Terry Egerdahl and Rich Petersson have been elected to the Proctor Baseball Hall of Fame by the Modern Baseball Era Committee. They join 21st Century Era inductee Justin Scanlon in the Hall of Fame Class of 2023.
The Modern Baseball Era Committee considered a ballot of individuals whose contributions to the game were most significant from 1970-1990.
Terry Egerdahl’s recorded baseball career consisted of playing four years for the Rails from 1969-1972 and three years for the UMD Bulldogs from 1974-1976. He earned All-Conference honors in all four seasons for Proctor. He was the lone Rails player selected for the All-Conference Team in both his ninth grade and sophomore years. He was All-Conference Honorable Mention (i.e., Second Team) in his junior year, and again First Team All-Conference in his senior year.
Statistics exist for two of his Proctor seasons. He batted .368 in 1970 and a school-record .636 (21 hits in 12 games) in 1972. Among the highlights of his prep career was the first game ever played at Hermantown’s Don Fichtner Memorial Field. On May 18, 1972, Egerdahl had a three-hit, four-RBI performance that included a three-run home run as Proctor spoiled the field’s grand opening by defeating the Hawks, 13-2.
He did not play baseball during his freshman year at UMD, but the year off did not affect his play as he is the only player in the history of Bulldogs baseball to earn the team’s MVP Award three times.
He batted .435 in 1974, placing second in the conference in batting, and earned the Bulldogs’ lone selection to the All-MIAC Team. He was also named to the NAIA All-District 13 Team in 1974.
He earned All-MIAC honors again in 1976, after batting .371. Following his senior year, he earned UMD Athletics’ two highest awards: the Anderson-Dahle Award for combined academic and athletic excellence, and the Alumni Letterman’s Award as the outstanding senior athlete.
Egerdahl also played football, basketball, and golf for Proctor. His Rails basketball team won the Region 7A championship in 1972 and he earned All-State Tournament Team recognition with his 23 points, 18 rebounds, and 11-for-11 free-throw shooting performance in an overtime loss to Red Wing.
A four-year star football player for the Bulldogs, Egerdahl set eight UMD gridiron records. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1976 but did not make the team. He also had an unsuccessful tryout with the Chicago Bears in 1977. He was an assistant football coach at Proctor for one season before becoming head coach in 1978.
He was Proctor’s community education director, boys’ ninth-grade basketball coach, and assistant baseball coach when he died from a heart attack on December 15, 1980, at age 27. In 1981, the Proctor community rallied to improve the Carson Park athletic field and it was renamed in his honor.
An 18-9 record in his three seasons led to a posthumous induction into the Minnesota State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1987. Other posthumous awards followed, including UMD Athletic Hall of Fame induction in 1993 and Proctor Hall of Fame induction in 2006.
Rich Petersson coached Proctor baseball from 1977-1990. He holds program coaching records for career wins (131), seasons (14), and games (241). His .544 career win percentage is third all-time among Rails baseball coaches.
A West Fargo High School and Moorhead State University graduate, Petersson taught at Graceville High School for one year before starting his career as a social studies teacher at Proctor in 1976.
Proctor captured five sub-region championships (1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984), and three Region 7AA Runner-up trophies (1978, 1982, 1984), during Petersson’s baseball coaching tenure.
The Rails won their first Lake Superior Conference title in baseball in his first season. They won two more under his tutelage. The 1980 and 1981 seasons had perfect 9-0 conference records amid a 22-conference-game win streak that lasted from 1979-1982.
Petersson’s teams posted winning records in his first six seasons. His top five best seasons were 1980 (12-3, .800); 1977 (14-4, .778); 1981 (13-4, .765), 1987 (13-5, .722), and 1978 (11-6, .647).
Petersson’s overall win-loss record is 131-110, including 19-15 in playoffs.
He received the Jim Dimick Retired Coaches Award from the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association in 2016.
Petersson also coached Proctor girls’ basketball for 25 seasons. The Rails made two state tournament appearances (1980, 2001) in that time. He became Proctor’s activities director in 1999 and retired in 2007. He gained induction to the Minnesota State Girls Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2008.