RAPID CITY - When it comes to high school wrestling, Bill Hughes just can't seem to get enough.

Don't bet against the former Spearfish High School and Black Hills State University mentor being at a state tournament or, for that matter, anywhere there's a dual, triangular or quadrangular meet during the season.

Hughes is celebrating a pair of milestones this week.

His 75th birthday was Wednesday, and this weekend marks the 50th consecutive South Dakota state Class A wrestling tournament he has attended as a coach, official, college scout or fan.

Hughes has driven through blizzards to get his teams to state, and even flown to eastern South Dakota after attending the first rounds of the Wyoming state tournament in Casper.

"I look forward to watching the competition and seeing my old colleagues and sidekicks," Hughes said. "It's kind of like old home week."

More than a reunion, it's the wrestling.

"Wrestling is definitely my favorite, from the standpoint that it's the one-on-one aspect out there in the center circle," Hughes said.

"You don't blame the coach or blame your teammates. You either win it or lose it out there yourself."

"You won't find anyone with a greater enthusiasm for a sport than Bill has for wrestling," said retired Black Hills State coach and athletic director Gene Schlekeway, who along with former BHSU track mentor Dave Little used to substitute as college coaches for Hughes during his state tournament trips. "He's done an awful lot for the sport all across the state."

Hughes' high school in Perham, Minn., didn't offer wrestling, so he didn't get his first taste of the sport until he was in the Air Force.

He wrestled a bit at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota before a back injury dating back to his days as a high school high jumper forced him to leave the mat for good.

Spearfish was already a wrestling powerhouse when Hughes became an assistant to then-head coach Roger Denker in 1957

The Spartans won a pair of state titles in the unsanctioned sport in 1957 and 1958, then finished second to Redfield in 1959.

The Spartans, under Denker, won the first "official" single-class state title when the South Dakota High School Activities Association sanctioned the sport in 1960.

Hughes took over when Denker become head football and wrestling coach at Casper, and the Spartans added state titles in 1961, 1962 and 1963.

Rapid City tied Spearfish for the title in 1963.

"He (Denker) built a good program and left it to me," Hughes said. "The kids had that momentum, that confidence, that 'we're the champs. you've got to beat us,' kind of attitude."

Several of Hughes' prep wrestlers won multiple state championships, including Bill Buchholz, whose 45 consecutive wins marked the first long winning streak in the state, Hughes said.

Tom Spingler won a pair of state high school championships, then went on to Black Hills State, becoming the school's first NAIA All-American and finishing fourth in the nation.

Jerry Rothmeyer changed his college plans when Hughes announced he would become Tony Schavone's assistant coach at BHSU in 1965.

Rothmeyer gave up a scholarship at South Dakota State and followed Hughes to Black Hills State.

"He paid me the greatest compliment I ever had as a head coach," Hughes said of Rothmeyer.

Hughes' Yellow Jackets won four South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference titles and 39 individual conference championships.

Six of his wrestlers were NAIA All-Americans.

Hughes retired following the 1990 season, and the Yellow Jackets dropped their wrestling program a year later.

Chadron State, Neb., and Dickinson State, N.D., in North Dakota continue to offer college-level wrestling, but Hughes hopes the Black Hills State follows in the footsteps of other schools in re-establishing wrestling.

Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell restarted their wrestling program in 1995 after a 23-year hiatus and the University of Sioux Falls' program is in its second season.

"We're doing a major disservice as a regional college to the kids who want to compete, then go on to teach and coach," Hughes said.

"We're just flat-out not filling those needs."

Hughes knows what has earned him the accolades, including membership of the Spearfish Spartan Hall-of Fame and Yellow Jacket Hall of Fame, NAIA Hall of Fame and the South Dakota High School Wrestling Hall of Fame.

"Out here in the Old West we have a lot of horse races. It helps to have a good jockey, but it's usually the pony that gets his nose across the finish line," Hughes said.

"There were a lot of good kids that put me where I am," he said.