JAMESTOWN, N.D. — The Kleinsasser family will have a busy year of hall of fame inductions.
Sheri Kleinsasser Stockmoe, who played UND women's basketball in the early 1990s, will be inducted this summer along with three others to the North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame in Jamestown.
Her brother, former Minnesota Vikings player and UND standout Jim Kleinsasser, will be inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame in December.
The North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame inductions will be June 21 at 5 p.m. at the Jamestown Civic Center. Tickets are $35 each and those interested should contact the NDSHF at 701-252-4835.
The itinerary includes an induction banquet, auction and awards program.
The other inductees for 2025 are Gary Eslinger, Randy Hedberg and Tim Olson. The NDSHF inducts a new class every two years.
The four 2025 inductees will receive the Cliff Cushman Award. A Grand Forks native and 1960 Olympian, Cushman lost his life in the Vietnam War.
A native of Carrington, Sheri Kleinsasser Stockmoe was one of the best women's basketball players ever to play at UND. She was a four-time All-North Central Conference selection, two-time All-American, the 1992 Freshman of the Year, 1995 NCC Most Valuable Player and the 1995 Rawlings/WBCA Division II Player of the Year.
At the time she finished her career, Kleinsasser Stockmoe was UND's all-time leading scorer with 1,941 points, and she still ranks second all-time on the scoring list. She ranks eighth on UND's career list in rebounds (720), second in field goals made (770), third in field goals attempted (1,343), third in field goal percentage (.573), third in blocked shots (175), second in free throws made (401), second in free throws attempted (539) and ninth in free throw percentage (.744).
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Kleinsasser Stockmoe averaged 17 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in her career. She scored 30 or more points in a game five times.
A Bismarck native, Eslinger attended Bismarck High School, and the University of Minnesota, where he was a four-year starter for the Golden Gophers football team.
Eslinger was a three-time first-team All-Big Ten selection and a unanimous All-American in 2005. As a senior, he was awarded the Outland Trophy, which is given to college football’s most outstanding interior lineman in the country, as well as the Dave Rimington Trophy, awarded to college football's top center. He was the first player ever to win both awards in the same season.
The Denver Broncos chose Eslinger in the sixth round of the 2006 NFL draft.
Longtime college head coach, North Dakota native and former NFL quarterback, Hedberg has been North Dakota State’s quarterbacks coach since 2014 until his recent retirement.
Hedberg, who was named the 2020-21 FCS Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association, has mentored three NFL draft picks in eight seasons at North Dakota State, including two quarterbacks selected in the top three overall at the NFL Draft.
An eighth-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1977, Hedberg started four regular-season games including his first game as a rookie in 1977. He appeared in seven games with the Bucs that year before spending time with the Oakland Raiders in 1979 and the Green Bay Packers in 1980.
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Olson is a Bismarck native and a St. Mary’s Central High School Alumni. After graduating from St. Mary’s, Olson went on to Hutchinson Community College and then later to the University of Florida in Gainesville.
After the college season was over, he was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the seventh round of the 2000 amateur draft and signed with the team. He later played with the Colorado Rockies.
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