SIOUX FALLS — Tickets are now on sale for the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame’s annual induction banquet. The event will be held Sunday, Sept. 22, at the Convention Center in Sioux Falls (the old Sioux Falls Arena).
Nineteen new members will be inducted and the event is open to the public. Tickets are $55 for adults and $35 for students under 12. To purchase your tickets in advance, go to the club’s website and click on “Buy Tickets.” All major credit cards are accepted.
If you have any problems purchasing tickets, please contact SD Sports Hall of Fame Executive Director Jim Dorman at (605) 940-1262.
This year’s honorees include former Brookings basketball player Amy Mickelson; Wounded Knee jockey Fred Ecoffey, whose horses won nearly $12 million; former college football coaches Wayne Haensel (South Dakota State, died 2012) and Jim Heinitz (Augustana); Dakota Wesleyan basketball legend Scott Morgan; all-time West River greats Kim Templeton and Kelvin Torve; and one of the best college athletes in South Dakota history, Jeff Tiefenthaler of Armour.
Two of the state’s top college women’s/prep girls’ basketball coaches will be inducted: former South Dakota coach Chad Lavin and Aberdeen’s Dawn Seiler. Also inducted is the man who helped turn Sioux Falls track and field into a top-tier team, Mark Meile, as well as one of the state’s first stars of track and field, Tyndall graduate Sally Plihal, and one of the state’s top prep/college basketball players, Sioux Falls Lincoln graduate Melissa Olson.
Former Mitchell sports reporter Tim Smith and Volga sports historian George Kiner are inducted, as are boxing legend Bill Burns, Sioux Falls tennis legend Don Barnes and highly respected referee Milo Wepking (who died in 2004). Finally, 1937 Rapid City Central and Iowa Hawkeyes basketball star Rudolph Soderquist (who died in 1980) is inducted.
These 19 new inductees bring the total number of men and women inducted into the Hall of Fame to 372 from all sports and corners of the state. The South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame was founded in 1968 by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association. It is administered by a group of volunteers from across the state.
A social hour will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:00 p.m. and the induction ceremony at 7:00 p.m. For questions about the banquet or Hall of Fame sponsorship, please contact Scott Fiedler at (605) 940-5564.
