Steele inducted into Jacksonville Hall of Fame
5/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Golf
May 3, 2011
University of Montana women's golf coach Joanne Steele was inducted into the Jacksonville University Hall of Fame Saturday. Steele was a four-year member of the Dolphins golf team in the early 90s.
Steele, who was presented by her former coach, John Randall, was inducted into Jacksonville's 10th Hall of Fame class, along with former baseball player Gus Bell, former men's basketball player Ernie Fleming, former JU president Dr. Francis Kinne and former baseball coach Jack Lamabe.
Steele (nee Roberts) was the Sun Belt Conference runner-up as a senior in 1993 and advanced to that year's NCAA regionals. She finished fourth at the Sun Best championship as a junior.
Steele won three tournaments during her career: one as a sophomore, two more as a senior.
Her victory as a sophomore came at the University of Central Florida's Lady Sunshine Invitational with rounds of 68 and 76. Those marks still stand as the lowest single round and 36-hole total in Jacksonville history.
Steele made the JU President's List five semesters and graduated magna cum laude in 1993 with a 3.81 grade point average and degree in sociology.
Steele recently completed her 15th year as golf coach at Montana.
She was named the Big Sky Conference coach of the year in 2006 after guiding the Grizzlies to their first conference championship. Montana had runner-up finishes in 2002 and '05 and has finished in the top five at the conference meet the last eight springs and 11 times overall under Steele.
Academically, Steele's teams have won the annual UM Athletic Director's Award four times as the program with the department's highest cumulative GPA. She has had 52 student-athletes on the Academic All-Big Sky Conference team.
Steele has continued to play competitively. She won the 2001 and '09 Montana State Amateur titles and was runner-up in 2002 and '03.
Steele was inducted into the Montana State Women's Golf Association Hall of Fame in 2009.
