Does "everything in the front end" include steering box? If yes you have three prime suspects:
1) rag joint, also known as a biscuit or donut - it's a rubberized coupling between the steering wheel's intermediate shaft and the steering box input shaft, as such it's located right next to the steering box. From the factory it's covered with a plastic shroud that's held in place by a hook-shape end looped around one of the power steering fluid lines, unhook the plastic piece from the line and IIRC it should be able to slide up the intermediate shaft and you get access to the rag joint. Or your shroud may be missing altogether, they get baked by the exhaust manifold pretty well there and get brittle and sometimes break in pieces. Either way, with the engine off, have boyfriend get in the cab and "float" the steering wheel left-right to take up the slack, while you watch the rag joint - there should be no play in it, both halves should turn together, if you see any delay/slip between the upper half (attached to intermediate steering shaft) and lower half (bolted to steering box input shaft) you need a new rag joint.
2) intermediate shaft slip joint - the steering shaft that runs between the firewall and the steering box alongside the engine is made of two parts that can slide into one another, this is part of the collapsible steering column design intended to absorb front impact in an accident instead of transmitting the force up to the steering wheel and consequently shoving said steering wheel in your chest pinning you into the seat and possibly killing you. IIRC the upper half of the intermediate shaft was the hollow tube, and the lower half slides into it. Both half-shafts have flats on them so they can turn together when you operate the wheel, there is a flat spring (like a miniature leaf spring from your front or rear suspension) between the two half-shafts that's supposed to take up the slack there but often enough it breaks and sometimes the pieces even fall out, leaving you with a lot of play between the half-shafts. Pull the engine intake air duct for easier access to the steering shaft, locate place where the two half-shafts slide inside one another, get boyfriend up in the cab and again have him "float" the steering wheel with the engine off while you watch the slip joint - if you see the upper half-shaft turn a bit before the lower one follows it that means the internal spring between the two is dead or missing.
3) intermediate shaft U-joint - this connects the upper half of the intermediate shaft to the solid shaft coming down from the column inside the cab, it's located under the brake booster, kinda close to the firewall. Sometimes it will wear out, not as common occurrence as the soft rag-joint biscuit and broken slip-joint spring, but I've seen it happen. Check for it the exact same way as you did the other two joints.
And in case steering box is still factory in this truck, you can add it to the list of suspects as well. Again get your man to do the steering wheel float thing, and you watch the steering box - the moment the lower half of the rag joint turns the pitman arm should attempt to move, it will be somewhat of a subtle motion as the engine is off and tires are on the ground but it will be noticeable nevertheless. If the rag joint turns but pitman arm dilly-dallies, check to make sure both the bolt holding rag joint on steering box input shaft and big nut holding pitman arm on steering box output shaft are nice and tight (you'll have to crawl under truck and see if the pitman arm wobbles on the box output shaft while boyfriend operates steering wheel, they rarely get loose enough to where you can just move the end up-down by hand but you can certainly try that as well). If all checks out then the play is internal to the steering box, the box has an adjustment that can often it can be used to take up the slop and restore proper operation but let's first confirm that is indeed the problem.
Report back with your findings.
