Together, they may have been the greatest class to enter the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame.
The class of 2013 was inducted in Sioux Falls Saturday night, and the 11 who went in had a list of overwhelming accomplishments. Among this class were an Olympian, a professional athlete and national championship coaches.
This hall was started in 1968 by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association. It has a board of directors, an advisory board with representatives from all sports from rodeo to basketball, and a selection committee of eight, which I have been a part of for the last few years.
We have a waiting lists of hundreds of nominees with accomplishments that would make you shake your head and say, "Why wouldn't she/he be in the hall?" There are already 236.
However, when you have one banquet each year, you can only induct so many or the banquet (which ran from 4:30 p.m. social to about 9:30 p.m. this year) would take days.
Here are my observations from Saturday night's road trip and event.
Inductee Harold Thune, who turned 94 on March 28, drove the 210 miles from his hometown of Murdo to the banquet in Sioux Falls. By himself.
When going up to the stage to give his induction speech, Thune handled the stairs better than the 40-, 50- and 60-years olds (and beyond) who went up them.
Thune, dad of Sen. John Thune, is still stinging from his Murdo Coyotes 32-27 lost to the Doland Wheelers in the championship game of the 1937 State B Boys' Basketball Tournament.
With six minutes left in that Murdo-Doland game, Doland led 30-11. Thune said he and his teammates ended the game on a 16-2 run, "but it wasn't quite enough."
As a Navy fighter pilot in World War II, Thune earned the Distinguished Flying Cross medal.
The roads were great going down to Sioux Falls in the middle of the day, and a bit dicey at times coming back in the middle of the night.
The truck stop at Summit - where most South Dakotans have been stranded at least once at some point in their lives - is in the middle of a big remodeling project.
Four basketball coaches who were inducted - Aberdeen's Curt Fredrickson and Don Meyer, Pine Ridge's Dusty LeBeaux and Mitchell's Gary Munsen - have won a combined 3,091 games.
Kris Tschetter played on the LPGA from 1988-2012. She was one of the world's greatest golfers in the 1990s, finishing second in two LPGA majors.
Despite seven hip surgeries, Tschetter earned about $3 million during her pro career.
LeBeaux gave the best acceptance speech of the night. The coach said he was overwhelmed by the honor, and he obviously was overwhelmed by emotion. LeBeaux dedicated the honor to his many past and present players for all their hard work.
Speaking of emotion, inductee Pal Christensen of Yankton could barely get through his speech as he shed many tears of disbelief of being honored. The retired, well-known college and high school referee of more than 6,000 games, over more than 50 years, was talking about his cantankerous and confrontational relationship with coaches when he blurted out, "I was such a bastard." The crowd roared.
Christensen officiated the first collegiate basketball game in the Sioux Falls Arena in 1961.
Christensen introduced each of his nine children as well as his wife of 65 years.
Great crowd response is no stranger to Meyer when he is speaking, and Saturday was no exception. Meyer said he found a cellphone after one game and he knew it belonged to that night's official. "It had 23 missed calls when I opened it up," Meyer said.
While Fredrickson praised his co-workers at Northern State during his talk and said he learned a lot from working along side people such as Bob Olson, Meyer and Jim Kretchman. Meyer, meanwhile, pointed out Fredrickson's prowess for consistently being able to call the right play for the right situation.
Fredrickson, who was recently inducted into the national NAIA Hall of Fame, is the second-winningest active NCAA Division II women's basketball coach with 723 wins in 34 seasons, all at NSU.
A lifetime .418 hitter, Fredrickson is the only player in state amateur baseball history with more than 250 home runs and more than 250 pitching victories.
Inductee LeRoy Carlson (now deceased) was one of the state's greatest fast-pitch softball players of all time. His first team at age 13 at Baltic was comprised of himself, his dad and eight uncles. He once struck out 36 of 39 batters in an extra-inning (13) game.
Inductee Bob Schroeder, a 1941 Miller High graduate, coached in his hometown for 30 years. In football, his teams were 151-80-11 with eight undefeated seasons and 13 conference titles. His teams had unbeaten streaks of 29, 19 and 18 games.
Schroeder's 1946 Miller football team outscored opponents 371-0. That team did not allow opposing teams closer than the 30-yard line and the Rustlers did not punt that season.
Schroeder's 1949 Miller state championship basketball team went 29-0.
LeBeaux coached all eight of his children in at least one state basketball tournament. This year, he coached his grandson in the state tourney.
All 33 of LeBeaux's grandkids have each asked him if he will coach them when they get to high school.
LeBeaux's 33 grandchildren love to come to his house. "It gets pretty noisy when they are all there," LeBeaux said with a laugh.
Munsen coached 84 all-state players and won 12 state titles at Mitchell.
In 1985, three of Munsen's seniors (Bart Friedrick, Chad Andersen and Tim Byrd) earned spots on the all-state first team.
In my time of covering Munsen while sports editor at Mitchell in the 1980s, his teams lost only a handful of games.
Inductee Rod DeHaven, now the cross country and track coach at South Dakota State, was Team USA's lone marathoner at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
As a Jackrabbit, DeHaven was a national championship runner who won 20 individual North Central Conference titles in track and cross country during his career.
At Huron, DeHaven was the MVP of the 1983 and 1984 state track meets.
Inductee James A. "Pev" Evans of Rapid City was one South Dakota's greatest football players. In the 1950s, he was the Nebraska Cornhusters' starting offensive tackle, defensive tackle and kicker for four years. He played in the 1955 Orange Bowl where Duke beat his Cornhuskers 34-7.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News: jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.
Twitter: @jpapendick