September 8th 2025 marked the 20th and final Oliver Brown Memorial Golf Tournament. Organizers of the annual event met at Tanner’s Bar & Grill on Monday, October 20 to present a check for $5,000 from this year’s proceeds to the Walk For Our Buddies organization.
Originally, the first Oliver Brown Memorial Golf Tournament was organized in 2006 by Galen Briggs, a Sayre student at the time. The tournament along with community donations helped to fund the construction of the memorial monument located at the front of the Tioga Point Cemetery. The monument honors those who serve in the Armed Forces and is a memorial to Army Specialist Oliver J. Brown who was declared the first Fallen Soldier of Bradford County during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was KIA September 28, 2005 at age 19.
After the monument was completed, members of the golfing community expressed an interest to continue the tournament annually. The Brown family organized the tournament from there on raising funds to give back to the community by providing scholarships in Oliver’s memory to local high school seniors in Athens, Sayre, and Waverly.
In 2018, the Brown family collaborated with Tanner’s and the Allen Family from Troy, PA to form the Oliver Brown Memorial Golf Tournament in support of Down Syndrome. The tournament has donated a grand total of $33,500 in support of Down Syndrome since 2018. The Walk For Our Buddies is a non-profit organization dedicated to building awareness and community for individuals from Bradford and Sullivan Counties. For more information visit their website at walkforourbuddies.org.
The 20 year success of Oliver’s tournament has only been made possible thanks to the support of the golfers, many local businesses, and individuals in the community who continued to donate/participate each year including the Athens Township Police Department who were the title sponsor of the event for many years. Thanks also go out to Tomasso’s Golf Course, Tanner’s Bar & Grill, and the entire valley for honoring the memory of Oliver over the years.
