Penn State wrestling great Aaron Brooks will be given a key to his hometown of Hagerstown, Maryland, this weekend.
Aaaron Brooks is getting a key to Hagerstown this weekend. https://t.co/rJunmi7UUu
— Darian Somers (@StuffSomersSays) September 4, 2024
Hagerstown is holding the “Aaron Brooks Homecoming of Hope” in celebration of his accomplishments Saturday. Brooks will sign autographs before moving on to a police escort procession through town and then receiving the key to the city.
Brooks will sign autographs from 9 to 11 a.m. before the procession starts at 11:30 a.m. There will be a ceremony from noon to 2 p.m. when he will be presented the key to the city.
Brooks, a four-time national champion with Penn State and the winner of the 2024 Dan Hodge Trophy, finished the Paris Olympics with a bronze medal.
Brooks finished his first Olympics in Paris with a bronze medal at 86 kg.
Brooks blanked Uzbekistan’s Javrail Shapiev, 5-0, Friday for the bronze. He picked up two victories before falling in the final seconds to Bulgaria’s Magomed Eldarovitch Ramazanov in the semifinals. Ramazanov went on to win the gold medal.
Brooks went over his week in an interview with NBC Sports in between his bronze medal win and ceremony.
“Obviously yesterday I had a picture, but it’s not my understanding, it’s His (God’s)” Brooks said. “I’m just glad I can come out here and wrestle again and end it like this. I’m blessed.”
Brooks is only 24 years old, and alluded to the plan of returning for more Olympic games in the future.
“God willing, I’ll be back,” Brooks said. “I’m just getting started.”
The 2028 Olympics will be held in the United States in Los Angeles.
It’s hard to think of a Penn State athlete— in wrestling or any other sport— that’s had a better year than Brooks has had in 2024.
In March, he won his fourth national title, becoming the second Penn State wrestler and seventh total wrestler to accomplish that feat (teammate Carter Starocci did it earlier in the night).
A little more than a week after that, he was named the Hodge Trophy winner, which is wrestling’s Heisman.
Later in April, Brooks not only qualified for the Olympics but did so by beating another Penn State great, reigning 86 kg gold medalist David Taylor, two straight in a best of three series inside one of Brooks’ and Taylor’s two home arenas, the Bryce Jordan Center.
Now, he’s a bronze medalist, and will soon have the keys to the city.
