Robin (Anderson) Thormodsgaard - Inducted 2008

With South Dakota girls basketball in its infancy, Anderson was the state's first great pure shooter, leading Clear Lake to the state "B" tournament four years in a row. The Gale Lundberg-coached Cardinals were state champs in 1976 (24-0), runners-up in '77 and '79 and sixth in '78. She scored 286 points in the state tourney (23.8 a game). At one point, Anderson held every state "B" tourney scoring record: first round (29), semifinal (37), final (31), consolation (36) and tourney (87). The 5-foot-8 left-hander averaged 29 points and shot 53 percent from the field as a senior. For her four-year career, she scored 2,332 points (23.6 a game) and shot 51 percent. Clear Lake was 91-8 and she was first-team all-state all four years. Almost 30 years later, she still is in the top 10 for South Dakota girls career scoring. She only got to play four years of varsity ball because the administration wouldn't allow her to play until she was in high school. She averaged 19 points a game as a freshman, 21.4 as a sophomore and 24.4 as a junior. When Anderson was growing up in Brandt, just southeast of Clear Lake, there was no high school basketball for girls in South Dakota. "There was no vision or hope to play in high school at that time, and I just played because I loved the game." During summers, she'd shoot at the basket on her garage. In winter, she'd go inside to an unheated gym. "I would always last about an hour before my hands started to freeze up. Then I would have to go home." At Iowa, she was the Hawkeyes' leading scorer her first two full seasons and was voted team MVP as a sophomore and senior. Anderson played her final two seasons for coaching legend C. Vivian Stringer. She ended her career fourth on Iowa's scoring list (1,046 points) and also was in the top 10 in steals and assists. She was the first to receive a full-ride scholarship for women's basketball at Iowa. There was no 3-point line when she played or her totals would have been much greater. She coached/managed a girls club team for five years and coached in the Manhattan Beach, Calif., youth league for 10.