Craig Stolze - Inducted 2004

Born Oct. 21, 1919 in Sioux City. 1938 (Sioux City) Central HS grad. 1949 USD grad. Stolze is the only person to be named South Dakota Sportswriter of the Year four consecutive years. He was sports editor at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader for 10 years (1953-63). While there, Stolze started the Associated Press basketball polls, an Ace of the Week award and a "Game of the Week" for high school sports and carried the most comprehensive track coverage in the state. He also started and ran the Golden Gloves boxing tournament for three years. He was named the state's Sportswriter of the Year the first four years the award was given (1959-62). Stolze was executive sports editor of the Hartford (Conn.) Times from 1965-69 and was a writer for two Rochester, N.Y., newspapers: the Democrat & Chronicle (1969-73) and the Times-Union (1973-83). During those years, he covered 10 Super Bowls, many World Series, track (the national AAU meet), all the major college football games and bowls, boxing (Ali-Frazier, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard), golf (U.S. Open, Masters, PGA, LPGA tourneys) and auto racing (Indy 500, Daytona 500). He also covered the Buffalo Bills for 14 years, including the O.J. Simpson years. He retired in 1983 and moved to California. Stolze lettered two years in baseball at USD, where he graduated magna cum laude and made Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, he worked as a reporter at the Sioux City Journal, then was sports editor at the Huron Daily Plainsman (1949-53) before coming to Sioux Falls. He left Sioux Falls to be sports information director at USD (1963-65).