BOURBON – The Triton High School Athletic Department has named its 2017 Athletic Hall of Fame class.

Since Triton’s inception during the 1963-64 school year, Triton athletics have produced leaders on and off the field. To honor those who have achieved at the highest level, the Triton athletic department is proud to declare its newest set of inductees in the seventh Hall of Fame class. Those inducted are judged from the categories of athlete, coach, alumni and contributor and their exhibition of athletes in conference and state-wide recognition.

The class of 2017 will include two athletes, one coach, and one contributor. Triton athletic director Mason McIntyre said, “The selection committee did an outstanding job selecting the Class of 2017. The selection process is difficult, but the committee was able to narrow it down to the group that they felt most deserved to be inducted into the Class of 2017.”

The first athlete to be inducted is 1965 graduate Max Anders, who participated in basketball and track. Anders was the 1965 county high hurdle champion, high jump sectional champion, finished second in high jump at the regional, setting a Triton High School record with a jump of 6-3 and advanced to the 1965 state finals in the high jump. Anders was also a member of the 1965 semi-state runner-up basketball team, scoring 298 career points.

Anders went on to attend Grace College where he played basketball and ran track. He has held two Grace College records, one in basketball with the most rebounds in a game (20) and the other in the high jump with a leap of 6-7.

The second athlete to be inducted is 1992 graduate Sharon Patterson, who participated in basketball, tennis, track and volleyball. She earned 13 varsity letters and was named the MVP her senior year in volleyball and tennis, and shared the MVP in basketball with Justina Reichert. Patterson was named to the Sunburst All-Star basketball team as well as the Indiana Top 40. She went on to play basketball for two years at Southwestern Michigan College where she was a starter and won the national title for NJCAA in 1994. She then transferred to Bethel College where she played for the remainder of her two years as a starter, and was a captain her senior year.

Bob Burris will be the seventh Triton coach to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Burris came to Triton in 1970 and coached a variety of sports at all different levels. He was the girls tennis coach from 1981-87, the head football coach in 1982 and the varsity girls basketball coach from 1984-88.

Along with these varsity positions, Coach Burris served as an assistant football coach, junior high basketball coach, boys freshmen basketball coach, boys JV basketball coach and junior high track coach. Along with his coaching responsibilities, Mr. Burris also taught science at Triton Jr/Sr. High School until he retired following the 1994-95 school year.

Mike Byron will be named to the Hall of Fame as the class of 2017 contributor. Byron began working as the
athletic director at Triton High School in 1993, where he served as AD and English teacher until he retired in 2007.

During his 14 years in the athletic office, Byron was instrumental in implementing an athletic handbook, coordinating painting of the high school gym and secured artist Dan Hutton to paint the trojan on the north gym wall. Byron also established the athletic wall of fame (individual state finalists and all-state winners), as well as supervising the construction of the state championship trophy cases outside the concessions stand. Byron is the longest tenured athletic director in Triton School Corporation history.

The Hall of Fame weekend will kick off with recognition of these inductees at the Triton versus Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball game on Feb. 17th. The inductees will be recognized at halftime of the varsity contest. The tip-off for the JV game that evening is scheduled for 6:15 p.m.

The festivities will be continued during the induction banquet on Feb. 18. The evening will begin at 6 p.m. at the Back Forty Banquet Center in Bourbon. McIntyre will serve as emcee for the evening. Tickets for the banquet can be purchased in the Triton High School office beginning Thursday, Jan. 26. Tickets are $25 per person and will include a meal. Tickets will be available until Feb. 10.

“At this time we have received a confirmation from all inductees,” McIntyre said. “We look forward to honoring them during the Hall of Fame weekend and look forward to recognizing Triton athletic legends for years to come.”