Steve Hansel was a walk-on linebacker at Appalachian State in 1969 when he saw a problem during practice and decided to fix it.

Football was his passion, the reason he transferred to Boone after a year of walk-on baseball at UNC-Chapel Hill. “I always looked for ways to make myself a little more valuable,” he says. “And in the first football game, we had two punts blocked and both were because of bad snaps from the center. So at practice the next week, they were trying out guys to deep snap, and after they tried several people, I went over to my linebacker coach and said ‘I think I can do that snapping.’ I had come from a single wing team and I did that all the time.”

The assistant coach took Hansel aside and let him snap. “Four, five, six times to see if I could do it,” he says.

That coach then announced that the long-snapping issue was solved.

“They put me out there, at 165 pounds, and let people start beating on me when I had to snap under pressure,” Hansel says. “And I snapped the next three years. Of course, I played linebacker, too.”

That ability to help teams, as a three-sport athlete in high school, where he lettered multiple times, and in college [he lettered at App State in ‘69] as well as his career as an educator led to Hansel’s induction into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.

He says it’s an honor.

“I’m so proud they considered me worthy to be in there with some of the guys who already have been inducted,” he says. “I’ve always been a team-oriented person, and I’ve always been able to do whatever it took to make our teams better.”

It’s a concept he learned as a little kid, when he’d visit friends in Stanley on weekends. They’d play baseball, and an older boy would tell them, “hustle, hustle, hustle,” Hansel says. “And that’s what I did, and I learned to do my best, all the time.”

His first football game in junior high, he says, he weighed 115. “That’s not the make-up of most centers, but I always wanted to do what the team needed for us to be a better team,” he says.

The team had a banquet, in 1963 or ’64, he says and Asheville native Charlie “Choo-Choo” Justice was there. Justice played at UNC-Chapel Hill and for the Washington Redskins, “and I thought his eyes would pop out of his head when I was introduced as a center,” Hansel says. “I was so small. We were blessed to have him at one of our banquets.”

Hansel played baseball, football and basketball at Mount Holly High School from 1964 through 1967.

“I liked whichever one was in season, but I think football wound up being my favorite. I don’t know why; I guess I found out I could let people hit me and know they couldn’t hurt me,” he says.

At 165 pounds in high school, he played center and offensive line three years, then added defense as a senior.

That willingness to contribute to the good of the team influenced his decision to play through injury.

When Hansel had back trouble his sophomore year, an orthopaedist told him not to play football. “Of course, I didn’t like that information, so he gave me a back brace to wear. I knew I had to pass the physical,” he says, “and our family doctor, who may or may not have known about the recommendation of the orthopaedist, let me pass. I asked him later why he passed me, and he said, ‘Well, I wasn’t going to fight the whole family, so I just shut up and passed you.’”

Hansel played point guard for the MHHS basketball team and, he says, his strength was in helping the team, not excelling as an individual. “It was my junior and senior year, and I wasn’t a big scorer, but I helped run the offense and was a decent defensive player,” he says. “I was a captain my senior year and had developed into a little bit better shooter.”

That proved true in the post-season tournament. “I was all-tournament my senior year and we were in the semifinals, and near end of the game we were tied and time was running out, so they started fouling to get more time,” he says. “Well, they fouled me three straight times in a one-and-one situation, and I made six free throws under pressure.

“I can rise to the occasion when I need to. I don’t remember who the opponent was. I was a ‘coach’s ballplayer.’ They could point me to a wall and I’d run through it.

“High school is the best time of your life. You’re just a youngster, enjoying the things around you and playing sports. And the best thing for me was playing sports for Mount Holly. It was great.”

Hansel graduated from Appalachian in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education.

“It’s important,” he says, “to mention how supportive my family was, especially my mom. I don’t think she missed but one football game, no matter where it was, until my junior year at App because my brother was shipping out to Vietnam the next day. That’s the only one she ever missed.”

Hansel returned to Gaston County and taught and coached at Stanley Junior High and North Gaston. “Then, all of us get married at some point, so I got married and moved to Greensboro and started teaching in that area and went to UNCG.”

He attended UNC-Greensboro from 1984 through 1986 to earn his Master’s in School Administration and served as principal at Draper Elementary School in Eden and McMichael High School in Mayodan.

Hansel will be 74 in November. He says he was “a little surprised” about being inducted into the Hall of Fame. “I just did what I did and tried my best all the time,” he says. “I just played, and I loved it.”