US soccer legend Hank Steinbrecher dead at 77 after battle with heart disease

US soccer pioneer Hank Steinbrecher has died at 77 after a battle with degenerative heart disease.

Steinbrecher, who was hired as secretary general and executive director of the USSF in November 1990, helped bring two World Cup tournaments (one men’s, one women’s) to the United States, and oversaw the women’s squad becoming the most dominant in the world.

He died Tuesday at his home in Tucson, Arizona. 

Steinbrecher was hired by the USSF four months after the U.S men finished 23rd among 24 nations in its first World Cup appearance in 40 years. 

Short on money, the USSF had left its office in New York’s Empire State Building in the 1980s and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee is located.

Steinbrecher led the move of the office to a pair of refurbished mansions in Chicago and the USSF tripled its staff to more than 100 by the time he resigned in March 2000. 

Steinbrecher helped bring the 1994 men’s soccer World Cup to the United States

The U.S. won the first Women´s World Cup in 1991, the Olympic gold medal in 1996 and another World Cup in 1999, when the U.S. hosted the tournament. The Americans hosted the men’s 1994 World Cup, advancing to the second round before finishing last at the 1998 tournament.

Steinbrecher had previously been the director of sports marketing at The Quaker Oats Co. in charge of Gatorade.  

Born in New York City, Steinbrecher was a member of the 1970 NAIA soccer championship team at Davis & Elkins College and got a Master’s degree in education from West Virginia.

He coached soccer at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina, from 1973-78 – the school named its soccer/lacrosse complex after him in 2020 – then at Appalachian State and Boston University. He served as the Harvard venue director for the 1984 Olympic soccer tournament.

Steinbrecher is survived by wife Ruth Anne and sons Chad and Corey.