During my time in Sioux Falls for Jack Theeler’s recent induction into the SD Sports Hall of Fame, I had opportunity to be interviewed in the studio of Viewpoint University (KSOO AM 1140). Rick Knobe and Dan Peters host the show.

KSOO Viewpoint University hosts, Rick Knobe and Dan Peters

Rick started the interview with this introduction:

“Kim Clodfelter is our guest today on Viewpoint University. Here to do shameless promotion of a book not yet published…”

Rick has a refined sense of humor that has served him well both as former mayor of Sioux Falls and now as host of the Viewpoint University radio show.
Rick’s co-host Dan Peters, a Wagner native, conducted most of the interview – as Dan is a USD grad and more the sports buff.

I really enjoyed the interview and Rick and Dan do a great job with their show. Later in the interview I mentioned to Rick I have started a website kimclodfelter.com for “the sole purpose of shamelessly promoting the ‘Cloddy book!'”

Touche’!

KSOO AM 1140 STUDIO

To listen to the two interview segments, click on the links below:

Segment One:

Segment Two

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Before traveling to Sioux Falls for Jack Theeler’s Induction into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame last Saturday night, I communicated to Terry I would be in town for the weekend. He graciously suggested that we meet for a podcast interview. We did so Sunday morning at Queen City Bakery near downtown Sioux Falls.

Terry Vandrovec, Sioux Falls Argus Leader Sports Writer

I wasn’t sure what he would be asking me. It turns out he wanted to know about the process of writing the biography of my father. I think it was a good angle and I really enjoyed the interview. It was an opportunity for me to reflect and to express why I chose this subject and what it meant to me personally.

Terry covers athletics for SDSU and does a fine job doing so. Can you believe I have a South Dakota State University bunny logo on my website?

South Dakota State University Jackrabbits

I now have three friends from Brookings!

In all seriousness, Dad had a lot of friends and colleagues up in Brookings. Several of the students he taught in his 14 year high school coaching career in 6 different communities attended SDSU as students and some competed in sports for the Jacks. Don Bartlett, who played for Dad at Centerville High School in the 40’s, was a great athlete at SDSU.

Dad also had a very good relationship with former SDSU basketball coach Jim Iverson as USD and SDSU had an intense rivalry on the hard court in the 1950’s and 60’s. I saw Jim Iverson at the SD Sports Hall of Fame induction Saturday night and I wished I had my tape recorder with me. He gave me a couple of more tidbits for the book. I really like and admire Jim Iverson.

Read my blog of the interview and listen to the podcast interview courtesy of Terry Vandrovec by clicking on the link below:

http://www.argusleader.com/story/terryvandrovec/2014/04/16/podcast-kim-clodfelter/7685667/

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On Saturday night, Jack Theeler and a few other South Dakota greats were inducted into the SD Sports HOF. It was a great evening and fitting recognition for Jack and his exemplary career at USD. I was privileged to sit at one of Jack’s tables and visited with his friends and family. His former team mate at Sisseton High School, Bob Hull, regaled us with some funny stories – out of earshot of Jack I might add! Bob played for dad one year at USD before transferring to Northern State in Aberdeen.

Jack Theeler

Jack’s wife, Nancy, provided me with copies of letters dad sent to Jack back in the 60’s. Dad always seemed to insert some humor in his communications. Jack and Nancy held a pheasant hunt on their farm for five years to raise funds for the Dwane Clodfelter Scholarship which Jack spear headed.

I remember watching Jack play at the New Armory. He had a nose for the ball and the basket and provided a lot of people with some entertaining basketball. He and Phil Jackson were in a battle for the NCC scoring crown going down to the last game. If the 3 point shot was around back then, Phil would have ended up far back in second place!

Article from Mitchell Daily Republic April 12, 2014

While at the banquet, I was able to visit with several other people I knew or just met. It was a delightful evening.

I was also able to take advantage of some other opportunites while in Sioux Falls for the weekend. A radio interview on KSOO’s Viewpoint University with Rick Knobe and Dan Peters, an Argus Leader podcast with Terry Vandrovec which will be online Wednesday, and an interview with Albert Schmidt who was sixth man on Alpena High School’s basketball team in 1942-43. Al Neuharth, an Alpena high school student at the time, cheerleaded for (literally!) and wrote sports stories covering the team that made it to the State “B” tourney in March of 1943 – a great thrill for the small town of Alpena.

I’ll blog about these stories soon.

Do you have a memory of Jack and his playing days at USD that you’d like to share?

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One of the individuals I was looking forward to interviewing for “Cloddy” was Jim Iverson who coached SDSU basketball in the 50’s and 60’s. I wanted to get his perspective on life as a coach in the North Central Conference during the 50’s and 60’s when my dad was coaching at USD. It was a great rivalry then and still is today.

I was unable to contact him by phone, but was told where he had coffee each morning with his friends. I went there early one morning and saw two large, round, tables surrounded by gray hairs. I hadn’t ever met Jim so I went to one of the tables and asked if a “Jim Iverson” was here. Five guys pointed there finger at Jim and I introduced myself. I told him I’d like to interview him for the book. We went to a private booth, but the noise level would make taping the interview impossible. I told Jim we needed a quiet place and he suggested a nearby church.

I began the interview, which lasted for two hours, by asking him about his days playing high school and college basketball. Jim is older now, but was sharp as a tack during our time together. It was a delightful interview. He played basketball for Kansas State, played in a Division I national championship game, was drafted by the Boston Celtics, played against such NBA greats as Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman. Was a great high school player in South Dakota. Started his coaching career as an assistant at K-State. Told me the story of how he got hired by SDSU.

At SDSU, Jim’s teams won three NCAA Midwestern Regional titles qualifying the Jacks for the Divison II Elite 8 tournament and winning the national championship in 1963. During the five year stretch from 1957-1963, USD and SDSU would combine winning five regional titles in seven years. The Coyotes and the Jacks had some memorable contests – especially the 1957 playoff to see who would qualify for the postseason tourney. Both teams finished 11 and 1 in conference play. The playoff game at Huron, a neutral site, was one of the more memorable games in Jim’s career – which the Coyotes narrowly won.

Dad and Jim recruited the same South Dakota boys – and he told me what recruiting was like back in the day. Although the two coaches and schools had an intense rivalry, they were both gentleman and shared a good laugh once in awhile. The respect was mutual. There were also some other pretty good coaches in the North Central Conference in that era including Bill Fitch at UND and Norm Stewart at State Teacher’s College (today Northern Iowa).

At the end of our interview, which I think Jim enjoyed, he told me, “Kim, I wouldn’t agree to an interview with any coach’s son, but I would for Cloddy’s son.”

Jim was one of the great coaches in South Dakota history and is a very fine man.

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I am rewriting the first chapter of “Cloddy.” The title to chapter one is “Little Woonie.” Dad grew up in Woonsocket, South Dakota during the 1920’s and 1930’s and lived through the Great Depression and the “Dustbowl” era. Residents affectionately referred to Woonsocket as “Little Woonie.” Woonsocket was fortunate to have not one, but two railroad lines run through it – an east-west line and a north-south line. The railroad played a significant role in the first forty years of his life.

This second draft is just the framework. I will fill it in with further research and interviews and extensive rewriting. I have always thought this was a good story and hoped I would not “screw it up.” I think that is unlikely because I have a few individuals who are smarter than me who will see to it that it comes out right.

Thank you for your interest!

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Quite frankly, I thought I would be the last person to write a biography of my late father, Dwane Clodfelter.

Growing up the youngest of four siblings – the “caboose” of the family, I was told how great it was that the USD Coyotes won the 1958 national championship. I was three and a half years old in March of 1958 and have little recollection of those glory days.

I had limited understanding and little appreciation for the significance of the USD 1958 national championship achievement. It turns out, there were some other things about my father’s life that I did not know about or appreciate.

Courtesy of one of his special Coyote basketball players, Jack Theeler, who initiated the USD “Dwane Clodfelter Scholarship,” I began to think about my dad’s career – not only at USD, but also as a fledgling coach in the smallest of South Dakota high schools. (Forestburg, Fedora, Alpena, Centerville, Yankton, Huron)

As one of dad’s former players (both at Centerville High School and USD), Matt Alexander put it, “Cloddy was a legend” – before he came to the University of South Dakota. And he secured his reputation as being a “character” – long before taking up an office at USD’s “New Armory.”

In October of 2005, in Huron, SD, as he was inducted into the Huron High School Hall of Fame, I had occasion to ask him a question that I had never before thought of asking him. He was 87 years old at the time – and sharp as a tack.

After the induction ceremony, in a room where the attendees enjoyed food and drink, I sat next to my dad and I asked him:

“Dad, it’s 1954, it’s your first year in your dream job as a college basketball coach. You recruited two black brothers out of Brooklyn, NY to the University of South Dakota – which was virtually an all-white university. It could have blown up in your face a hundred different ways! Why did you do it?”

He didn’t hesitate. He said simply, “I wanted to win.”

I thought he might volunteer that he wanted to be a pioneer in the integration of college basketball and pave the way for Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement – but he spoke from his heart. He was very competitive. He was not a racist. And he read the newspapers and the news of Jackie Robinson and Wilt Chamberlain.

To his credit, he also recruited on the Indian Reservations of South Dakota and elsewhere on the Great Plains in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

I thought the biography of my father, Dwane Clodfelter, would be interesting and noteworthy. I’m hoping the end product will be worthy of the full and adventurous life that he lived.

This is the first journal entry of my journey writing “Cloddy.”

March 26, 2014 Madison, WI

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