If Pam Dukes-Brown didn’t have an appreciation for what she has accomplished in athletics, she is certainly being inducted into enough halls of fame to remind her that she is something special.
Last year, the 1982 Freehold Township High School graduate was a member of the school’s inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame. This year, Dukes-Brown has been enshrined in another hall of fame, the Jersey Shore Sports Hall of Fame.
Dukes-Brown, a 1992 member of the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team that competed in Barcelona, Spain, topped the Class of 2004, which was honored at a banquet held at the Crystal Point Inn in Point Pleasant on May 25.
At Freehold Township from 1980-82, Dukes-Brown was the state’s best thrower. She won Meet of Champions titles in both the shot put and discus, and in her senior year set the state shot put record at 46-8. She won three straight outdoor shot put titles (1980-82) as well as one indoor title. In 1981 she won both the shot put and discus MOC crowns.
"It’s amazing to me that throwing a little ball could have such an effect on me," she said. "I think it was my junior year, when I went to the Junior Nationals in California and I had the second best throw in the country, that I realized opportunities are there."
Dukes-Brown went on to Stanford (Calif.) University, where she developed into one of the nation’s best collegiate throwers. She won an NCAA shot put title at Stanford, and for more than a decade was one of the top throwers in the country in both the shot put and discus before retiring from the sport in 1997. She made the U.S. World Track and Field Team that competed in Tokyo, Japan, in 1991 and in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1993. She also represented the United States at the Pan-American Games, but the career highlight was making the 1992 Olympic Team.
"Before, when I was involved in track and field it wasn’t a big deal," she said. "Now, it’s a nice association, a positive element and one of the things I realize is important. It’s part of who I am."
Dukes-Brown retired from competition in 1997 after almost 20 years in the sport.
"It was painful going away from it," she pointed out. "I had to do the ‘cold turkey’ thing. It was hard to walk away. I had to get away from the sport completely. I didn’t even watch it.
"Now that I’m not as involved, I admire it from a distance," she added.
Everything that went into making Dukes-Brown a nationally ranked U.S. track and field Olympian has helped make her life away from the sport equally successful. Dukes-Brown, now the director of operations for a gastrointestinal pathology group near Dallas, Texas, where she lives, said that using what she had learned in sports gave her a game plan for a career away from sports.
"It [track and field] helped make for a smooth transition," she said. "Like in track, you set goals, outline a plan, are disciplined, and you keep at it. You have to do the whole thing."
Having adjusted to life away from the athletic arena, Dukes-Brown is climbing her way back into the sport. She said she feels a sense of obligation to give something back to the sport.
"I’ve done some coaching as a volunteer," she remarked. "It’s more enjoyable working with the young kids. It’s my duty to help share the knowledge I gained."
Dukes-Brown is also back to following the sport and watching it on television. She’ll be following the Olympic Trials and Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, getting the occasional flashback.
"I remember what it was like to compete in meets like that," she said. "I remember how difficult it was."
Freehold Township’s Pennett among other inductees
Officials can make their mark in sports, too, and Freehold Township’s Ray Pennett was one of three officials inducted into the Jersey Shore Hall of Fame.
The other Hall of Fame Class of 2004 inductees are: Bob Hermanni, a football standout at Toms River South; Dan Vanderbilt, a four-sport star for Matawan in football, basketball, baseball and track and field; Kathy Finn-Hill, who starred in basketball at Mater Dei; Art Smith, a state champion in the one-mile run at Henry Hudson High School who went on to shine at Monmouth University; Robbie Keyes, the star of Central Regional’s legendary teams of the early 1970s; Mike Ippolito, who starred in football and baseball at Long Branch and played baseball at Princeton University; Jessie Goldstein from Toms River North, who played football for the Mariners and then became U.S. National Judo champion, making the U.S. Pan-American Games team; and Marty Kenney, the baseball coach at Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft.
The officials who were honored with Pennett are Tony Griffa and the late Hal Clayton.
Jim Garrett, who is currently scouting for the Dallas Cowboys, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Al Golden, who has coached football at Red Bank Catholic and Penn State, was awarded as a coach.
The Mike O’Dowd Award for special achievement was presented to Matawan Regional High School’s girls basketball coach Peggy Fleisher.
The High School Athletes of the Year are both from Toms River East — Kevin Davis (football and wrestling) and Brittany Easter.
The Collegiate Athlete of the Year is former Lakewood legend Damion Hahn, who won his second straight NCAA Division I wrestling title at the University of Minnesota.