Mobridge basketball coaching legend and Lake City native, Jim Schlekeway, will be enshrined in the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday, Sept. 24, at the Denny Sanford Premier Center complex at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
Schlekeway is one of 23 South Dakota sports legends who will be enshrined that day, 15 living and eight deceased.
Joining Schlekeway at the induction ceremony will be Dawn Seiler, Jeff Turning Heart, Scott Bosanko, Linda Collignon, Marlyn Goldhammer, Clarence Kooistra, Don Larson, Jerry Miller, Dave Myland, Terry Nielsen, Mark Ovenden, Bryan Schwartz, and Brad Seely. Going in under the “Legends” category are Don Baker, Gene Breernes, Harvey Hammrich, Lien Marso, Dean Minder, Mattie Goff Newcombe, Mike Roach, and Joe Thorne.
Schlekeway came to Mobridge in 1981 and went on to coach the Tigers for 30 seasons until retiring after the 2010-2011 season. In his tenure, the Tigers went 366-267, winning 15 district titles and four region titles, leading to state tournaments in 1985, 1987, 1989 and 2004. His teams won six Central South Dakota Conference and four Big Dakota Conference titles.
Starting in Todd County for seven years, Schlekeway coached four years at Sioux Falls O’Gorman and two years in Bloomington, MN, before going to Mobridge. For his career, Schlekeway won 501 (fifth best when he retired) basketball games.
Coaching only starts to tell the story of Schlekeway and the game of basketball. In hoops, prowess first showed up in grade school at Lake City when he scored 49 of his team’s 51 points in a game against Veblen. At Britton High School, Schlekeway scored 1,900 points (averaging more than 20 points per game throughout his career), was a three-time first-team All-Stater, and a high school All-American player. In 1962, he helped Britton win the consolation championship at the State B Basketball Tournament. A 1964 Britton High School graduate, Schlekeway was also an allstate football player and threw shot put for 55 feet, taking fifth in state.
After earning 12 letters in high school sports, Schlekeway went on to earn 10 collegiate letters in basketball, football and track and field at Northern State College. But it was basketball that was his biggest stage. Playing for the Wolves, Schlekeway scored 1,864 points. He led the conference in scoring twice with a career high 49 points. All of his 3,764 points scored in high school and college came before the addition of the three-point line. In 2010, Schlekeway was named one of the 10 best basketball players in Northern State history.
Not his first enshrinement, Schlekeway is a member of the South Dakota Independent Basketball, NSU, South Dakota High School Basketball and South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference Halls of Fame.
Schlekeway and wife, Marilyn, have a basketball family that includes son, Todd (wife, Hall of Fame member Jill Theeler), daughter Tami (husband Andy Boehnke) and grandchildren Gavin, Grant and Jett Schlekeway, and Taylor, Brynn and Kendall Boehnke.
The 2023 enshrinement will bring the total number of inductees to 356.
