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Area scene: Tickets on sale for Sports Hall of Fame banquet
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FarkSIOUX FALLS — Tickets are on sale for the 2008 South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame banquet to be held April 12, at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
Ten people will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, bringing the membership to 187.
Tickets are $30 in advance with a limited number of tickets available for $35 at the door. To receive the discount price, tickets ordered in advance must be paid for in advance, and must be purchased no later than April 9.
Tickets are available at Dakota Sports in Sioux Falls, by calling Glen Peterson at 336-6715 or by writing to the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame, Box 88602, Sioux Falls, SD 57109-8602.
The banquet starts with a social starting at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the induction ceremony starting at 7:30 p.m.
The Hall of Fame was established by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association in 1968 and is now an independent non-profit organization.
Among those being inducted is Roger Toland, who was hired by Don Lindner at the Rapid City Journal in 1964 and retired in 2007 after 43 years of sports writing in the state. Toland is a graduate of Rapid City Central and he studied accounting at National College of Business in Rapid City. He began his career at the Journal by submitting church league softball capsules.
Toland is not only a precise and accurate writer, his attention to detail and record keeping of statistics made him the top source in the state for many sports.
Bill Welsh, who coached Claremont High School to 61 consecutive victories in six-man football, from 1947 to 1963, will be among the inductees. Welsh, an Aberdeen native and Northern State grad, had an amazing record of 84-3 over a 10-year span with nine conference titles including stops at Webster, Forest City, IA, and Claremont.
Other members of the 2008 inductee class include:
- Robin (Anderson) Thormodsgaard, who led Clear Lake to four trips to the state Class B girls basketball tournament before having a standout career at Iowa.
- Jim Booher, who is completing his 41st year as athletic trainer at South Dakota State.
- Terry DuPris, a Cheyenne-Eagle Butte High School grad who went on to star at Huron College.
- Highmore native Mike Durfee, who had a standout football and wrestling career at Southern State (later USD-Springfield before it closed) before returning to compile an excellent coaching record at Southern.
- Don Grebin, a Sioux Falls Washington/Augustana grad who has been a long-time tennis player-coach-promoter.
- Bob Johnson, one of the state’s all-time great track greats, never lost a race — individual or relay — at Sioux Falls Washington, then continued with a standout career at Minnesota;
- John Thomas helped Alexandria to two state Class B basketball titles, then starred at South Dakota State and followed that with a coaching career at Augustana.
- Gene Zulk, Spencer native who had a standout high school basketball career, then was a 1000-point scorer at South Dakota State before coaching SDSU to a runner-up finish in the 1985 NCAA Division II tournament,
Johnson and Grebin live in Sioux Falls, Booher in Brookings, DuPris in Pierre, Thomas in Eden Prairie, Minn., Toland in Rapid City, Zulk in Sun City West, Ariz., and Thomodsgaard in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Welsh and Durfee are being honored posthumously.
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