Doug Stanford - Inducted 2014
A 1962 Rapid City Central and 1967 Black Hills State grad, Stanford was one of the state’s greatest amateur baseball players.
The pitcher-outfielder was a two-time state tournament MVP (1972 and ’73) and he hit 26 home runs in 1976 to tie the single-season state record. In 1973, the 6-foot-1½, 205-pound right-hander pitched two complete games in 107-degree heat on the final day as Macy’s won the title, a feat that hadn’t been done since 1939. He was 9-0 that season. The year before he went 17.1 innings on the final day but Macy’s lost in the finals. In 1976, at the National Baseball Congress Midwest Regional he was named to the all-tourney team. He played for 15 seasons: three years for Brezina Construction, two for Hillsview Dairy and the last 10 (’67-76) for Macy’s.
He’s a member of the following halls of fame: S.D. Amateur Baseball, S.D. Amateur Basketball, Black Hills State and Rapid City Area Sports. He was the state’s Independent Athlete of the Year in 1972, when he helped Lemmon to the state amateur basketball title and was MVP of the state amateur baseball tourney.
He won his first amateur basketball title in 1970 with Haines Trucking of Faith, defeating Lemmon by two points to win the region, then beating Huron by three, Ethan by four and Sturgis by three for the state title.
At BHSU in 1965, he was a second-team NAIA All-American outfielder and was second-team all-South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference in basketball. In baseball, the left-handed hitting slugger hit .473 in ’65. In a doubleheader against Dickinson State, he hit five home runs and drove in nine runs. As a walk-on in basketball, he was a four-year starting guard. In ’65, he averaged 15.3 points and 8.7 rebounds to help the Yellow Jackets to their first conference title in 36 years.
At Rapid City Central, he lettered two years each in basketball, football and track. In Legion baseball, he pitched a four-hitter and struck out 13 in the finals as Rapid City Post 22 won its first state title in 1961.
He was a teacher and coach for 33 years, coaching girls and boys basketball, track, golf and football, sometimes as the head coach and sometimes as an assistant. He coached at Faith (1966-76), Milbank (’76-78), Lemmon (’78-87) and Lead-Deadwood (’87-99). He coached Lead-Deadwood’s girls to the 1991 state “A” basketball tourney.
