Steve Brown - Inducted 2012

One of the state’s finest prep and college basketball players, the Hamlin High and South Dakota State grad had a knack for scoring.

And he was a terrific baseball player as well.

At Hamlin, the 5-foot-10 guard was a three-time first-team all-stater and led the Chargers to the 1974 state Class B title, scoring a record 50 points in a semifinal game. He averaged more than 30 points a game his final three seasons, including 33 a game as a senior. He finished his career with 2,212 points, eighth all-time in South Dakota at the time.  He also was a three-time all-state football player.

At SDSU, he was all-North Central Conference as a junior and senior and was all-district first team both those seasons, when he averaged 20.4 and 19.7 points a game, respectively. He led the NCC in scoring as a junior (22 ppg). Despite playing before the 3-point line came into existence, he graduated No. 2 on the Jackrabbits’ career scoring charts (1,534 points). A great shooter, Brown shot 50.7 percent from the field and 84.6 percent on free throws in his career.

Despite playing against taller opponents most of the time, Brown  was adept at finding ways to score. “I would shoot underhand, use my body to shoot what you would call awkward shots,’’ he said. “I didn’t have the patented jump shot. I had a lot of running shots, little hook shots.”

He also starred in baseball at SDSU. He was an all-NCC third baseman as a junior and senior and was the league MVP as a senior. He hit .403 in 1977 and hit a league-leading .500 in ’78, and he led the league in home runs both seasons. He finished with 17 homers in his three-year career.

After college, Brown was an assistant basketball coach at SDSU, Dickinson State and the University of Minnesota and was head coach at Michigan Tech.

He was the South Dakota College Athlete of the Year for 1978. In 2010, he was inducted into the SDSU Hall of Fame and was a charter member of the South Dakota Basketball Hall of Fame.

Brown has been the director of the  Minnesota Timberwolves/Lynx Basketball Academy for four years. In that role, he directs camps and clinics and trains athletes of all ages.