Jim "Slim Jim" & "Jumping Jim" Tays - Inducted 2025

1950 Gettysburg/1954 USD graduate. Won 18 letters as one of SD’s best all-time basketball players and high jumpers — 4 TF letters, 4 BB and 3 FB at Gettysburg and seven (4 track and 3 BB) at USD. Left USD as its second leading scorer in history and “the greatest high school and college high jump in South Dakota history” according to USD legendary track coach Dan Lennon. He won seven high jump titles (including the North Central Conference, Sioux City Relays and Howard Wood Relays) as a USD senior. His 6 feet, 4.5 inches leap at the 1954 NCAA meet broke the 22-year SD college record of 6-2.5 set by Jim O’Connell of SDSU in 1932. When Tays left USD, he held the high jump record at 14 high school and college track meets across the region along with the school records at Gettysburg High School (6-3.5 in 1949 regional at Redfield as a junior — still the GHS record 75 years later in 2024) and at USD not to mention the South Dakota state high school and college all-time records at the time. Tays was a 6-4 basketball guard at USD, a three-year starter, two-time (1953 and 1954) All-North Central Conference player and the team captain with classmate Ordell Braase (future NFL pro bowler and three-time NFL champion). Tays led the Coyotes in scoring his last two seasons (more than 500 points) and was an almost unstoppable scorer, rebounder, defender and ball-handler in high school and in college, according to legendary USD coach Carl B. “Rube” Hoy. In high school, Tays was a two-time State A high jump champion (only two classes, so Tays competed against schools from SF, RC, Aberdeen and etc.). In basketball, Gettysburg was one of the 263 Class B schools and Tays led Gettysburg to a 1950 state runner-up finish to Emery with a 23-3 (Pierre and Miller were the other losses) record. Scored more than 800 points his final two years as a prep. Tays was a teacher, coach and athletic director at Hot Springs for 37 years from 1960-1997. His track teams won five Black Hills Conference team titles and he coached 18 individual state champions. As the Hot Springs AD, he grew the high school’s athletic department from three sports for boys to seven sports each for boys and for girls. In 1973, Tays became a charter member of the SDHS Activities Directors’ Association. He is in numerous halls of fame: USD, Hot Springs, Gettysburg, SD High School Basketball and SD Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. The Hot Springs Middle School Activity Center was renamed the Tays Center in 2016.