money Merriam: I'm just another guy who couldn't stop Lincoln Kienholz
Let's get one thing straight. This has nothing to do with age. Even if I'd go back some four decades, there just wasn't anyway I was ever going to stop Pierre High School's standout senior athlete Lincoln Kienholz.
Part of it is that I really need to stretch to get to 5 feet, 8 inches. Kienholz is 6-3. But there's more to it than that. Most of it has to do with ability. Even if I am (was) able to walk and chew gum at the same time, and even had some athletic success (mostly on the baseball field), there's no way my talent level was close to his.
Still I tried Tuesday night when Watertown High School's boys basketball team hosted Kienholz and the third-rated Class AA Governors. There I was doing my job, and also doing what I could to help the Arrows by wearing my Michigan Wolverines sweatshirt.
In case you don't remember, just last week Kienholz — one of the best football players and all-around athletes in South Dakota history — announced he had decommitted from the University of Washington to play football in the Big Ten Conference with Ohio State University, Michigan's archrival.
More:South Dakota's all-time leading passer Lincoln Kienholz flips commitment to Ohio State
That's where this story comes to life. It all started 50-some years ago when the Merriam family sat down a couple of days after Thanksgiving to watch one of the few televised college football games that was broadcast every year (Ohio State vs. Michigan). I'm not positive if we had a color television yet but I know it wasn't close to 60 inches or high definition. My older brother Rod rooted for Ohio State. I chose to root for Michigan.
For most of the past decade or more, things haven't been really good to Michigan, but the Wolverines have regained the upper hand these last two years with wins over the Buckeyes. Kienholz got to witness the latest Michigan victory first hand as he contemplated whether to back away from Washington to go to Ohio State.
Hold on a second, there's another connection here. First-year Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer is a former all-around standout athlete from Milbank and I'm sure the South Dakota connection was part of the reason Kienholz made his original commitment to Washington. I feel privileged to have watched DeBoer compete in high school and continue a successful athletic career in college and now in coaching.
For me, this is really about combining family with my profession these past 40 years. It's been great to follow a number of South Dakota's best athletes over these past 40 years. Where do we start? Becky Hammon. Mike Miller. Matthew Mors. Eric Kline. Louie Krogman. Chad Greenway. Ben Leber. Josh Heupel. Can't forget Brooks and Dustin Little and all those Castlewood athletes and Jason Sutherland, Jaime Berry, Josh Hanson, Heath Rylance and all the many talented Watertown athletes.
My apologies to all those I didn't list. One of those was my older brother Rod, who through countless hours of dedication turned himself from an ordinary middle-school basketball player into South Dakota's Mr. Basketball in 1980. Even my brother would note, however, that he never reached the national stage like Hammon, Sutherland and Miller and others before. And certainly not the national stage reached by Kienholz.
There's another connection here. Kienholz doesn't know it, but there's a connection with his senior teammate Christian Busch. Christian's dad Mike is a friend and former classmate of mine who was the starting point guard (6-5) on Huron High School's state boys basketball champions in 1981. The backup point guard on that team, at least until I walked away after a handful of games, was a 5-5 guard named Roger (me).
Kienholz, who capped his stellar high school football career by leading the Governors to their sixth-straight Class 11AA football championship last month, went for 17 points (including an impressive two-handed breakaway dunk) in Pierre's 64-46 win over the Arrow boys.
As someone mentioned after the game: "It just looks like he could go off for 50." And it doesn't matter which sport. Kienholz's football exploits are well-noted, and that's why Ohio State, Washington and many others came calling. He's also very good in basketball and baseball. Heck, he'd be good about just about anything.
As I was watching Tuesday night, it brought me back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when my brother Rod was receiving rude greetings from home fans at nearly every stop on the Eastern South Dakota Conference basketball circuit. As sports fans, we tend to "boo" or cheer against those who are greater than us. I've seen it. Years ago, I probably did it. Not to my brother, but to others.
I wasn't thinking of doing it again Tuesday, other than displaying the Michigan jacket I wear quite often whether Kienholz is in town or not. It didn't matter, I couldn't stop him.
Good for Lincoln. Best of luck to Lincoln. Make us proud Lincoln.
And P.S. Just don't beat my Michigan.
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Pierre's talented all-around athlete one of South Dakota's all-time best.
