Minnesota Vikings Mount Rushmore & Augie sweeps NSIC diamond titles

Adrian Peterson was named to the Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor on Monday. He is the NFL's No. 5 all-time leading rusher and tops the Vikings' list. This begs the question — who joins A.P. on the Vikings' all-time Mount Rushmore? The Happy Hour host gives his after a word about two amazing athletic programs in the heart of Sioux Falls.   Death. Taxes. Augustana baseball and softball teams winning NSIC Tournament titles and playing in the NCAA Div. II Tournament.   It doesn't happen every year. It just seems like it.   This year, both teams were relatively young, full of first-time starters (including starting pitchers), experienced growing pains early and in mid-season, and then hoisted trophies when it counted the most in May.   On Saturday, Tim Huber's baseball squad took home its fifth Northern Sun conference tournament title and automatic NCAA Tournament berth since 2014. It is Huber's ninth trip to baseball's big dance in his 18 seasons and his fifth in the last six years.  Eight years ago, the Vikings became the first "northern" school to win the D2 national championship.   A year later, Gretta Melsted led Augie softball to the Holy Grail. Saturday, her squad reached the NCAA Tourney for the 14th time in her 20 years and won its sixth NSIC Tourney — including each of the last three and four of the last five.   So, how does this keep happening? How do the Augie diamond trains keep rolling — or more aptly put, how do the Viking ships keep barging to dominance?   We could address low-hanging fruit — Both trophies were hoisted in Sioux Falls, where the NSIC tourneys in both sports have been held each of the last two years.    Likely, there are some teams in the league that crowed under their breaths about the home field and home city advantage. But, that would be like Summit League women's teams whining about South Dakota State's home crowd advantage in the Summit League basketball tournament year after year.   Yes, the partisan fan support is a propeller, but 95 percent of the time, the Jackrabbits were the best or second best team in the league coming into the event and always knew how to play their absolute best basketball when the lights were the brightest in March.   That's no fluke, considering Aaron Johnston was the coach for all 13 Summit tourney titles in 18 years and has won over 655 games in 26 years and he, too, also won a Division II national title in 2003 before the Jacks moved up to Div. I in 2004.   Augie baseball and softball are in similar situations: Both have long-tenured coaches who, like Johnston, were targeted for jobs at higher levels—either as finalists or actual offers—but stayed to keep the freight trains they built rolling.    Both Huber and Melstead have won a national title. They have both won at least a handful of NSIC tourney titles. They're almost always one of the best two or three teams in the regular season for the last decade.    It doesn't matter where you put the league tourney. They can figure this out. And both Huber and Melsted have won multiple NSIC Tourney titles away from Sioux Falls.   Augie baseball and softball in the NSIC and the northern part of the country in a southern sport is what SDSU is to Summit and mid-major women's hoops. They're North Dakota State football and within the last few years, SDSU football in the Missouri Valley and FCS.   Superb coaching. Coaches stay or — in the case of Bison and Jacks football — assistants who were were part of titles take over and stick to the winning formula. Titles pile up. Recruiting gets easier because the best players in your region want to play there. The program becomes a machine.   On the Augie diamonds, this year was a testament to how superb, experienced coaching matters — and both Vikings teams were in a similar spot to Aaron Johnston's Jacks with about a month to go in the regular season.   Remember, SDSU had lost to NDSU and USD and seemed flat and out of sorts and without much firepower beyond Brooklyn Meyer and Maddie Mathiowetz. Then, Johnston went into the lab and tinkered with the lineup. A month later, the Jacks got revenge on both the Bison and Yotes in their rematches, then again in Summit tourney games.   Huber's baseball team was in the NSIC regular season title mix in Mid-April, but was swept in a three-game series at Minnesota State in Mankato.   The Vikings were young, they made youthful mistakes in that series. Huber, with 17 years of head coaching in the same spot under his belt, found a way to get their heads in the right space, and boom, the Vikings won seven of their last eight coming into the tourney, then three straight in Sioux Falls. The final hurdle to cross was against the same Mavericks who buried them a month earlier, and Augie beat them 6-4. Even sweeter, this avenged Augie's two Championship Saturday losses to MSU in Sioux Falls last year, when the Vikings needed only one win for the title. That led to Augie being left out of the NCAA Tournament field.   Meanwhile, Melsted's softball team, coming off five straight regular season titles and back-to-back tourney championships, started 15-14 this year. It seemed like a down year.    But Melsted had 19 years of head coaching at Augie under her belt and the Vikings won 10 of 11 down the stretch, then three straight to win the tourney at Bowden Field.   Consistent winning and coaching experience matter. You find a way to turn the corner in February and March in college hoops, and in April and May in baseball and softball.    Yeah, the players have to perform. But when banners pile up year after year with the same coach, you have your answer for why it keeps happening with different players and rosters.   Now, both programs head into the NCAA Tournament, where both coaches have also won a bunch, not to mention have learned from losing there, as well.    Huber joined Happy Hour for 20 minutes to explain how the 2026 team will be the latest to have a banner at Ronken Field.    Melsted will join the program next week.