James' Submodule Theorem and the Steinberg Module

James' submodule theorem is a fundamental result in the representation theory of the symmetric groups and the finite general linear groups. In this note we consider a version of that theorem for a general finite group with a split $BN$-pair. This gives rise to a distinguished composition factor of the Steinberg module, first described by Hiss via a somewhat different method. It is a major open problem to determine the dimension of this composition factor.