Bob Laskowski - Inducted 2015

Laskowski's award-winning TV and radio sportscasting career spanned 45 years, with 36 of those spent in Rapid City.

There he became known as “West River Bob” for his support of all western South Dakota teams but he considers himself a fan of anything or anyone South Dakota. Laskowski broadcast more than 3,000 athletic events during his career. He retired in 2008.

He did TV sports on KOTA in Rapid City from 1971-84 and on KEVN in Rapid City from 1984-88. He did radio sports on KOTA from 1971-84 and again from 1998-2006, on KTOQ in Rapid City from 1984-98 and also at KWSN in Sioux Falls from 2006-08. He was especially busy in his first stint at KOTA, broadcasting games for South Dakota School of Mines, Rapid City Stevens and Central and Post 22 baseball (about 75 games a year) plus doing two TV sportscasts a day.

He was a six-time South Dakota Sportscaster of the Year, and a member of the Rapid City Sports Hall of Fame and the South Dakota Basketball Coaches Hall of Shrine. He received the South Dakota High School Activities Association Distinguished Service Award in 1998. He won the Black Hills Advertising Federation Silver Medal award in 2006 for promotional and charity work as MDA telethon host for eight years.

A 1961 Turtle Lake (Wis.) High School and 1962 Brown Institute of Broadcasting graduate, Laskowski began his broadcasting career in 1962 at KRSD Radio and TV in Rapid City. He began his sports broadcasting career in 1963 at KTTT Radio in Columbus, Neb. He was at KLIB Radio in Liberal, Kan., from 1964-67, then was sports director at KHAS Radio in Hastings, Neb., from 1967-71 before coming back to Rapid City.