Abbott, Cleve
Born Dec. 9, 1894 in Yankton. 1912 Watertown High School grad. 1916 SDSU grad. Won 16 varsity letters at Watertown and at SDSU he earned 14 more (in track, football, baseball and basketball). Hired by Booker T. Washington to teach and coach at Tuskegee Institute in 1915, Abbott became one of the most respected coaches […]
Antonen, Ray
Born Oct. 14, 1917 near Lake Norden. Lake Norden High School. Huron College. Was president of the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association from 1967 until his death in 1987. At 14 he began playing baseball for the Lake Norden town team as a catcher and he competed for all but one season for the next […]
Antonen, Mel
The 1974 Hamlin High and 1979 Augustana grad was a national baseball reporter for USA Today for 24 years (1986-2010). The Lake Norden native covered numerous history-making accomplishments – including Cal Ripken’s Ironman streak, the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa Home Run Derby, eight players reaching their 3,000th hit, labor negotiations, the players’ strike of 1994, the […]
Ashley, Jim
Born June 23, 1902, in Hawarden, Iowa. Moved to Sioux Falls in 1916. Graduated from Washington High in 1920. Ashley was the first person to put an organized sports section in an area newspaper (in 1925), and he served as the Argus Leader’s sports editor for 20 years. Ashley worked at the Argus Leader for […]
Barnum, Blanche
Blanche Barnum graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1926 and the University of California in 1933. She taught physical education at the grade school and high school levels for 30 years at Winner, Tabor, Platte, and Mitchell. Barnum was a pioneer of athletic competition for girls. She started and coached a girls’ high school […]
Bierle, Don
Co-founder of the South Dakota Sportswriters Association and the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame, Bierle’s love of athletics as a measure of character began early. Although a childhood injury put him on crutches or in a wheelchair for more than 60 years, Bierle lived and breathed sports. A 1946 Yankton High and 1951 University […]
Booher, Jim
One of the founders of the South Dakota Athletic Trainers Association, Booher was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame in 1998. The Ashland, Neb., native and 1965 Nebraska Wesleyan grad has been an athletic trainer and instructor/professor at South Dakota State since 1967. He split time between the university and Brookings […]
Brewer, Bryan
Lakota Name. Ohiyaku (Returns Victoriously) Bryan Brewer, Sr. was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He is a 1965 graduate of Pine Ridge High School and graduated from Black Hills State University in 1976. Brewer served in the United States Navy from 1965 to […]
Burns, William (Bill)
Bill Burns collaborated with South Dakota amateur boxing clubs from 1970 to 1980, establishing a state program that provided training and advancement opportunities for athletes, coaches, and officials. As state chair, he expanded the program from 11 to 26 clubs and increased athlete participation from 150 to nearly 500. The program began regularly advancing participants […]
Burt, Jim
Born in Melcher, Iowa, in 1914. 1936 grad of Melcher High School. Brown Institute in Minneapolis. A broadcast pioneer, Burt spent 40 years at KELO Radio and TV, retiring in 1987. To South Dakotans, no state sports figure was more recognizable. Burt started at KELO Radio in June of 1947. He did play-by-play of KELO’s […]