A Brunswick varsity baseball player who turned his athletic talent to the sport of jousting, Mike Virts, Sr., won his first state amateur title while in high school. At age 19, he competed in the professional class, capturing the state championship. Over the next 23 years, he won 15 state, 10 tri-state, and 9 national championships. He was selected 15 times as the Henry J. Fowler Outstanding Jouster of the Year and was the only rider to ever win the Western Maryland Club, State, Tri-State and National titles in the same year. Virts was awarded the 1983 Governor Hughes Maryland Certificate of Excellence and was inducted into the National Jousting Hall of Fame in 1987. Virts is known as the “Knight of St. Marks of Knoxville.”