2016 Hall of Fame Inductees

Thomas Beckett - Coach

Thomas Beckett’s career in athletics checks all the boxes: player, coach, and administrator.

As one of the early pioneers in Butler County Community College athletics, Beckett’s nine-year run at BC3 marked a time of conception and growth for the once-fledgling sports program.
Beckett, a Pittsburgh native, received a baseball scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh where he also played basketball. Beckett lettered three seasons in baseball and was team captain in his final year. Beckett got his start in collegiate coaching as an aide with Pitt’s baseball team in 1969-70 before moving on to play professional baseball in the San Francisco Giants organization.

BC3 hired Beckett in 1971 to teach health and physical education and to direct the intramural program, and later he became the first coach to be hired by BC3’s athletic department. Beckett accepted the reins of the 1971-72 basketball squad from Athletic Director Charles Dunaway, who had previously coached all of BC3’s teams, and led the inaugural baseball team in 1972. In its second season, the baseball team won the Skyline Athletic Conference, the precursor to the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference. Beckett’s baseball teams won three more SAC Championships from 1976-78 and his basketball squad claimed the SAC title in the 1979-80 season. Beckett left BC3 in the fall of 1980 to take an athletic administrator position at San Jose State University.

Following San Jose State, Beckett served as Associate Director of Athletics at Stanford University from 1983-1994 before landing at Yale University, where he was Athletic Director for 24 years.

John Stuper - Athlete

John Stuper’s journey began as a two-sport star at a small community college and continued to Major League Baseball’s biggest stage -- the World Series.

Stuper played baseball and basketball at Butler County Community College from 1975-1977. As a pitcher, he was nearly unbeatable with a 25-3 career record. He was also a member of multiple Skyline Athletic Conference Championship teams and earned numerous All-Conference awards. Stuper also excelled on BC3’s basketball court, where he averaged a career 18.6 points per game and received All-Conference recognition in his two seasons. He later played at Point Park College, earned National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-American honors and pitched in the NAIA College World Series.

The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Stuper in 1978. On June 1, 1982, he made his Major League debut for the St. Louis Cardinals. That year he pitched in Game 6 of the World Series, throwing a complete-game four-hitter in the Cardinals’ 13-1 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers. St. Louis won the title in Game 7. Sports Illustrated listed Stuper’s World Series performance among the 10 best by a rookie pitcher in the history of postseason play. In a Major League career that spanned from 1982 to 1985 with the Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds, Stuper pitched in 111 games and finished with a 32-28 overall record and 3.96 earned run average.

In the fall of 1986, Stuper became head baseball coach at BC3 and compiled a 92-68 record in five seasons. In 1993 he became head baseball coach at Yale University, and he has led the program to the most wins in Yale history.

(as of May 2016)