Lolly Forseth - Inducted 1998

Born Sept. 9, 1947, in Mitchell. 1965 Canton grad. 1969 SDSU grad. Was a head gymnastics coach for 19 years in Sioux Falls, leading Lincoln High to seven state titles and Washington High to four.  Three other teams were state runners-up. Her teams had an incredible 154-9 record in dual meets. She coached Lincoln from 1970-72 and 1980-91 and Washington from 1974-77.

She also was a gymnastics judge for 20 years. In all, she spent more than 40 years involved in gymnastics as a coach, judge and meet official.

Forseth herself had little gymnastics background when she started coaching the sport. There were no organized sports of any kind when she was in high school.

“I did acrobatic dance lessons when I was younger," she said. "My first exposure to gymnastics was in college. I was a competitor for one year under Pete Torino. I started coaching gymnastics right out of college. My first year of teaching at Lincoln I was the head boys coach and the girls coach.”

In 1989 she was the first woman inducted into the South Dakota High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She is in six other halls of fame, including Gymnastics Coaches Association (1998), National High School Coaches Association (2001), Washington High (2004) and Lincoln High (2007). She was named the state gymnastics coach of the year four times (1882, 1985, 1986, 1991) and was chosen national gymnastics coach of the year in 1990. She received SDSU's Ralph Ginn Award for esxcellence in coaching. Among other awards she received were the Peter D. Torino Award for excellence in coaching by the S.D. Gymnastics Coaches Association, the Max Hawk Award from the S.D. High School Coaches Association for excellence in coaching, the Pathfinder Award presented by the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport and distinguished service awards from the S.D. High School Activities Association and the S.D. High School Coaches Association. The annual Sioux Falls Invitational gymnastics meet was renamed in her honor in 2008.

 She served as athletic director at Lincoln High from 1995-2005. Also was AD at Roosevelt HS in Sioux Falls in 2006.

Photo No. 3 is Forseth and fellow Hall of Famers Rich Greeno (left) and Burdell Coplan.