The Guilford Quakers are the athletic teams that represent

Guilford College Guilford College is a private liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Guilford has both traditional students and students who attend its Center for ...

, located in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

, United States in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

intercollegiate sports. The Quakers compete as members of the

Old Dominion Athletic Conference The Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. Of its 15 member schools, all but one are located in Virginia; the other ful ...

. Altogether, Guilford sponsors 18 sports: nine each for men and women, respectively.

Varsity teams

National Championships

Despite its small size, Guilford College has achieved great athletics success over the course of the school's history. Guilford teams have won five national team championships and one individual national title.

1972-73 Men's Basketball

After building a nationally competitive team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Guilford finally cracked through to win its first national championship in 1972–73. Under the direction of third-year head coach Jack Jensen, the unseeded Quakers (29-5) completed an improbable run through the NAIA Tournament field with a 99–96 win over eighth-seeded Maryland-Eastern Shore in Kansas City, Mo. Three student-athletes from the 1972-73 team played in the NBA:

M.L. Carr Michael Leon Carr (born January 9, 1951) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and American Basketball Association (ABA), and former head coach and General Manager of the Boston Celtics. ...

'73, World B. Free '76 and Greg Jackson '74. Seven have been inducted into the Guilford College Athletics Hall of Fame, including Free, the 1973 Chuck Taylor NAIA Tournament MVP.

1980-81 Women's Tennis

The 1980-81 women's tennis team shared the inaugural NAIA championship with Grand Canyon (Ariz.) University for the school's second national title. Under the direction of fourth-year head coach Gayle Currie, the Quakers earned 27 team points. Currie garnered co-National Coach of the Year honors with Marlene Bjornsrud from Grand Canyon.

Tarja Koho, 1981-82 Women's Tennis National Singles Champion

While Guilford lost the NAIA team title to Westmont College (Calif.), 28–25, freshman Tarja Koho finished the season with a perfect 31–0 record in singles competition. The Finland native earned the tournament's top seed after cruising through the regular season and District 26 Tournament without losing a set, a streak she continued through the national tournament.

1988-89 Men's Golf

After coming in second to Huntingdon College from 1985 to 1987, Guilford rebounded to beat the Hawks and take the NAIA Championship in 1989. Mike Hutcheon '89 placed third with a three-round total of 219. Classmate Lee Porter took 12th with a 299, while juniors Jed Venhuizen and Mitch Clodfelter took 17th and 24th, with a 302 and 304, respectively. The title made coach Jack Jensen just the second coach in NAIA history to coach national championship teams in two different sports.

2001-02 Men's Golf

After taking second in the 2001 championships by one stroke, Guilford won the first

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) Division III Championship in school history. The Quakers trailed first-place Methodist College by three strokes after three rounds, but rallied to clinch first place by six strokes on the last day. Coach Jack Jensen received his second Eaton Golf Pride National Coach of the Year Award after the victory. Dave Patterson paced the Quakers with a 295 that placed second among individuals. Andrew Biggadike '02 joined Patterson as a First Team All-American by shooting 299, good enough for sixth place. Classmate Savio Nazareth '03 placed 18th with a 306.

2004-05 Men's Golf

Guilford placed three students among the top-five finishers and won the 22-team tournament by 25 strokes, the seventh-largest margin in

(NCAA) Division III history. The Quakers' Colin Clark '07 won a playoff over teammate Dave Patterson to take medalist honors and become the Quakers' third national champion. Brant Stovall '11 placed fifth with a 294.

Mascot

Origins of the school mascot, "Quaker Man", are predictably based on Guilford's founding by the Society of Friends, commonly referred to as Quakers. From the late 1890s to the early 1950s a few students attached to the cheerleading squad would attend football games dressed in the traditional garb of 18th and 19th century

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

. Whenever the team scored a touchdown, a designated “Quaker Man” would dry-fire a

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

. Regarding a logo, since the late 1950s the athletics department had been using the

Quaker Oats Company The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food Conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and ...

logo, fashioned after

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

, often as a shoulder patch on varsity jackets. But in 1968, athletics department staffer John Lambeth called for a redesign and a "mean-looking" Quaker caricature was chosen among several hand drawn entries. The new logo became controversial when some coaches modified “mean Quaker” to hold items such as a tennis racket or lacrosse stick, or when he was redrawn as crouched in a football lineman stance. Owing to the lack of overall brand cohesiveness the primary logo for all sports teams eventually reverted to the school's crimson and gray initial “G.” However, use of the caricature “mean Quaker” logo continued on as a secondary brand-mark, and is still employed as a design element on various team uniforms and gear, college-branded apparel and accessories, and on official letterhead of the athletics booster organization, the Quaker Club. Since around the year 2000, the mascot has been referred to as "Nathan the Quaker", after school founder Nathan Hunt. A costumed “Quaker" has appeared at sporting events dating back to late 1980s. From 2022 to 2023, the Quaker Man was portrayed by Henry Freeman.

Famous Quakers

* Herb Appenzeller *

Rick Ferrell Richard Benjamin Ferrell (October 12, 1905 – July 27, 1995) was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout, and executive. He played for 18 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1929 through 1947 for the St. Lou ...

* World B. Free * Henry Freeman * Bob Kauffman *

Dave Odom George David Odom (born October 9, 1942) is an American retired men's college basketball coach. He served as the head coach of the East Carolina Pirates, Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and South Carolina Gamecocks. Playing career Odom began h ...

* Tony Womack *

Zack Hample Zachary Ben Hample (born September 14, 1977) is an American baseball collector. Hample claims to have collected more than 12,000 baseballs from Major League Baseball, Major League List of Major League Baseball stadiums, stadiums, including Alex ...