Saints Hall Comes Calling For Brownlee, Gould, and Slaughter
Friday night in the Greenhosue, three individuals who have each made incredible impacts on Seward County Athletics were inducted into the Saints Athletics Hall of Fame. Longtime supporters Charles Brownlee and Brent Gould were enshrined next to Saints basketball star Tony Slaughter as the Class of 2013. After an unveiling of their Hall of Fame plaques Friday afternoon, the group was officially inducted at the Hall of Fame Banquet later Friday night. Brent Gould’s granddaughter, Ginny Wylie spoke for her grandfather, who passed away in 2002, while Slaughter and Brownlee each delivered moving speeches about their time at Seward County to the crowd. Saturday, the group threw out the first pitch to the Saints baseball game against Colby with Galen McSpadden tossing Gould’s first pitch at the park named after the Seward booster.
Charles Brownlee has given over 40 years of service to Seward County Community College. Before becoming a regular as a fan in the Greenhouse, Brent Gould Field, and Lady Saints Softball Field, Brownlee served as a track coach, bus driver, and Athletic Director for the Saints. Brownlee was a longtime member of the Board of Directors for the Saints Booster Club and also served on the Saints Athletics Hall of Fame Committee. He, along with his wife Evelyn, have established the Brownlee Science and Math Endowment Fund for student scholarships, with preference given to a Lady Saints Basketball player. During his emotional speech, Brownlee talked about the joys of following the Saints and Lady Saints over the course of the past four decades. He said of his induction “I never thought that anything that I was doing was extraordinary. I just did what I thought was best for the student-athletes.”
Brent Gould was one of three original Saints Booster Club Lifetime Members, donating a substantial sum to get the Booster Club on its feet. He was a permanent fixture at Seward County home and road events throughout the years. It was routine for Saints and Lady Saints basketball players to go straight to Brent and his wife Virginia in their front row seats, for a handshake when they were announced at games. In 1996 the Saints baseball field was named after Gould in recognition of his support and passion for Seward County baseball. Brent Gould Field now stands as one of the best junior college baseball facilities in the nation. Gould’s granddaughter Ginny Wylie spoke for him after his passing in 2002 at 100 years old. Wylie had a smile on her face while pointing at former Saint Shelby Walton in the crowd saying “my nemesis Shelby Walton sitting right there during this speech. My grandparents never came to watch me play soccer because they were always too busy watching you and the Saints.”
Tony Slaughter is the all-time leading scorer in Saints basketball history with 1,589 career points. His 27.9 points per game over his career are 5.5 points more than second place on the career scoring list. He is the only player in school history to score more than 675 points in each of his two seasons and his 907 points during his freshman year are the most points ever scored in a season by a Saint in school history. Slaughter had 45 career 20 point games, 25 career 30 point games, and 4 career 40 point games. He scored in double figures in all 57 games of his Seward County career and led the Saints in scoring in 51 of those 57 games, including every single game of his freshman season. Not just a scorer, Slaughter also ranks 4th in school history with 615 rebounds and is 2nd all-time with 10.8 rebounds per game. He is also second all-time with 28 career double-doubles. He was a two time 1st Team All-Jayhawk West and 1st Team All-Region VI selection for the Saints. Slaughter, who despite playing for Seward over 30 years ago, still looked like he could get out on the court and play for the Saints, drew laughs from the crowd when he said “after a few weeks I was ready to get out of this place. I came from a big place in Kentucky and now I was stuck in little Liberal. The problem was, fortunately there was no way out once I got here, and it turned into the best two years of my life. I still to today call Liberal home.”
The Class of 2013 joins Jim Littell, Galen McSpadden, Kim Ortega, Cory Patton, and the 2002 Women’s Basketball team in the Saints Hall of Fame. To nominate someone for the Class of 2014, email or call Seward County Sports Information Director Roy Allen at roy.allen@sccc.edu or 620-417-1553. The Hall of Fame committee will take nominations for next year’s class through November when they vote on the nominees, before releasing the 2014 class at the Saints opening Jayhawk West basketball game of the year on January 11th.