In 1977, Al Gieberger became know as ''Mr. 59" after he became the first PGA player to shoot that remarkable score. In 2001, Annika Sorenstam earned the nickname ''Ms. 59'' for doing the same thing on the LPGA Tour.
On Sunday afternoon, I saw another ''Mr. 59'' in action - on the basketball court.
That's when Ashton Brown of the Jamestown Community College Jayhawks scored 59 points against JCC-Olean in the championship game of The Post-Journal Classic. It was an performance by the former Randolph Central School player as he shot 21-for-26 from the field, 9-for-9 from 3-point range and 8-for-8 from the foul line to set the school record, which had been 54.
I wasn't really aware of what Brown was doing in the first half. I was taking photos from the track above the JCC basket and was taking plenty of shots of Brown shooting, but after a while I noticed a majority of them were going in the basket. I noticed because after he took the shot, I would change my focus to the rim to get a possible shot of a player getting a rebound, but there were no rebounds. Instead, I would see the ball go in the basket and most the time it barely touched the rim.
But double-figure games from Brown was nothing new for Brown at JCC and just two games before the freshman scored 36.
At halftime when I returned the scorer's table and added up Brown's points, a realized he had scored 29. I didn't get too excited because I've seen many players have a big first half and tail off in the final 20 minutes.
Brown didn't tail off.
He opened the second half with a 3-pointer. Then a few minutes went by without him scoring, but then he popped in two more 3s and his points kept increasing. However, I couldn't spend too much time worrying about his total because the game was close and JCC needed every point Brown produced. The Jayhawks led JCC-Olean by only four with eight minutes left and it was down to three with three minutes remaining. That's why Brown's 8-for-8 at the foul line was also important.
JCC eventually won by seven and it was Brown's ninth 3-pointer of the game that nailed down the win.
When it was over, that's when Brown along with JCC coach Mike Cordovano and many others finally learned he had scored 59. And the more it sunk in the more amazing it seemed.
Three days later Cordovano noted, ''It's only 26 shots. I've seen guys take 26 shots and score 18 points. But to score that many with just 26 shots, it was kind of unassuming.''
The first time I saw a player score 50 points in person was in the mid-1960s when Ron ''Fritz'' Williams of Weirton (W. Va.) High School visited our high school and lit up the scoreboard with the half-century mark.
He went on to play at West Virginia and then in the NBA for the Warriors, Bucks and Lakers.
The second time I witnessed a 50-point performance was in 1977 when Bryan Rison, who played for JCC the previous season, did it for Mott CC in a tournament loss to the Jayhawks.
I never saw in person a player score 50 points again until Brown did it on Sunday, but there were a couple of close calls.
A memorable one was at the NJCAA National Men's Basketball Tournament at Hutchinson, Kan., in 1981 when Roland Rucker of JCC, who averaged 15 points a game during the season, exploded for a career-high 45 points in the Jayhawks' opening game. It was the most points scored in the national tournament in 16 years.
And in the1990s, Blake Johnson of the Jayhawks had back-to-back games of 44 and 42 points in a tournament at Champlain College. What was amazing was he scored only nine and seven points in the first halves of those games.
''That's the only thing I can compare it to in my 15 years (of coaching at JCC) was that weekend Blake had,'' Cordovano said after Brown's performance. ''I was fortunate enough to coach Blake Johnson, a (NJCAA Division II) first-team all-American and I'm sorry Blake, but I've never seen anything like that in this gym or any other gym in 15 years.''
When Brown's high school coach, Kevin Hind of Randolph (who is a former Jayhawk), heard about his 21-for 26 shooting, he wasn't surprised.
''He'd have days in a row when he didn't miss a shot,'' Hind recalled about practices at Randolph. ''He'd hit every shot, every shot! People used to think I was crazy.''
He also noted, ''He doesn't leave the house without a ball in his hands.''
And Cordovano added, ''I watched him walking from building to building one day during classes and he was pretending he was shooting his jump shot. It's special.''
And that's because Brown treats basketball as something special.
''He has a special love for the game,'' Cordovano said. ''It's about the game, it's not the notoriety, it's not the big-man-on-campus thing. He just loves the game.''
Sunday's game was a perfect example.
''The kid does not change expression from day to day or minute to minute,'' Cordovano said. ''His personality on the court is that he doesn't look any different if he scored 50 or five. The next day after that he didn't know anything. He didn't look in the paper. He was just calm and relaxed and just went about his business. If it was me, I think I would have put '59' on my forehead, but not this kid. There's no change in him. His picture was in the paper today for being player of the week in our region and I had to give him a copy of the paper. I had to get him a couple copies. He's just unfazed by it.''
Brown might not care about publicity, the word is spreading about his 59-point performance. When the CC of Allegheny College arrived from Pittsburgh for a game at JCC on Wednesday night, their coach was well aware of Brown's previous game and joked with him to try to keep it under 50. Brown did by scoring ''only'' 33 in a loss.
It will continue for every game this season. Opponents will point to ''Mr. 59.''
He would prefer to be simply known as Ashton Brown.