Cecil Brandt was a Fulton football standout in the early 1970s, while Tim Echelmeier excelled for the Hornets in both wrestling and baseball in the mid-1980s.
Brandt (Class of 1973) and Echelmeier (Class of 1986) will be the 2015 inductees into Fulton High School's athletic Wall of Fame during a ceremony tonight at the high school athletic complex. The inductions and a short reception will take place immediately after Fulton's North Central Missouri Conference game against rival Mexico, which starts at 5 p.m.
Brandt - a four-year letterman in football and two years in track at Fulton - was named to the Class 3A all-state team in 1972 after breaking Tony Galbreath's school rushing record by gaining 1,438 yards. A co-captain that season for the Hornets, Brandt averaged 6.4 yards per carry, scored 17 touchdowns and finished with 104 points.
In 1974 at Highland Community Junior College in Kansas, Brandt set the school record for the longest run from scrimmage with a 98-yard burst. He became the founder and president of Team Challenge - an after-school boys' club program - in 2001, then received the Martin Luther King Award in 2003.
Echelmeier took fifth place at 145 pounds at the Class 3A state wrestling championships in 1986. In the spring of that year, he batted .444 with six home runs and 17 runs batted in to help the Fulton baseball team finish with a 19-5 record. Echelmeier lettered four years in both wrestling and baseball for the Hornets.
He went on to play college baseball at Nicholls State in Louisiana from 1987-90, completing his career with a .354 average, 12 home runs, 115 RBI, 30 stolen bases and nine saves as a pitcher. He was also named team captain his senior year.
Echelmeier returned home and was named head baseball coach at Westminster College in 1992, guiding the Blue Jays to a 21-15 record in his only season. He also served as a USSSA youth coach from 2000-06, directing his team to a state championship in 2006.
Since 2009, Echelmeier has been an assistant coach with the Hornets high school baseball team. He has also served as an assistant with the Fulton American Legion squad since 2013.
Echelmeier has been a youth leader at Court Street United Methodist Church in Fulton for a number of years.