Sports: Five Join Maroon Club Hall of Fame

Five former Lafayette athletes were inducted into the Maroon Club Hall of Fame Nov. 19, bringing the number of honorees to 124 since the first members were inducted in 1976-77. They are Brian Ehlers ’00 (basketball), John Ernst ’25 (football, baseball, and basketball), Allison Jones ’98 (lacrosse), Bob Mahr ’83 (football), and Michael Whitman ’82 (basketball).

Brian Ehlers ’00

A two-time Patriot League Player of the Year and four-time All-League selection, Ehlers stands third on Lafayette’s all-time men’s basketball scoring list with 1,836 points, fourth-best in Patriot League history. He is second at Lafayette in career free throws with 456 and ninth in assists with 307.

Following graduation, Ehlers played for the Long Island Surf of the United States Basketball League, Newcastle Eagles of the British Basketball League, Budapest MAFC of the Hungarian A League. He is a police officer in his hometown of Bay Shore, N.Y.

Ernst had his greatest successes on the gridiron and the diamond. After graduation, he played for the Pottsville Maroons of the National Football League from 1925 to 1928. He spent the 1929 season with the Boston Braves and later joined the Frankford Yellow Jackets, a team that became the Philadelphia Eagles.

Lafayette’s first-string catcher for four seasons, he went on to play minor league baseball for the Williamsport Grays and Wilkes-Barre Barons. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.

Ernst died in 1968. He is the son of John A. Ernst 1904, who also starred in football for Lafayette, and the grandfather of John B. Ernst ’11.

Jones was named an All-American in lacrosse in 1996 and received national honors from the United States Women’s Lacrosse Association in 1997. A three-time Patriot League all-star, she was named to the All-Mid Atlantic Team by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association in 1995 and 1996. Jones is Lafayette’s career leader in saves by a goalkeeper with 382, which ranks No. 2 all-time in the Patriot League.

Jones also was a four-year member of the field hockey team. A PGA golf professional, she resides in Port Saint Lucie, Fla., with her husband, Capt. Scott Lepping.

A three-year starter in the defensive backfield, Mahr led the nation in interceptions in 1981 with 10, setting a single-season Lafayette record that still stands. He logged 178 tackles in his collegiate career. Following graduation, he earned free-agent tryouts with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Montreal Concordes of the Canadian Football League.

A business unit manager at Techni-Tool, Mahr is the founder of the Central Maryland Attitude Girl’s AAU Basketball program and an assistant football coach at Westminster High School. He and his wife, Vicki Minturn ’83, reside in Finksburg, Md.

Whitman ranks No. 21 on the men’s basketball career scoring list with 1,176 points and No. 4 in assists with 382. Also outstanding on defense during his four-year varsity career, he holds Lafayette’s second-best single-season mark for steals with 75 in 1980-81.

Whitman holds 65 patents in the medical-device field. After graduation, he held positions at Johnson & Johnson, where he helped develop innovative medical devices including the stent, used in vascular medicine. He founded Power Medical Interventions in 1999. After the company was acquired by Covidien in 2009, he founded Micro Interventional Devices, Inc.

Whitman and his wife, Linda Tedori Whitman ’83, reside in New Hope, Pa. Co-chairs of the College’s Fleck Consistent Giving Society and active members of the Marquis Parents Council, they have four children including Katherine Whitman ’11 and Christopher Whitman ’12.