SIOUX FALLS – 15 new inductees will be enshrined in the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame at its annual banquet on Sunday, September 26 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. Some of these inductees were to have been honored last year, but the 2020 banquet was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Those to be honored include:
- Doug Eggers, who played for the NFL’s Baltimore Colts after graduating from Wagner High School and South Dakota State
- Darwin Robinson of Redfield, who starred in football and track & field at Dakota State before playing for Washington in the NFL
- Kevin Leighton of Madison, who hit over 500 home runs during his amateur baseball career
- Bruce Conley, a longtime Sioux Falls Argus Leader sportswriter
- Ronald Mitchell of Sioux Falls, a successful coach of deaf athletes
- Gary Reed of Sioux Falls, who won a state championship in basketball and worked over 50 state tournaments as an official
- Rapid City’s Duane Whalen, a 40-year coach and athletic director
- John Houska of Rapid City, a coach for 50 years and official at 30 wrestling state tournaments
- Ken Ruml of Howard, one of the most successful wrestling coaches in South Dakota
- Heather Sisler Goehner, who excelled as an all-around athlete at Huron before playing basketball at SDSU
- Laverne Diede of Freeman, who was an early developer of girls’ sports in South Dakota, especially track and field and cross country
- Randy Fletcher of Lennox, who starred in basketball at Dakota Wesleyan
- Jim Miner, who led Yankton High School to continued success in football and track and field
- Wally Johnson, one of the best athletes ever at Aberdeen Central and a basketball and track performer at Northern State
- The late Steve Withorne, who was an all-state performer in multiple sports at Rapid City Central and then played basketball and football at Dakota Wesleyan, eventually earning an NFL tryout
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