Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2014
- Class:
- 2003
Earl E. Hunt
Sport: Basketball
Year Inducted: 2014
From the day he first stepped onto the Brown campus as a freshman, the coaching staff and program supporters knew that Earl Hunt was something special. He started every game of his career, put the program on his shoulders for three straight winning seasons and led the Bears to their first ever NIT appearance on his way to becoming Brown’s all-time leading scorer.
Hunt wanted the ball at the end of a close game, delivering clutch game-winning baskets time after time. Hunt was the face of Brown men’s basketball, handling interviews with the same intelligence and confidence he showed on the court. Hunt displayed his on-court panache with a wink and a nod to Russ Tyler ’71, the president of the Friends of Brown Basketball and the Bears’ radio analyst, after passing Tyler for 12th place on Brown’s all-time scoring list as a junior during a game at High Point where he scored 35 points.
Defining Hunt as merely a record holder does not do him justice. He was the second player in Brown basketball history and 23rd Ivy League player to be named a three-time First Team All-Ivy selection. Hunt ranked fourth on the Ivy League’s all-time scoring list, and was the highest scoring sophomore in Ivy League history.
As a senior, Hunt led the Ivy League in scoring for the third straight season, averaging 19.4 points per game. He helped Brown to a then school record 17 wins twice (2002, 2003), and to a school record 12 Ivy League wins (12-2) in 2003, with the Bears advancing to the National Invitation Tournament. A three-time Ivy League Player of the Week his senior year, Hunt was named a Second Team Regional All-American for the second straight year, and was named the Collegeinsider.com Ivy League MVP. The most prolific scorer in Brown basketball history, Hunt is the only Bears’ player to score over 2,000 career points (2,041), surpassing the previous all-time mark of 1,668 points by Arnie Berman ’72 from 1969-1972.
A Rockville, Maryland native, who came to Brown from Good Counsel High School, Hunt scored 39 points twice in his career (vs. Harvard and Central Connecticut), sixth best in Brown history. He had 30 points at halftime against the Crimson, finishing with 39 points to set a Pizzitola Sports Center record. His 17 free throws against Harvard are fourth in the Bears’ record book.
Hunt’s 18.9 ppg career scoring average is second at Brown, while his 499 career free throws rank third. Hunt’s 692 career field goals are also a Brown record. Overall, Hunt scored 30 or more points 11 times in his Brown career. When he, Alai Nuualiitia ’03 and Jason Forte ’05 were named First Team All-Ivy selections in 2003, it marked the first time that a school other than Penn or Princeton had garnered three First Team All-Ivy honorees.
Hunt, his wife, Kristina, and their infant son, Earl III, live in New York City, where Earl is Director of Sales and Trading at Citigroup.
