SIOUX CITY | In 150 years of keeping tabs on the Sioux City area’s leading newsmakers, there have certainly been many remarkable athletes to provide endless Sioux City Journal headlines even before the expanded sports sections of the modern era came into vogue.
Any attempt at an undisputed Top 10 or Top 25 from a century-and-a-half of history would be a futile gesture, destined to stir up irreconcilable debates and an endless list of valid omissions.
Still, there have been some no-brainers -- individuals whose achievements are simply unparalleled from the roster of all-time Siouxland sports newsmakers. And it’s of considerable value as an inspiration and also a tribute to keep them in the public eye, especially those who’ve been gone for quite some time.
Listed alphabetically, here’s a baker’s dozen whose stories we’ve had the privilege to chronicle:
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Dave Bancroft (Baseball)
Sioux City’s own Baseball Hall of Famer, Bancroft was born here in 1891 and graduated from old Sioux City High School before a career that established him as one of the premier defensive shortstops in baseball history. The 5-9, 160-pounder played 15 major league seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants, Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers, batting .273 in 1,913 games with 2,004 hits. He helped the Giants beat the Yankees in the 1921 and 1922 World Series.
Terry and Tom Brands (Wrestling)
The twin brothers from Sheldon High School followed up their fabulous prep careers with outstanding success at the college and international levels. Tom, a three-time NCAA champion at Iowa, won an Olympic gold medal (freestyle) in 1996 and Terry, a two-time NCAA and world champ, won bronze at the 2000 Olympics. Tom has been the head coach at Iowa for eight seasons, winning three NCAA crowns, and Terry is his associate head coach.
Vern Den Herder (Football)
Limited to two years of football because Sioux Center High School didn’t add the sport until his junior year, Den Herder went on to star in football and basketball at Central College in Pella. The 6-6, 250-pound defensive end moved forward to a 12-year NFL career with the Miami Dolphins, playing on three Super Bowl teams, including the unbeaten Dolphins of 1972. The 1996 College Football Hall of Fame inductee has lived in Sioux Center since his retirement.
Tuffy Griffiths (Boxing)
It was in boxing’s golden era, the 1920s and ‘30s, when Macy, Neb., native Gerald “Tuffy’’ Griffiths, who grew up in Pender, Neb., and Sioux City, emerged as one of the sport’s premier heavyweights. Some sources show Griffiths with a perfect 55-0 record when he lost Nov. 30, 1928, at Madison Square Garden to future heavyweight champ James J. Braddock, a fight that is the opening focus of the motion picture “Cinderella Man.’’ Griffiths’ career record was 72-12-1.
Kirk Hinrich (Basketball)
At age 33, Hinrich’s pro basketball career is ongoing with the new two-year contract he signed recently with the Chicago Bulls. The star of West High’s 1999 state championship team -- Sioux City’s first in 65 years -- he became an All-American at Kansas on a national runner-up squad in 2003 and then was drafted No. 7 in one of the best NBA drafts ever. A starter for most of his first 11 seasons in the league, his new contract will increase his career earnings to more than $70 million.
Judy Kimball (Golf)
The daughter of a sporting goods dealer, Judy Kimball is still far and away Sioux City’s most accomplished male or female golfer. She was crowned Iowa’s Women’s State Amateur champion in 1958 while attending Kansas University. Graduating from KU in 1960, she turned professional in 1961 and immediately won the American Women’s Open in Minneapolis. She won three LPGA titles, including a four-shot victory in the 1962 LPGA Championship in Las Vegas.
Ray Lemek (Football)
Several former Sioux City athletes have made it to the National Football League, but Heelan High School graduate Ray Lemek probably enjoyed the most decorated career. The team captain at Notre Dame in the fall of 1955, Lemek took a year off to rehab an injured knee and then spent the next nine seasons in the NFL as a guard and tackle with the Washington Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Lemek, who died at age 71 in 2005, was a Pro Bowl selection in 1961.
Nancy Metcalf (Volleyball)
A swimmer who didn’t try volleyball until her freshman year at Hull Western Christian, the former Nancy Meendering went on to become just the second three-time first-team All-American for a powerhouse Nebraska program. That led to 13 years playing professional volleyball in seven different countries and a long affiliation with the U.S. National team. After finishing up her first season ever in Japan this spring, Metcalf said she may consider a transition into coaching.
Bob Odell (Football)
Back when the two awards carried virtually equal significance, the East High grad won the 1943 Maxwell Award and was runner-up in voting for the Heisman Trophy after his senior season at the University of Pennsylvania. Odell, whose older brother, Howard, was the head coach at Yale and the University of Washington, also became a coach (Pennsylvania and Williams College) and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992. He died in 2012 at age 90.
Doug Smith (Track)
From the time he ran his first mile as a seventh-grader and was clocked at 5:06, it was obvious Doug Smith was special. He proved it convincingly while running for old Central High and Kansas University. Clocking 4:15.5 at a 1965 event in Houston, Smith set a national record for freshmen that stood for decades. He was a three-time state and Drake Relays champ in the mile, leading Central to three team titles in a row, and won numerous honors as a collegian at KU.
F. Morgan Taylor (Track)
As the 1924 Paris Olympics get underway in the Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire,’’ the first track and field event shows an American winning the men’s 400-meter hurdles. In real life, that American was Sioux City native F. Morgan Taylor, a Central High grad who added bronze medals in the next two Olympiads, finishing third in Amsterdam (1928) and Los Angeles (1932), where he was captain of the U.S. team and carried the American flag during opening ceremonies.
Adam Timmerman (Football)
A standout high school athlete in Cherokee, Timmerman became a star lineman at South Dakota State, where he was honored as the top NCAA Division II lineman, winning the 1994 Jim Langer Award. He went on to a 12-year NFL career that took him to four Super Bowls. He won one of two during his four seasons with the Green Bay Packers (1995-98) and one of two during eight seasons with the St. Louis Rams (1999-2006). He has lived in Cherokee since leaving football.
