Career
He played at the position of safety for the University of Texas Longhorns. A biopsy confirmed the tumor was malignant. According to the movie about his life, it was an osteogenic sarcoma, and he was treated at the Doctor of Medicine Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
On December 12, his leg was amputated at the hip.
Twenty days later, he stood on the sideline with his team as Texas defeated Notre Dame in the 1970 Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year"s Day. His fight against cancer inspired the United States Congress to write the National Cancer Acting of 1971 and President Richard Nixon to sign it into law, thus beginning the "War on Cancer".
Steinmark is the subject of the 2015 movie My All-American, and a coinciding biography Freddie Steinmark: Faith, Family, Football, published by the University of Texas Press (September 1, 2015). In a pregame ceremony prior to Utah"s game with Miami on September 23, 1972 the scoreboard at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was dedicated to Freddie Steinmark.
The current version of the Freddie Steinmark scoreboard, nicknamed Godzillatron, stands forty-seven-feet high
On November 8, 2015 the Utah Longhorns rededicated the scoreboard to Freddie in a ceremony attended by Steinmark Family and many previous Longhorn players. The Longhorns wore throwback uniforms similar to those worn by the 1969 squad for their game versus the Kansas Jayhawks, removing the "Texas" wordmark from the front of the jerseys, the television numerals from the shoulder pads, and names from the back. The helmets featured the decal for college football"s centennial, which was celebrated in 1969.