South Dakota loses a legend in Jim Marking

by Mark Ovenden
January 23, 2013 5:16 PM


South Dakota lost a legend last weekend when Jim Marking passed away in Brookings Saturday at the age of 85. Marking was a successful coach in both the high school and college leaving behind an incredible legacy.

He became the only coach to ever win state titles in both classes of high school basketball in South Dakota when he led the Hayti Redbirds to the title in 1954 (117-13 in 4 seasons) and then did the same with the Watertown Arrows in 1959 (78-35 in 5 seasons)...

After that Marking went on to coach the SDSU men's basketball team to a 148-80 record in 9 seasons and he left as the Jacks all-time winningest coach when he retired. During those 9 years his teams won 4 conference titles and went to the post season 5 times. Marking was also an assistant under Jim Iverson when the Jacks won the Division II title in 1963 when Sid Bostic hit the game winning shot.

In 24 years as a high school and college basketball coach, Jim won an amazing 74% of his games.

Jim received numerous honors for his coaching excellence. He's a member of the South Dakota Hall of Fame, South Dakota High School Coaches Hall of Fame, Distinguished Alumnus Award at SDSU, Watertown High School Hall of Fame, South Dakota Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, South Dakota State University Hall of Fame, South Dakota Press Association Distinguished Athletic Award, North Central Conference Hall of Fame, South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame, South Dakota College Coach of the Year in 1970, and Governor Kneip issued Executive Proclamation of “Jim Marking Day” on Dec. 21, 1974.

The funeral is Thursday morning at 10:30 at the St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Brookings.