Snapshots of that day are etched in his mind, waiting for almost three hours under an old grandstand after a trial match at the former Athletic Park to find out who made the cut.
"It was special. I just loved it."
Steele, who went on to tour Australia a fortnight later, helped the ABs as a halfback in 1951 to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup from the Wallabies who had kept the silverware for two years.
"It was a nine-hour flight from Evans Bay [Wellington] to Sydney in those days on the 'flying boat'.
"They didn't have seatbelts or anything so we sat in what looked like a big lounge and we'd see some big cargo ships on the water," he explains, adding they polished their so-so haka with teammate Percy Erceg on the way, too.
Two weekends ago, Steele watched the ABs thump their rivals 51-20 in the second cup test against the Aussies at Eden Park, Auckland.
The day before the game, he attended an ABs reunion at The Langham hotel.
"I got two free tickets so I took my grandson along. It was a marvellous game," he says of Blake Steele, 23, who plays for the Hastings Rugby and Sports Club's senior thirds team.
Wife Margaret, a resident at Mary Doyle Resthome in Havelock North, daughters Sandra, Karilin, Jan and Tracy, as well as only son Damian, 44, have enjoyed watching test matches with him.
Former Taranaki All Black Maurice "Snow" Cockerill, who was on tour with the 1951 squad but lives in Hastings, was at the reunion, too. (Steele and Cockerill, who is losing his sight, also played competitive bowls together for several years.)
So were Peter Burke (Taranaki), William McCaw (Otago), Erceg (Auckland) and John Tanner (Auckland).
"It was a marvellous game in Auckland. I didn't expect the All Blacks to be that dominant but I did think they were going to win because every player ran and passed the ball, even the forwards."
Steele was aware the teams had drawn the first game 12-12 but hadn't seen it on TV.
"I have a big-screen TV but I don't have Sky," says the retired carpenter who bought his two Napier tickets in May.
"I'll be sitting at the northern end of the temporary stand and I'm taking my son, Damian.
"It's not covered but we've got all the gear," he says as rain has taken hold of the Bay this week.
For someone who watched several 3pm matches from the western bank of Athletic Park in windy Wellington, tonight will be a thrill.
"The gates at Athletic Park used to open at 10am and people would be waiting there before that to get in."
It perplexes people but he still thinks modern technology hasn't eclipsed the bliss of soaking up the atmosphere of a live match.
"I still go to club matches to see all 30 players on the park because you can't see them all on TV.
"When you're watching a lineout you can actually see what people are thinking.
"That's why I love going to see cricket matches at McLean Park in summer."
He doesn't know much about the Pumas but expects them to pack immense upper-body strength in the engine room.
Then, of course, there's the well-documented brilliance of Argentina pivot Hugo Porta.
Steele, who played nine matches for the ABs, including three tests, moved to Hastings in 1968.
A man who felt in harmony with the outdoors and often took his family on camping holidays, Steele fell in love with the Bay after a few trips.
"It was annoying trying to find parking in Wellington in a carpenter's truck.
"Hastings was a one-storey town - It still is. You can see the sky - so I never regretted coming here."
An avid letter writer to Hawke's Bay Today, Steele shoots from the hip.
"Maybe that's why I was a halfback. I get annoyed a little about things," he says with a laugh.
He doesn't criticise the little generals at the base of the scrum.
"If you're selected for the position it's because you are good at it," he says, explaining Wallaby halfback Nic White is under scrutiny because the ABs forwards made life difficult.
He made his debut for the ABs on June 11, 1951, against Newcastle.
He made a conversion and kicked a dropped goal on tour in the No 13 jersey. (In those days numbers were allocated to every squad member and not as the starting XV on the field).
His last match was against Auckland on the way back from the tour.
In 2011 Steele battled bowel cancer and won.
He is now a regular fundraiser for the Cancer Society, including last weekend's Daffodil Day when he collected donations on the streets.
When he was 80, he walked as many times around the former Nelson Park athletics track to raise funds.
The charts and posters are still hanging in his garage as a reminder.
A keen walker, who cycles to Havelock North in summer, Steele is a life member of the HB Marathon Club.
He has clocked up 25 marathons, including five Rotorua and three Hastings ones, and numerous half marathons.
"I joined the marathon clinic in 1970," says the man whose camping and tramping saw him join the Hastings Harriers Club.
Knee surgery and hip replacement have slowed him down but not robbed him of mobility.
Steele is still in touch with all his siblings - two brothers and sisters - in New Zealand and Australia.
For the record, he is Brian because a maternal uncle and a cousin also went by the name of "Leo" in the same Wellington neighbourhood.
"It's a Steele curse," he says with a grin. "We obviously couldn't call everyone Leo so I became Brian."
