When Jerry Brown was a student at Babylon High School, it was athletics that taught him life's most important lessons. "They were probably the happiest days in my life," said Brown in recalling his high school years. "I was young, carefree and successful." Babylon High School's Gerard Brown (Class of 1943) will be inducted into the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame on May 7. The Hall has announced that eight new members will be honored this year.

Brown starred in baseball, basketball and football at BHS from 1941-43. In baseball, he helped lead the team to two Suffolk County Championships. He pitched three no-hitters and was either the team's Most Valuable Player or co-MVP in each of his varsity seasons while being named All County each year. In basketball, he was on the school's County Championship team in 1941, won school MVP honors the next two years and set the single season scoring record for BHS in 1943. He was class president in his freshman and sophomore years and was named to a place on the Babylon High School Wall of Fame in 2008. As a student at Babylon High School during World War II, Brown said he remembers watching from a classroom window as young draftees would board the Long Island Railroad. "It was a time when young men went into the service right after high school," said Brown. "And it was athletics that helped me mature and prepared me for the service."

During World War II, Brown served in the US Merchant Marines in 1943-44 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army serving in England, the Philippines and Japan from 1944-46. He later graduated from St. John's University with a bachelor of science in 1950. While in college, he starred in baseball, winning outstanding pitcher honors in the Metropolitan Conference from 1947-49 and performing in the College World Series in Wichita in 1949.

"I learned how to win, but I also learned how to lose, which is sometimes more important," said Brown. "Thatcame through pitching where you could lose a game because someone else made an error, or more than one. You learn how to take it because you are a member of a team; it's a part of growing up." From 1954-91, Jerry's career was in insurance with the Brown Agency and the Jeremiah Robbins Agency. He is a Trustee Emeritus for Good Samaritan Hospital where he served from 1965-95 and was Chairman of the Board from 1986-88. He and his wife Rita now reside in Lindenhurst. They have four children, seven grandchildren and a great granddaughter. Brown joins Joe DeLucca and Marty Albert as one of three Babylon grads to be honored in both the Babylon High School Wall of Fame and the SuffolkHall of Fame. DeLucca said, "Jerry is perhaps the best athlete in Babylon history. If not, he's certainly in the top five." Beside Brown, this year's inductees to the SuffolkHall are Kevin Cassese (lacrosse star for Comsewogue and Duke), Rich Castellano (Girls basketball coach at Northport), Melvin Fowler (three sport athlete at Hills West and football star for Maryland and three different NFL teams), Patricia Habers (Suffolk high schools field hockey executive and official), Pete Harnisch (star pitcher for Commack, Fordham, and fivemajor league teams), Joe Maniaci (basketball star at Connetquot and Dowling and coach at Dowling, St. Francis, Post and St. Joseph's) and John Nitti (Suffolk resident and football running back for Westbury, Yale and the New York Jets). The Hall will also honor Suffolk Community College with the Special Recognition Award. The school's basketball teams were the National Junior College Athletic Association National Champions for 2003 and 2004 while on a 52-game winning streak.

For information on the May 7 Induction Dinner, call the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame at 758-7463.

Carolyn James contributed to this story.