MONROE, La. -- Prior to first pitch in game two of the WKU series, the baseball program will honor one of its greats as Tom Brown will have his No. 8 jersey retired Saturday evening. Brown was a pitcher at ULM from 1968-1971 and his name is scattered throughout the record book.
Brown sits at the top of the record books in career wins as he posted 35 during his four seasons in Monroe. He also owns the program's top spots in earned run average, inning pitched and shutouts. Brown finished his career allowing just 45 earned runs in 345.1 innings pitched for a 1.43 ERA and he tallied eight shutouts.
Brown ranks second with 319 career punchouts and his mark stood for 29 years until Kenny Holubec tallied 321 from 1998-2000). He also ranks third in career win percentage as he finished with a .729 win percentage after a 35-13 record.
Brown also finds his name in the single-season baseball record books as well. He owns the number one and two spots in single-season ERA with a mark of 0.51 in 1968 and 0.77 in 1971. He is also one of six pitchers to record three shutouts in one season as he accomplished the feat in 1971.
His win percentage of .909 (10-1) in 1968 is the second-best percentage in program history and that mark stood for 31 seasons until Ben Sheets posted a .933 win percentage (14-1). Brown's win percentage of .800 (8-2) is tied for sixth in the single-season record books. Lastly, his 107 strikeouts in 1970 ranks seventh in single-season history.
Brown was the first baseball player to be inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame as he was one of five inductees in the 1980 Hall of Fame Class. The 1980 class was the third group of inductees for the Hall of Fame.
