympic Trials, and some Olympics. The 2024 Olympics was their eleventh Olympic cycle. During the 2024 Olympic Trials, Steve had a successful outreach to the Olympic track and field team. They went on to win thirty-four medals in Paris, the most since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Steve’s first Olympics was in Los Angeles in 1984, where the Olympics will be held in 2028.
–On September 10, 2024, Steve was the Western Kentucky University Alumnus of the Week. WKU has 16,500 students.
–Over the years, Steve has had hundreds of worldwide radio, article, and TV interviews.
–4 WINDS USA has been in Madison, Wisconsin since 2006.