CROOKSTON, Minn. — Longtime Huron High School teacher and tennis coach Hank Hulst was recently honored with induction into the Crookston (Minn.) High School Legends Hall of Fame.
Hulst was a basketball legend at Crookston High School and was the first 1,000 point scorer in the school’s history, ending with 1,050 points. He also held the state of Minnesota single game scoring record of 47 points, which stood for many years, and is still the school record, as is the 402 points he scored in his senior season.
Hulst’s daughter Deb Allison was among family members who attended the induction ceremony and introduced her father for induction.
“Dad started playing basketball when he was 9 or 10-years old,” Allison noted. She said Hulse credited a local businessman named Willis Eide for getting him started. “Dad said, that in his will, Mr. Eide had decreed  that he would provide a basketball hoop for any family who wanted one, but couldn’t afford it.”

Allison related that her father told her that he used to break into the school to be able to shoot indoors, but that “he had a guy on the inside too, as his father Otto was the custodian at the time and would sometimes leave a window open or a door unlocked.
Hulse related that his 47 point game came in his sophomore year, with his brother Bill, who was a senior, also on the team. “Dad made 22 of 25 field goals in the game,” Allison said. “And about 20 of them were likely from three-point range - which didn’t exist at that time.”
Between his sophomore and junior years in high school, Hulse discovered tennis, with the help of a University of Minnesota tennis player working in Crookston that summer.
“Dad was a natural,” Allison said. “He played all summer and in the fall of his senior year, he recruited a couple of buddies to join him and convinced the basketball coach to be the coach. Dad said that the coach new nothing about tennis, but would happily drive the boys to wherever they needed to go.”
Hulst married and settled into a teaching and coaching career at Huron High School. He taught for more than 45 years and as a tennis coach helped lead Huron to its one and only team tennis title, in 1986. It was a family affair, as daughter Carmen was the flight one individual champion that season and teamed with sister Sheryl to take the doubles title. The team was state runner-up in 1985.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DEB ALLISON
Former Huron High School tennis coach and teacher Hank Hulst speaks at a ceremony in which he was inducted into the Crookston (Minn.) High School Legends Hall of Fame earlier this summer. Pictured to the left is his eldest daughter Deb, who presented her father at the event.

Next, members of the Hulst family relax before the induction ceremony. From the left are Hank Hulst, his wife Donna, Pam Stainbrook, a niece, and one of Hank’s daughters, Sharyl.