VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton Athletics staff members
Brian Jester and
Roger Neel were inducted with the Class of 2026 in the Greater Binghamton Sports Hall of Fame. The pair were among 12 individuals and one team selected celebrated Monday night at the Doubletree by Hilton in downtown Binghamton. Legendary NFL Hall of Fame and New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson was the featured speaker.
Jester was a football and baseball standout at nearby Union Endicott High School, where he quarterbacked the football team and slugged on the baseball diamond. As quarterback in 1984, he set the school record for single-season passing yards - a mark that stood for three decades. He then starred in baseball at University of Georgia, where he compiled a .313 career batting average and .556 slugging percentage. Jester was a prolific power hitter who earned a spot on the Georgia roster as a freshman walk-on. Four years later, he was an All-American and led the Bulldogs to their first College World Series title in 1990, and first by an SEC school. Jester led the team in batting average (.364), home runs (17), slugging percentage, and on-base percentage. He was a First Team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection and Second Team All-American.
Jester graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology and returned to campus to earn his master's degree in sport management 2006. During his second stint at Georgia as Director of Baseball Operations, he helped steer the Bulldogs to three more College World Series berths and he owns the rare distinction of being part of five of the six CWS teams in school history, including its two most successful teams (1990, 2008). In 2025, he was chosen for the prestigious Tom Cousins Outstanding Athletic Achievement Award.
He has remained a prominent sports fixture in Broome County, having served with distinction as a high school official in basketball and soccer. Brian is the nephew of acclaimed Major League Baseball umpire and national baseball broadcaster, Ron Luciano, who was part of the inaugural Greater Binghamton Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2015.
Jester, associate director of athletics for corporate sponsorships, is in his 12th year with the Bearcats. He also is a sport administrator and longest-tenured member of the external advancement team. Jester still shares his vast baseball knowledge as an analyst for America East postseason tournament games and will be behind the microphone for the upcoming championship, hosted by Binghamton on May 20-23.
Neel has four decades of local sports broadcasting and has been the "Voice of the Bearcats" since 1998, covering men's and women's basketball among several other sports. A former collegiate all-star football lineman, Neel and his 1970 Westminster College team captured the NAIA National Championship with a perfect 10-0 record.
His play-by-play roles began in 1978 with the Johnstown Jets in the North American Hockey League. He came to Binghamton from Western Pennsylvania in 1978 and began a 42-year career at WNBF Newsradio 1290 — one that cemented his name and voice as one of the most recognizable and admired in the Southern Tier. Neel began his close association with Binghamton athletics in the mid-1990s. He served as basketball play-by-play announcer for numerous games on Time Warner Cable and Empire Sports Network as Binghamton basketball gained a strong following.
Neel still serves as the men's basketball play-by-play voice and also calls Bearcats softball home games on ESPN+.
This is the sixth hall of fame that Neel is enshrined in: Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame (2003), Southern Tier Broadcasters (2010), Slippery Rock Area High School Athletics (2013), Binghamton University Athletics (2022) and Barry Shelley's Rink of Dreams in Cooperstown (2023).
