Athlete’s 1974 basketball shot remembered

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an excerpt from “The Dakota Wesleyan University Memory Book, 1885-2010,” a new book by James McLaird. The final excerpt will be published in Saturday’s edition.

Only one second showed on the shot clock as Huron star Jim Heard prepared to shoot his second free throw. His first shot had given Huron an 81-80 lead, and his team- mates were already celebrating. It appeared they had won the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference title, and coach Bob Swanhorst instructed Heard to miss the second free throw, eliminating any chance for Dakota Wesleyan to get a shot off.

The coach’s strategy backfired. As the ball bounced off the front of the rim, Wesleyan guard Greg Farrar, who was standing near the top of the foul line, caught the ball and threw it like a baseball into the basket at the other end of the court.

Freshman Lynn Frederick recalled the moment vividly: “As we watched the ball go through the basket, there was just a huge moment of silence.” The crowd was stunned. Then, the Huron players “all fell to the floor in disbelief.” Afterward, it “was just pure hysteria.”

Fans raced to the floor; some of those jumping from the stage landed on the scorers’ table, breaking it in half. Seeing the bedlam on the floor, coach Gordon Fosness hurried his players to the locker room.

Meanwhile, the Huron coach questioned whether Farrar got his shot off in time. “There’s nobody from Huron to this day that believes it should have counted,” he said.

The debate about the shot’s timing centered on whether the ball hit the floor before Farrar shot.

According to Farrar, it came straight off the rim into his hands. Fosness agreed, and remembered the “horn going off when the ball passed underneath the scoreboard.” Making the shot even more remarkable was the fact that, according to Fosness, Farrar was the “least likely of anyone on the floor to hit such a shot.”

In 2006, Farrar’s shot was voted “as the school’s most significant athletic moment” by the Mitchell Daily Republic, Wesleyan coaches, athletes and administrators. The shot was later measured at 68 feet 8 inches, and gave Dakota Wesleyan the conference championship. Unfortunately, their season later ended with an overtime loss to Huron in the playoffs.

Tags: dwu 125, memory book, news, dwu, homecoming, sports, tigers