Share
In 1977, Steve Streater showed up in Chapel Hill for his first practice looking like a skinny, out-of-place kid from the hills, nothing like the football player he would become.
Maybe – maybe – he cracked 165 pounds. Fellow freshman Tyress Bratton, who four years later would witness the moment that changed Streater's life forever, laughs when he remembers the image.
“I was like, ‘Does this guy really play?'”
By the time Streater finished his last game for North Carolina, the defensive back and punter from the mountain town of Sylva had proved that he did.
Streater was 50 when he died June 19 in an Asheboro hospital after battling complications from paralysis. A car accident might have cut it short, but Streater lived a full and positive life, the kind to be envied.
As a Tar Heels senior, he had five interceptions and averaged more than 43 yards per punt, making him the first player in the history of the ACC to be named all-conference at two positions.
Off the field, Streater lived it up, persuading his teammates to wear their jerseys and hit the downtown nightspots.
He was 22 when he was injured in a car accident near the Raleigh-Durham airport. He had just returned from Washington, where he signed a contract to play for the Redskins. It should have been happiest day of his life, a dream achieved.
Instead, he suffered a spinal injury that put him in a wheelchair, unable to use his legs, for the rest of his life.
Streater was the same upbeat and positive guy after the accident as he was before, said his younger brother Eric Streater, who also played football at North Carolina. He didn't complain about what he missed. Rather, he concentrated on what he could accomplish.
After the accident, Streater had a number of jobs: He worked in a dance studio and coached a semi-pro football team. He coordinated the state's Students Against Driving Drunk program and managed an auto-detailing business.
He completed his education degree. He drove a Porsche equipped with special hand controls. In 1984, just before the Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, he carried the Olympic torch. And, after not wearing his on the night of the accident, he helped persuade legislators to pass a seat-belt law in North Carolina. Even though doctors told him he probably wouldn't be able to have kids, he fathered a daughter.
Bratton picked Streater up from the airport on Thursday night, April 30, 1981, the same day he became a pro football player. He drove Streater's black-and-gold Datsun 280-ZX, a gift from Streater's father. When he arrived at the airport, Streater told Bratton he wanted to drive.
Not far from the airport, the car hit a slick spot in the road and careened out of control, flipping over onto its hood. Bratton scrambled out of the car and went to the driver's side to check on his friend.
“I was going to pull him out,” Bratton said. “He said ‘no, I'm stuck,' and I kept looking at where he was sitting, and saying, ‘You're not stuck.' He said, ‘I'm stuck, I'm stuck.'”
Then Streater realized he had no feeling in his lower body and asked Bratton not to move him. Both were taken to UNC's hospital by ambulance.
After the accident, Streater threw himself into physical therapy. After a months-long stint in a Charlotte rehab center, he moved back to Sylva with his folks. Later, he returned to Chapel Hill to room with Bratton, who had switched apartments so the pair could live on the ground floor.
He lived the life of a young man in a college town. Although he never married, a long-term relationship produced a daughter, Stephie Nichole Streater, now 21 and a student at UNC Greensboro.
A couple of years ago, he fell ill. Since the accident, Streater battled infections and bedsores and other issues people with spinal cord injuries face.
On June 19, the way Eric understands it, his brother had trouble catching his breath and rang for the nurse. After receiving oxygen, he blacked out and never regained consciousness.
It was sudden, and unexpected. The family, still waiting for autopsy results, isn't yet sure what caused his death. But they know Streater did everything he could to live the fullest life possible.
When he died, Streater had been scheduled to move out of the rehab facility and into his own apartment in three days.
