**By Ryan Craig**
Five alumni were inducted into the Whitman Hall of Fame at halftime of the football game on October 15.
The inductees are Gary Browne, Morgen Bernius, Jerome Marco, Kerry Ward and Mike Jeffries.
Marco, the principal from 1974 to 2004, was the inspiration behind the stadium. He was being inducted for his unmatched devotion to athletics, as he went to nearly every home game and always cheered his students on.
Ward was a phenomenal running coach who holds the Maryland record for state titles won as a coach. He won 12 track state championships with BCC and Whitman from 1969 to 1992.
Jeffries graduated in 1980 and was the best soccer player in Montgomery County, he was named an All-American the National Player of the Year and in college he won the Hermann Award, which is presented to the best collegiate soccer player for that year.
Bernius graduated in 1992 and played field hockey, basketball and soccer in a time where school spirit was strong.
“I remember dressing up on game days, eating spaghetti dinners, watching Hoosiers before basketball games, training in the summers for field hockey tryouts, holiday basketball tournaments, the sound of Sam DeBone screaming my last name across the field, and when my world revolved around whether or not we’d beat WJ for the county championship in soccer,” she said.
Browne, who graduated in 1968, scored over 1,500 points in three seasons, averaged 34 points per game his senior year and led the team to the state finals his senior year. He once scored 62 points against Gaithersburg without the help of the three-point line.
In the semifinal against Annapolis, he set a Maryland record of 45 points that still stands today. He managed to score 43 points on a badly injured leg in the loss against Northwestern in the final.
Browne was inducted due to the dedication of other Whitman alumni. Matthew Maury and Malcolm Stevenson recall how the team motto was, “Give it to Gary,” in high school and felt that he wasn’t getting the recognition he deserved.
“Gary was a hero when I was in school,” Maury said.
In 2006, with the boys basketball team in the midst of its own championship run, Stevenson found an old alumni directory that gave a phone number in Kansas for Browne. It also said that Browne worked in law enforcement. When the phone number didn’t work, Stevenson started to call law enforcement offices in Kansas until he found Browne’s. After getting his contact information, Stevenson and Maury contacted a surprised Browne.
“I’d guess that Browne never talked about his basketball past with his fellow cops and my call was certainly out of the blue,” Stevenson said.
After finding their high school hero, they contacted classmates from around the time Browne graduated to raise support for Browne’s induction and over 75 people responded.
Athletic Director Andrew Wetzel couldn’t refuse Browne with all of his support and added him to the list of Whitman greats.
“It is quite an honor,” Browne said. “It is very kind and I appreciate it very much.”
