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Floor Speech
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, as I said, it is not just football championships keeping South Dakota sports fans busy this time of the year. There is just as much excitement--sometimes even more--at a Friday night basketball game in towns across our State.
Over the holidays, I was able to get around South Dakota for some of those games. I caught up with Coach Phillips and the Northern State University basketball team last week. I brought my grandkids to see the Sioux Falls Jefferson girls take on the O'Gorman Knights girls for some Friday night hoops. I went to a girls hoops matchup between the Faulkton Trojans and Highmore-Harrold Pirates. I got to see some of the Hoop City Classic at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, and Saturday was able to see a cross-State matchup between the boys teams from Rapid City Central and Sioux Falls Roosevelt.
As I travel around the State, I take every opportunity I can to stop in to a local game or a sporting event. I can count on catching a good matchup wherever I go. It is a chance to connect with people across South Dakota and to support South Dakota's athletes.
This weekend, I am looking forward to being back in my hometown of Murdo for the Jones County Invitational Basketball Tournament. For 3 days in January, the gym at Jones County High School is the center of the universe for the eight teams that are competing for the tournament title. For West River basketball fans, the Jones County Invitational is just in our DNA, and it certainly has a special place in my heart.
The 1969 inaugural tournament was organized by my high school basketball coach, Jerry Applebee; and my dad Harold Thune, who was our school's athletic director; plus Murdo Superintendent Maurice Haugland. When they organized that first tournament, they weren't sure how long it would last. But each year, the entire community would come together to make it a success. And now it is the longest running tournament of its kind in South Dakota, which is a fitting tribute to the impact that my dad and Coach Applebee had in our community and on countless young athletes, myself included.
I can remember sitting in the stands as a kid, dreaming about the opportunity to play in the big tournament one day. I remember the rush of adrenaline that I got coming out of the locker room to a packed house for those games. Nothing could compare to the thrill of winning the whole thing with my teammates, which is something that we were able to do a couple of times when I was in high school.
The Jones County Invitational was also how I got introduced to an important influence in my life, and that was, at that time, Congressman Jim Abdnor.
In the Friday night semifinal game in my freshman year, I had six attempts at the free-throw line, and I made five of them. The next day, we had to play again, the Saturday night game. I was at the Main Street department store in my hometown at the checkout counter, getting ready to buy something, and somebody in the line behind me tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and he says: I noticed you missed one last night.
I am like: Who is this smart aleck? I made five out of six. I am a freshman, right? Give me a break.
Well, he introduced himself as then-Congressman Jim Abdnor.
Jim would go on to be a great friend and mentor, and I would eventually have the opportunity to work for him when he served in the U.S. Senate and as head of the Small Business Administration under President Reagan. But the Jones County Invitational is how I got introduced to him, and that chance meeting is what first opened the door that would lead me to public service.
Sports are a part of the fabric of South Dakota's way of life. They are one of the places we come together and connect as a community and, as I said, particularly on these cold winter evenings.
For many of us, sporting events bring back good memories of our days competing for our school and remind us of the important lessons that we learn from competitive sports--lessons that have often had an impact far beyond the field or the court.
So I am looking forward to being in the bleachers once again this season and watching South Dakota's athletes keep our great heritage going.
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