Did you know that Joe Foss, famous WW II flying ace and former Governor of South Dakota, was our first Big Clown? Foss, 83, grew up on a farm east of Sioux Falls. As a Marine fighter pilot in 1942 and 1943, he tied a World War I record and shot down 26 Japanese planes in 3 months over Guadalcanal. He bagged five in one day at the age of 27. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor and a Distinguished Flying Cross. He served as South Dakota governor from 1955 to 1959. Foss was also the first Commissioner of the American Football League, serving until it merged with the National Football League in 1966. He was Big Clown in 1954.
An airfield at the Sioux Falls airport is named in his honor, as is a state office building in Pierre. An impressive statue of Joe is in the lobby of the airport. An Oklahoma lake, a Sioux Falls school, and an airport in the Persian Gulf also bear his name.
