Dale Palmer - Inducted 2015

The 1929 Sioux Falls Washington High grad was one of the state’s finest track sprinters, dominating the dash events throughout his career at Washington and continuing it at South Dakota State. WHS coach Howard Wood rated Palmer as “one of the most outstanding athletes that Washington High ever had.”

At Washington, he lettered four years in track, three in football and two in basketball. In football, he was all-conference as a junior and second-team all-state as a senior. He was track captain in 1928 and ’29, and he won nearly all of the 100, 220 and 440 dashes that he competed in as well as being a key member of some outstanding relay teams. As a junior, he won the 100, 220 and 440 at the state meet. As a senior, he scored 16 of his team’s 29 points as the Warriors won the state title. That year he also was a member of a mile relay team that won at the Drake Relays and a medley relay team that took second place in the prestigious Interscholastic Championships in Chicago.

At SDSU, he competed in football and track. In football, he was named to the all-North Central Conference team in 1932 and was team captain as a junior and senior. He was unable to play football in his senior year because of a car accident that led to his death at age 25 in 1934.

He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Washington High Athletic Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Howard Wood Dakota Relays Hall of Fame in 1965.