To which Steinbrecher responded: "I don't give a damn about a college education. You're smarter than all of us. Come on and work with us."
"That was the beginning of a real, long and good friendship," Steinbrecher said.
That friendship lasted almost three decades until June 6 when Black passed away after a long illness.
There is a good chance that not many people outside of the state associations or U.S. Soccer knew of Black.; His impact, however, was undeniable, as he kept things at an even keel in one of the most important behind-the-scenes roles in all of U.S. Soccer.
Perhaps former U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati put it best.
"Bob, in that way, was very much an unsung hero," he said. "He was simply a good guy.
"While he had a job with U.S. Soccer for a while and was on the board for a while, a lot of what he did, did not get the recognition like so many others also deserve… he did so much behind the scenes at different levels, at the youth level, at national youth level, the Federation level. He always did it in a cheerful way."
"I would call him one of the foot soldiers in the 90s,” added Thom Meredith, himself one of those core people who handled several roles during his years with U.S. Soccer:”
He covered a lot of ground, knew a lot of people."
Former U.S. Soccer CEO and Secretary General Dan Flynn remembered meeting with Black when the 1994 World Cup Organizing Committee worked out of U.S. Soccer House in Chicago on a temporary basis.
"It was really a great advantage for me," Flynn said. "As usual, Bob befriended me in a lot of ways. He said, 'Dan, anything I can help you with.' If you knew Bob, he meant that. Bob was really a good guy."
In soccer terms, Black was a crafty midfielder in the board room, being able to read the room and serve as the proper link between the Federation and the grassroots.
"He had an immeasurable impact, for me personally and also for the Federation at large, the game at large," Steinbrecher said. "He was the best political operative that I could possibly imagine, knowing the infrastructure and the ins and outs of American soccer politics. Nobody had the pulse and the understanding of that as well as Bob did. So, I relied upon him extensively - extensively to get the temperature of the organization, to get the feel of what we could get through in legislation. He was, in that regard, the best."
Those skills were no more important during the run-up to the 1994 World Cup.
Alan Rothenberg was the U.S. Soccer President at the time, having defeated Werner Fricker (1984-1990) in the 1990 election.
"There was a lot of distrust between the rank and file of U.S. Soccer and the [World Cup] organizing committee and the heads of the Federation," Steinbrecher said. "They saw us as interlopers, and Bob was extremely important as being a link between the Rothenberg era and the Fricker era."
