Bob Schroeder - Inducted 2013
The Miller High and University of South Dakota grad was an extremely successful high school football, basketball and track coach at Miller from the 1940s to the mid-1970s, and he coached two of the greatest teams in state history.
Schroeder was an accomplished athlete at Miller while competing in those three sports. He was the state 100-yard dash champion as a senior in 1941. He continued his basketball and track careers at USD, playing basketball three years for the legendary Rube Hoy and earning all-conference honors in 1943.
He returned to his hometown and began his coaching career in 1944, coaching all three sports. He later became the first athletic director at Miller.
The Rustler basketball teams qualified for the state “B” tournament each of his first five years as coach. The most noted of these was the 1949 state champions, who went 29-0. A panel of experts later rated this team the seventh greatest boys basketball team in South Dakota history – the only “B” team in the top seven. Schroeder coached basketball from 1944-61 with a record of 252-144.
In football, Schroeder’s teams were 151-80-11 with eight undefeated seasons and 13 conference titles in 30 seasons (1944-73). His teams had unbeaten streaks of 29, 19 and 18 games. His 1946 team was one of the highest scoring teams in the nation, scoring 371 points in eight games. That team defense set a record that stands to this day as the Rustlers did not allow a point in any game and in fact did not allow opposing teams closer than the 30-yard line. The team did not punt during the entire season.
Schroeder also coached track for 30 years with multiple conference championships and individual state champs. He was successful as a golfer as well as coaching and playing amateur baseball – he was named to the all-tourney team at the 1949 state tourney.
He was the S.D. Sportswriters Association’s High School Coach of the Year in 1949 and 1967. He is a member of the Miller and USD halls of fame as well as the S.D. High School Basketball Hall of Shrine and the S.D. Football Coaches Hall of Fame. Miller’s football and track complex was named in his honor in 2009.
