"Joey" was a high school "sweathog." And Joseph Steger readily admits it, as if Sweat Hog 101 were a basic requirement for any university president. "Besides playing football, I hated high school. I took shop and phys. ed., and read 'Moby Dick' as a Classic Comic book," the University of Cincinnati president says, so matter-of-factly that he doesn't even grin.
Despite the initial shock of the statement, there's something comforting in his confession -- like knowing that your banker once bought thrift store clothes or that your teacher is dyslexic. And the tale of Steger's climb from the locker room to the president's box is full of red-faced moments, dirt under the fingernails and helping hands along the way.
Although his secondary education hardly seemed to destine him for college, young Steger later took the advice of an Air Force warrant officer who suggested coupling college with military reserves after he left active duty. Using all the careful consideration that admissions officers hope prospective students might employ, young Steger took a map, circled all the colleges within 300 miles of his hometown of Philadelphia and mailed letters to a few, saying he was "a very mature person in the Air Force."
Gettysburg College accepted him. "They didn't have SATs back then," he points out, as if obligated to explain.
That fall, the new student faced a big surprise, especially when he had to write a 500-word paper in freshman comp. "I had never written 25 words before," Dr. Steger says, giving in to a familiar chuckle.
After assignments were graded, the
professor asked to see Mr. Steger after class. "There's hardly a complete sentence in this whole paper," Professor
Glatfelter noted. "What's a complete sentence?" the student
asked.
Glatfelter instructed Steger to report to his office for
private tutoring. It wasn't an offer; it was an order.
Weekly lessons continued through the end of the term when the grateful student received a D, but anxiously anticipated resuming normal study habits just the same. His instructor had other ideas. Lessons continued until Steger had a C by the end of the year.
"If he hadn't done that, I don't know what would have happened," the president says. "Everything you do in college depends upon writing. Later I went back and thanked him for changing my life."
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