As the write-up upon his induction to the Bowdoin Athletic Hall of Honor so aptly states, “Elford ‘Brud’ Stover is perhaps the most versatile athlete ever to grace a gridiron, court, or diamond beneath the pines.”
Beginning at the age of twelve, Brud played an unprecedented six seasons in American Legion ball for the Smith-Tobey Post in Bath. Brud recalls, “The first two years I pretty much sat the bench. I did see some action my third year and played full time my last three years. Our coach was Bill Johnson and he was a baseball fanatic. He lived and died baseball. If you didn’t get a bunt down, you heard about it; if you didn’t hit the cut-off man, you heard about it. We practiced three or four days a week in addition to the games. It was serious baseball.” Over the course of those six seasons the team won three state titles (in ‘48, ‘51, and ‘52) and were runners-up three times (‘47, ‘49, and ‘50).
To say that Brud experienced success as a three-sport athlete at Morse High School is an understatement. He quarterbacked and co-captained the 1952 Shipbuilders to the state Class B football championship and was an integral player on the 1953 state championship baseball team. Brud spent one post-graduate year at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he again starred in football, baseball, and basketball, in which he set a scoring record. He also played semi-pro baseball for some of the premier teams in Maine, taking the field for the Augusta Millionaires (summer of ‘53) and the Auburn Asas (summer of ‘54). In addition, he played in a collegiate league in Stellarton, Nova Scotia in the summer of 1955.
Brud’s athletic prowess continued when he arrived at Bowdoin College in the fall of 1954. Impressively, Brud played all three sports all four years of his college career, and was captain of the basketball and baseball teams his senior year. As a catcher, shortstop, and first baseman, Brud posted a career batting average over .300 and was an all-state selection for the 1957 season. Brud also excelled in football and basketball, in which he was the first basketball player in Bowdoin history to break the 1,000 career point mark. Named by the Bangor Daily News as the 1957 Maine College Athlete of the Year, Brud also made all-state in all three sports he played.
When asked about his college career, Brud explained, “I had the God-given skills to do everything that each of those sports required quite well. I was versatile in that I could adapt those skills to what the particular sport season required. I never doubted that I could play all three sports.”
Brud continued to contribute to youth baseball as a coach for Smith-Tobey Legion for two years and Bath Little League for seven years. He worked for thirty years in the marketing department of BIW and, more recently, provided consulting services to small and medium manufacturing companies in Maine.
It is altogether fitting that, in recognition of Brud’s accomplishments as a classic three-sport athlete, his induction today completes a trifecta of memberships in the hallowed halls of Maine sports notables, having been admitted to the Bowdoin Athletic Hall of Honor, the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, and now the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. Brud Stover is among Maine’s most talented athletes, and we are proud to add him to our roster today.
‘Brud’ Stover did it all
Elford Austin "Brud" Stover Jr
July 30, 1935 ~ October 5, 2012 (age 77)
BY LARRY GRARD Times Record Staff BATH
https://www.timesrecord.com/articles/front-page/brud-stover-did-it-all/
The Bowdoin website puts it this way:
“Elford ‘Brud’ Stover is perhaps the most versatile athlete ever to grace a gridiron, court, or diamond beneath the pines, playing three sports and excelling at three positions in two of them.
“Stover arrived at Bowdoin with a breathtaking athletic pedigree. During his senior year at Morse High School, Stover was a stellar two-way performer for the 1952 state champion football squad and the 1953 state champion baseball team; he was also the top scorer for the Shipbuilders in basketball.”
Stover is a member of both the Maine Sports Hall of Fame and the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.
Nicknamed “Brud” ever since his older sister Nancy referred to him as “little brudder,”
