Bob Young - Inducted 2009

A Beresford High grad, Young is the winningest football coach in University of Sioux Falls history with a 172-69-3 record in 22 seasons. Young was raised on a farm and participated in three sports in high school. He went on to play football for Sioux Falls College, where he played linebacker and offensive guard and was all-conference as a senior. He began his football coaching career in Garretson, then Hawarden, Iowa, before moving to Phoenix. As coach at Maryvale High, he was 72-23-5 and was twice named Phoenix High School Coach of the Year. In 1983, he moved back to South Dakota, where he turned a USF football program with a .276 winning percentage into a national powerhouse. Under his leadership the Cougars won 13 conference championships, one NAIA national title (1996) and played for another (2001). His first conference title came in his second season, when he led his team to an 8-2 record in the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference. He would go on to win eight more SDIC titles, including the final five of the conference's existence. Young's Cougars won 27 straight SDIC games over five seasons (1994-99). In 2000, USF joined the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The 2001 season started a number of streaks again as USF began conference play with 34 straight wins, and USF won its first of four consecutive GPAC titles. He was named GPAC coach of the year eight times and national coach of the year in 1996. Six times his Cougars had unbeaten regular seasons. Ten times they advanced to the NAIA playoffs, including nine of his last 11 seasons. However, perhaps Young's greatest accomplishment was the impact he had on the lives of the hundreds of athletes that he coached in his career. Young gives credit to a variety of sources, first and foremost to his very understanding wife, Diane, and the relationship he has built with coaches, players and, most importantly, God.