Poling’s story a perfect fit for Hall of Fame

The Henry Heider Coyote Sports Hall of Fame will add to its lore Friday when six individuals and a team are inducted in a ceremony held inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. 

Todd Poling is being inducted as a special contributor and his story is remarkable. It is the dream script for a place of higher education.

A son of two educators grows up to be a two-sport collegiate athlete in his hometown, competing for the institution his father taught at for nearly 30 years. He becomes a conference champion as a freshman, a wide receiver on the national runner-up football team and is convinced by the dean of the business school to explore classes in his field.

A business school internship program sends him out into the world and leads him to a postgraduate job. After a few years, he earns his MBA. Then he helps grow a start-up manufacturing company, eventually gambles on himself and starts his own company, runs it successfully for 17 years and sells it to a buyer who shares his values. All the while, he gives back to the school and community that supported him.

Any University not swinging at that business pitch? How is this not an NCAA commercial on loop during March Madness?

The best part of this story is that it’s ours. It started when E. Gordon Poling, Todd’s father, became a professor at University of South Dakota in 1961.

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Last Friday marked the 44th anniversary of South Dakota football’s first game inside the DakotaDome. Poling was an eighth grader 44 years ago. One day before the Coyotes hosted St. Thomas in 1979, he watched Vermillion High School play Yankton High School. There was no air conditioning. It was hot.

“It was hot, but it was so exciting because there were rumors for so many years that we were going to get a dome and it seemed like an impossibility,” said Poling. “Domes weren’t really a thing at any level, much less the college level. Next thing you know, they’re digging a big hole and construction began.

“As little kids, we’re out on our bikes watching these guys build the Dome and then finally we got our first game.”

Like many small-town kids, Poling played pretty much everything growing up – football, basketball, track, baseball. Long-time Vermillion cross country and track coach Bob Lowery produced terrific Tanager teams and by Poling’s junior year, it started to occur to him that his times on the track might be good enough for the collegiate level. Basketball was his favorite sport and he quarterbacked the football team, but 6-feet and 160 pounds can be limiting at higher levels. He always felt that if Division I wasn’t in the cards, then USD was the only place he would consider.

Dave Triplett and Duane Schopp both recruited Poling to compete at USD so he knew coming in he was going to get the chance to compete in both football and track, but he wasn’t sure if he could handle two sports. The football team was good. With fifth-year senior quarterback Jim Duggan, the Coyotes went 8-3 in 1984. Poling redshirted in 1985 when the team won 10 games and in 1986, USD won a program-record 11 games en route to the national title game. That turned out to be Poling’s final year of football.

“I had a great experience with the football team, but it became too much to try to play both sports,” said Poling. “I felt I needed to be doing more – spring practice, weights in the offseason, all of that – yet here I am over here running track and didn’t want to give that up.

“What I remember most about football was the culture of accountability that coach Triplett and the rest of the coaches brought to the team. The leadership was such that the best players were the hardest workers and the coolest guys, and they didn’t need to be. It was a special experience to be on those teams.”

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Mike Martin was inducted into the Coyote Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. He is a four-time NCC champion and the 1983 national runner-up in the 800-meter run. His program-record time of 1:50.10 in the event stood for 18 years. Martin was a senior in 1985 when Poling was a freshman.

“First day of track practice, right after football is over and the turf is all rolled up on the side of the Dome, we’re just kind of congregating down by the training room. I didn’t know any of these guys, really. Mike is there and goes, ‘Todd, I’m glad you’re here. We need more competition in practice. It’s going to be great to have you on the team. We’re going to push each other and we’re going to go 1-2 at conference, it’s just a matter of who goes one and who goes two.’

“We hadn’t had our first practice yet, never met the guy and all of these guys – fifth-year seniors – made everybody on the team feel important, like you had a role. As a freshman, you just want to make the team and not embarrass yourself. And here’s this fifth-year senior and two-time defending champ telling me we’re going to go 1-2. That was the culture. And we became great friends.”

Poling and Martin did go 1-2 at the NCC indoor meet. Martin got boxed in near the start and by the time he got untangled it was too late to catch Poling.

“He probably wins eight times out of 10, but you are always reminded to go out and compete because you never know what’s going to happen.”

Martin won the outdoor race and both qualified for nationals. Poling went on to be a part of three record-setting relay teams and as a senior in 1988, was named USD Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Dale Clement came to South Dakota in 1963 to be assistant professor of finance at USD. In 1968, he was named dean of business at age 35. He is a state of South Dakota Hall of Fame inductee.

Dale’s son, Jim, grew up with Todd in Vermillion and the two were in the same grade. They played sports, went to Coyote games and their parents quickly became good friends.

Poling planned on attending medical school, but Dale Clement pulled him aside ahead of his sophomore year and told him he needed to get into the business school. Poling took the bait.

Poling liked the classes and a ton of his football teammates were enrolled in the business school anyway. They were in the same study groups in the Dome and, because of practices, were packed into the same schedule. Poling quickly learned he liked the business curriculum a lot more than science.

In the mid-70s, Dale Clement helped put in place an internship program for accounting students where they would split the spring semester of their fourth year. The internship would take place in January and February and students would double up their credits in March and April.

“Not a lot of other universities were doing that,” said Poling. “Summer internships for accounting don’t really exist because it’s after tax season. These big firms were intrigued. They can get someone who is one semester away from graduating as an intern, plug them in during busy season, see them in action and perhaps offer them to come back after graduation. It’s a major win-win for everybody.

“After five or six years, the people who started as interns at these large companies were the ones conducting interviews to bring in the next group. It was a great pipeline spread out across the region and pretty soon recruiters were coming to Vermillion because they heard great things about our internship program.”

Poling had three to four job offers to choose from and after earning his degree, decided to go to San Antonio, Texas. A few years later, he enrolled in the MBA program at SMU in Dallas. That led to a general manager position for a young company that made drapery hardware.

“It was a great opportunity and a lot of fun,” said Poling. “We grew to about 80 people within two years and had a national client base selling to retail stores. My job consisted of hiring all the employees, the management team, working with customers and running the manufacturing side.”

A few years later, Poling was introduced to a person running a valuation consulting firm in Dallas and a new job began. His boss sold the business in 1998 and the new owners sent Poling to San Diego. In 2005, Poling started his own firm.

“I was about to turn 40, had just met Rosie who I’m married to now, and had saved a little money so I thought I’d do some consulting on my own to see where it goes. I was able to piece together enough work to get from the first year to the second year and then to a third year and so on. The firm grew every year for 17 years until we sold last year.

“I decided early on that my one job as a CEO was to create an environment where other people can be successful, and that was 100 percent a result of watching the coaches and the leaders of our teams at USD do the same thing. It was building a team with people who collaborate and show up every day trying to create success for other people. And it worked!”

Todd and Rosie have contributed to more than 30 different funds at USD over several decades. Todd was on the Alumni Association board for a long time. His mom, Dorothy, stayed in Vermillion until 1998 and currently lives in Rapid City.

When David Herbster tried to call him to tell him about his induction, Poling was unavailable while traveling in New York and originally thought it might be an ask to support a new project. He did return the phone call.

“When he told me I had been selected, I just laughed because obviously as an athlete, I’m not anywhere close to the caliber of the rest of these honorees,” said Poling. “But he said ‘we have a special contributor category’ and I thought that was pretty cool, but 100 percent unexpected.”

Not exactly a Hollywood twist, but an acknowledgement of a job well done. Poling, three other track and field alumni and the 2006 men’s track and field team coached by Gottsleben will be honored Friday. A formal recognition of this year’s Hall of Fame class will take place at halftime of Saturday’s football game against Lamar.