July 20, 1967: Don Steinbrunner Is Killed In Action

July 20, 1967: Major Don Steinbrunner, a U.S. Air Force pilot, is shot down over Kontum, Vietnam. He was 35 years old.

A native of Bellingham, Washington, he was a tackle, on both offense and defense, at Washington State University, before playing 8 regular-season games, starting 3 of them, with the Cleveland Browns in 1953. He also played in that season's NFL Championship Game, which the Browns lost to the Detroit Lions.

He had been in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) at Washington State, and left the Browns after the 1953 season to complete his military commitment. This included serving as an assistant coach at the newly-established U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He rose to become a pilot, and his plane was spraying the defoliant Agent Orange, designed to eliminate the Viet Cong's jungle hiding places -- with the side effect of causing cancer in the sprayees as well -- when it was shot down.

The Korean War took a lot of athletes away from their teams. The Vietnam War was another matter. There were 3.4 million American men who served in the armed forces during the Vietnam era – depending on whose figures you believe, starting in either 1954, 1959, 1961 or 1964, and ending in 1973 or 1975. This included several athletes, including New York Yankees Tony Kubek and Bobby Murcer, who missed time due to military service, but never went into combat. Jim Lonborg served in the Army Reserve, and all through the Boston Red Sox' 1967 "Impossible Dream" season, could have been called up. He wasn't.

The only big-league baseball player who served in combat was Roy Gleason. The native of Temecula, California appeared in 8 games in 1963 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, his "hometown team," mostly as a pinch-runner. But it was enough for the team, which won the World Series that year, to give him a World Series ring. He had one at-bat, and doubled. He wore Number 36, the same number that Korean War vet Don Newcombe wore for the Brooklyn edition of the Dodgers.

Gleason never got back to the majors, and was drafted in 1967. Sergeant Gleason was wounded in 1968, and, sometime between the shot that hit him and the hospital that saved him, he lost his World Series ring. In 2003, as part of a veterans' celebration at Dodger Stadium, then-manager Jim Tracy gave him a replacement ring.

Pro football wasn't so lucky: The game lost 2 players in Vietnam. For a long time, it was believed to be 1. On July 21, 1970, Lieutenant Bob Kalsu, an All-American guard at the University of Oklahoma who played for the Buffalo Bills in 1968 before being drafted, was killed at Base Ripcord.

After NFL Films did a piece on him, someone wrote to them and informed them that there was another: Don Steinbrunner. (Not "Steinbrenner," though he did play for George Steinbrenner's hometown team.) It's likely that his NFL tenure, which was during the Korean War rather than Vietnam, confused the researchers.

Kalsu wore Number 51, but although the Bills have elected Kalsu to their Wall of Fame, they tend not to retire uniform numbers, and his 51 remains in circulation. So does the 56 worn with the Browns by Steinbrunner. Washington State have not retired the 84 that Steinbrunner wore with them, either.

Other NFLers who served in Vietnam include Hall-of-Famers Ray Nitschke, Roger Staubach and Charlie Joiner. The Naval Academy produced Heisman winners Staubach and Joe Bellino; the Army's Military Academy produced Pete Dawkins, and while he chose to stay in the service, he was a genuine combat hero and rose to the rank of General. Rocky Bleier nearly lost his leg in Vietnam, but came back to help the Pittsburgh Steelers win 4 Super Bowls.

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July 20, 1967 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Sam McDowell pitched a 6-hit shutout, while Fritz Peterson lasted only 4 innings. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 7-0 at Shea Stadium. Don Wilson allowed only 2 hits: Single by Ed Charles in the 1st inning and Larry Stahl in the 9th. In between, he pitched 23 no-hit outs. He also walked Ed Kranepool in the 2nd. In the 6th, he walked Stahl and hit Bud Harrelson with a pitch, but induced a double play to get out of it.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Willie Mays did not play, but Willie McCovey hit a home run. Roberto Clemente also did not play.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Orlando Cepeda, Bobby Tolan and Julián Javier hit home runs. Lou Brock went 1-for-5. Roger Maris went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Pete Rose went 2-for-5.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 8-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4.

* The Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox were rained out at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 22. The Orioles won the opener, 10-0. Jim Hardin pitched a 5-hit shutout. The Red Sox won the nightcap, 10-3. Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 2-for-9 with 2 RBIs, Frank Robinson went 2-for-7 with a walk and an RBI, and Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-7 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* And the California Angels, the Chicago White Sox, the Kansas City Athletics, the Minnesota Twins were not scheduled.