Lonehill brothers inducted into South Dakota Sports HOF

RAPID CITY—Sixty-seven years after Hobart Lonehill hung up his gloves, he and older brother Edgar are 2025 inductees into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame. Born in 1932, and four years older than Hobart, Edgar was a middleweight feared for his targeted body attack. Little brother Hobart sparred with Edgar and that sparring helped Edgar find elusive opponents and helped Hobart avoid blows from bigger, stronger sluggers. There have never been two South Dakota boxers more respected and feared than the Lonehill brothers.

These are the Hall of Fame biographies for the brothers, expanded and revised by NSNT.

EDGAR LONE HILL (Born 1932. Died 1999.)

A 1952 Rapid City Central graduate where he lettered in both football and basketball. Edgar attended Black Hills State before serving in Korea. Many of Edgar’s later decisions were impacted by his experiences there. Nephew Mark Lonehill, son of Hobart, said, “My Uncle Eddie battled PTSD from serving in Korea.”

Strong academically, Edgar was a West Point nominee.

He was the punter, place-kicker running back and defensive back on the Cobblers undefeated 1950 (state champions) and 1951 football teams that won 15 straight games.

Many consider Edgar and younger brother Hobart as two of the best amateur boxers ever in the Upper Midwest. Edgar is said to have gone on a winning streak that lasted almost two years at one point during a time when amateur boxers had lots of fights.

In 1952, the Lonehill brothers were state champions and also brought home Regional Golden Gloves down in Sioux City, earning a trip to the Golden Gloves National Finals in Chicago. Hobart won the 126-pound regional division and Edgar “The Cat” was the 147-pound champion. Edgar was a southpaw known for his knockouts and crippling body shots. He first learned boxing sparring his three brothers until dark on the Pine Ridge Reservation and then fought as an amateur at the Rapid City Cactus Patch Boxing Club in 1947. Hobart said that Edgar had many interests and talents outside boxing, and one of those talents landed him in a Hollywood movie. In 1955, MGM Studios came to the Black Hills to shoot its $2 million plus budget buffalo movie, “The Last Hunt.” They needed Native Americans, Edgar tried out and his striking good looks and natural ease in front of a camera earned him a speaking a role (“Spotted Hand” — he is killed in a gun duel with movie star Robert Taylor) in the 1956 movie directed by Oscar-winning Richard Brooks that starred Stewart Granger, Taylor and Debra Paget (who replaced Oscar-winner Anne Bancroft, who was injured three weeks into the shoot). MGM offered Edgar a contract, but he would eventually settle back into his main role as a family man.

 

HOBART LONE HILL (Born 1936. Died 2018.)

A 1956 Rapid City Central graduate, Hobart attended South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Born at Pine Ridge, he started sparring his brothers at a young age when a former boxer, one of his dad’s friends, gave the boys old boxing gloves. Hobart was hooked from the start and started competing in organized boxing in 1948. Losses were few and the titles piled up.

Hobart won South Dakota state titles in 1951 (bantamweight), 1952 (featherweight) 1954 (welterweight) 1956 (welterweight) and 1958 (middleweight). Hobart earned trips to Golden Gloves national tournaments in Chicago by winning regional titles in 1952 (featherweight), 1953 (lightweight), 1955 (welterweight) and 1957 (welterweight).

In 1958, a friend who told Hobart that he could win the welterweight title if Hobart jumped up to middleweight. Problem was, Hobart was a natural welterweight. By hiding quarters in his pockets during the pre-tourney weigh in, Hobart beat the minimum weight restriction, and this was not good news for the middleweights of the Upper Midwest. Hobart told NSNT that the larger, stronger middleweights could manhandle him in the clinches and on the ropes, but that “I eventually knocked them out anyway.”

Hobart was known for his speed and finesse, and both Lonehill brothers were highly intelligent outside the ring, and this enhanced their competitive boxing package. That doesn’t mean they made good choices outside the ring. When Hobart broke his dominant right hand in a street fight a few weeks before an upcoming tournament, he spent time in Meade County lockup because the Pennington County jail was full up. The Meade County sheriff set up a heavy bag for Hobart to work out on. He also released him every morning so he could run across Lazelle Street and put in laps around the football field. Because his right was injured, Hobart developed a left hook he eventually learned to crank up with lights-out power. Unfortunately, in 1958 doctors found a heart murmur that ended his career.

But the Lonehill love for boxing never went away and Hobart stepped into the second phase of his boxing life, mentoring dozens of promising young boxers, two of them his sons, Louis and Mark.

In 1969 Hobart co-founded the Indian Men’s Club, a storied chapter in North Rapid boxing history. His program caught the attention of the “Old Mongoose,” Archie Moore, a legendary light-heavy renowned for his keen mind inside and outside the ring. Moore had forgotten more about the fight game than most trainers would ever know, and he took a liking to Hobart, and became a friend of the Indian Men’s Club. Hobart was also a state champion horseshoe pitcher.

The South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame was established by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association in 1968. Indian Country athletes inducted include: Terry Dupris, Fred Ecoffey, Oliver Garnier, Jeff Turning Heart, Vince Whipple, and Steve Withorne.

Coachers include Bob Clifford, Dusty LeBeau, Dave Strain and Andy Zephier. Although not a tribal member, no non-Native ever had a more positive impact on Native basketball than Dave Strain.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him at skindiesel@msn.com)

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