The Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame inducted five members into its fifth class on
April 25, 2024. The induction ceremony was held at the Laurens County Museum on the historic square in Laurens.
Members of the class of 2024 of the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame are:
Robert Wilder – Wilder was a resident of Clinton from 1935-1993. He was a football
All-American in 1930 at Furman University and is a member of their Athletic Hall of
Fame. Wilder coached Clinton High School’s first upperstate championship team in
1938 and their first state championship team in 1939. He was later the principal at
Clinton High School and the football stadium is named in his honor.
Anthony Downs – Downs was a member of the Laurens Raiders football state
championship team in 1983 and played in the Shrine Bowl that year. At Appalachian
State University, Downs was a consensus first-team All-American as a senior in 1987.
He was named 1987 Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year after amassing
138 tackles. Downs was a three-time first-team all-Southern Conference performer and
was inducted into Appalachian’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
Charles Peterson – Peterson led the Laurens Raiders to a baseball state championship in 1990 and a football state championship in 1991. During his high school career, Peterson was named state player of the year in baseball and football and played in the Shrine Bowl. Peterson was drafted in 1993 by the Pittsburgh Pirates as the 22nd overall pick in the first round of MLB’s amateur draft. He played six years in the minor leagues, making it to AAA in 1998.
Walter Todd – A graduate of LDHS and Presbyterian College, Todd was inducted into
the SC Golf Hall of Fame in 2024. Todd has competed at the local, state, national and
international levels for nearly four decades. In SC, he won the SCGA Mid-Amateur
Champion title in 2005, CGA Mid-Amateur title in 2007, seven SCGA Four-Ball titles,
three SCGA Father-Son titles with both of his sons and nine Musgrove Mill Club
Champion titles. He is three-time SCGA Senior Player of the Year and 2019 Senior
Azalea Champion. Todd won the 2017 Senior Jones Cup Champion title, competed in
the 2012 US Mid-Amateur, 2016, ’19 & ‘22 British Senior Amateurs and the 2018, ’19, ’21
& ‘23 US Senior Amateurs advancing to the quarterfinals in 2019.
Jean Hammond Whitfield – A graduate of Hickory Tavern High School and a
current resident of Laurens, Whitfield was inducted into the SC Women’s Bowling
Association Hall of Fame in 1984. She won four international titles, including overall
champion and doubles champion in the Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela in
1983. She was a member of the US Team in 1982 and 1983. Whitfield was also the top
amateur in the WIBC championship in 1982.