RAPID CITY - His was a career by the numbers.

Lots and lots of numbers.

After chronicling the struggles and achievements of generations of athletes in the pages of the Rapid City Journal, Roger Toland retires this week with a state record of his own.

His 43 year tenure as a sportswriter working for the same newspaper is believed to be the longest in South Dakota history.

"I never thought I'd be here this long," said Toland. "It wasn't long after I started here that my father told me that one day I'd have to get a real job."

South Dakota sports followers should be grateful that Toland didn't seek more gainful employment.

"Roger is simply a legend in this business," said Aberdeen American News managing news-sports editor John Papendick. "Everyone connected to sports in South Dakota owes Roger. We have all benefited from his words and talent. His attention to detail and record keeping of statistics in this state are second to none. I will miss Roger, as will his thousands of readers."

Toland, 70, steps aside after reporting more than 15,000 sporting events, from American Legion baseball to high school football, basketball, wrestling, track and field, and other games people play.

Statistics, the seemingly endless flow of numbers that define sports events and careers, were Toland's specialty.

"He always had a fondness for figures. That was his forte," said retired Journal sports editor Don Lindner.

"He kept track of individual and team records. Everything he did was pretty much watched by everyone in the state. He was the pioneer in a way of all that stuff," he said.

"You always knew who ran the fastest 100 and 400, and which wrestlers had the most takedowns and reversals," said Dave Ploof, a retired Rapid City Central teacher and coach whose long stint as manager of Rapid City American Legion Post 22 baseball parallels Toland's writing career.

"From Roger's stories and stats, you could find out a lot about a wrestling team without seeing them on the mat," Ploof said.

"Roger and I shared many hours covering Post 22's Firecracker Baseball tournament over the years," said Post 22 broadcaster and former South Dakota School of Mines information director Tom Ruedebusch. "He would be there from 7 a.m. to the final pitch for six days, and would have a box score and a story on every game."

Toland graduated from Rapid City High School and studied accounting at National College of Business (now National American University) in Rapid City.

After a stint in the military, Toland returned to Rapid City to resume his accounting career.

Among his first submissions to the Journal were church league softball stories and box scores.

Lindner hired Toland as a part-time writer in the fall of 1964.

His first assignment was coverage of a Lead-Douglas football game.

"Obviously, Don didn't know if I could even write a word," Toland recalled. "I think he probably still isn't sure about that."

Lindner and Ron Wood came to the Journal in 1959. When Toland was hired full-time, the trio formed a long lasting professional and personal association.

"We all seemed to get along real well together. We were very loyal to the company. We felt very proud to be a part of the Rapid City Journal," Lindner said.

"That was because of Don," Toland said. "He was always looking out for his employees. If you needed to do something or be somewhere away from work, he made sure you were able to get there, even if he had to work the extra hours himself," said Toland.

"It wasn't like he was the boss," Toland said. "That's probably why we stayed extra long."

Ploof recalls the Journal's "Big Three, Plus Two."

"Don Lindner, Ron Wood and Roger Toland were the 'Big Three', and the 'Plus Two' were Vern Anthony with his cartoon drawings and Don Polovich with his unreal athletic photos. Their articles were always positive and fun reading."

Ploof remembers when Toland got a closer look at Post 22 baseball than he bargained for.

"Roger wanted to go on the road with the team, so he picked the trip to the Gopher Classic in Minneapolis. It was really hot, over 100 degrees, and really humid and the air conditioning went out on the bus," Ploof said.

"I think at the time, he weighed about 210 pounds, and by the time he got home after the six-day trip, he weighed about 175. That may be exaggerating a little bit," Ploof said.

"He told me he had a great time, but that he would never, never do that again."

Toland did travel again, covering Post 22's first trip to the American Legion World Series in New Hampshire in 1977.

"That was a trip I will never forget, with many interesting highlights, led by the large praying mantis in our press box," said Ruedebusch.

Former Rapid City sportscaster Bob Laskowski, now with KWSN Sports Radio in Sioux Falls, was well familiar with Toland's dedication to statistics before coming to Rapid City in 1971.

"I subscribed to the Journal in Nebraska and, after moving, I researched the Journal sports pages at the Rapid City Public Library to learn more about my new area," said Laskowski.

"Roger's statistics were particularly helpful to this young, at the time, sportscaster," said Laskowski,

who calls Lindner, Wood and Toland, the 'Holy Trinity' of sportswriters.

"I learned very early in my career, a sportscaster's best friend could be a sportswriter, especially those of the 'Holy Trinity', because of all the help they provided and because they were all genuinely nice guys," he said.

Former Journal sports copy editor Steve Donnelly said Toland's true genius came when writing stories on deadline.

"Roger remains to this day the fastest writer I've ever seen. Making deadline was never a problem when Roger was covering an event," he said, adding, "And when the paper had been put to bed, Roger would shake his head and exclaim 'What a struggle!'

"Roger could produce an amazing amount of copy in a very short time, which came in handy when a Football Special needed to be filled," Donnelly said. "Roger remains one of the kindest, most decent and moral men I've ever known."

Ruedebusch agreed.

"Roger is a professional and a man of great integrity. He has always looked for the positive in his reporting, never looked for controversy where there was none, and wrote a solid, informational story," Ruedebusch said.

"His columns included personal observations, information not found anywhere else, and most of all, sound opinion based on fact and common sense. He was fair in his reporting," he said.

Toland has also garnered his share of criticism.

Readers, athletes and coaches have long had a love-hate relationship with Toland's practice of picking scores of important games and tournaments in advance in his columns.

The prognostications have wound up on many a locker-room wall, and have prompted more than a few phone calls and e-mails, both congratulatory and angry.

"I got just as much of a kick from the people who disagreed with me, as I did from those who thought I was great," Toland said.

Toland's retirement will leave a gap in sports reporting across the state, Laskowski said.

"We can all be replaced, but somehow I feel Roger can't. I pray every night that someone out there will 'keep score' as well as Roger did. He has been a huge service to South Dakota sports and, truly, one of its greats," Laskowski said.

Lindner retired in 1996. Wood retired in 1999 and died of cancer in November, 2003. Donnelly's 30-year Journal career ended in November, 2006.

Toland figures to attend more local sporting events along with wife JoAnn.

"She really wants to go to all the games, now that I won't be working," he said.

He also plans to start work on a children's sports novel, based on true experiences gleaned from his career.

"I hope it'll be a series, and a series starts with one," he said. "JoAnn will help by prodding me."

Expect to see him more often at the ballpark after missing most of the year of Legion baseball because of health issues.

"The first game he comes out to, he's got a chili cheese dog coming from me," Ploof said.

How to sum up Toland's 43 years in a few words?

His friends and peers have called him a hardworking, irreplaceable man of fairness, integrity, faith and morals.

That's not bad for a guy who was supposed to be looking for a real job.