Their faces are starting to wrinkle, and their joints have stiffened. Twenty five years tends to take its toll. But in so many ways, the Guilford College Quaker football players who showed up for the 25th anniversary of the College’s last Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship on Oct. 22 said it seemed like only yesterday they were celebrating, hugging and dancing on the football field like the college students they were.
“All of us had that same drive and determination. Once we started winning, we didn’t want to lose. There was no going back.”
Caption: Nine members of the 1997 Guilford football team -— the last Quakers team to win an Old Dominion Athletic Conference football title — attended a 35th reunion at Guilford last month. The players who took part in the reunion were, from left to right, Brad Fisher '00, Marques Williams '01, Gerrick Vogt '00, Idris Coleman '01, Dan Morse '99, Jimmy Lamour '00, Dallas Hairston '01, Luke Martin '00, and Doug Robertson '04.
“Some days,” says Brad Fisher ’00, “it seems like it was just a short time ago but then you do the math and you realize, man, that was a long time ago.”
These days Brad is the R.J. Reynolds High School athletic director in Winston-Salem, N.C.
But in 1997 he was a sophomore offensive lineman for the Quakers. On Oct. 22, Brad was one of nine former players to return to Guilford for a reunion of players from that magical season, the last in which a Guilford team won an ODAC football title.
Marques William ’01 was another player. He says the team might not have been the most talented in the ODAC that year, but it possessed something more valuable. “All of us had that same drive and determination,” says Marques, who lives in High Point, N.C., and is an auditor for the Department of Defense. “Once we started winning, we didn’t want to lose. There was no going back.”
After a humbling season-opening loss to Methodist in which the Quakers committed seven turnovers, the team went on to win eight of its next nine games including a win over Davidson, at the time a Division I-AA non-scholarship program.
Led by quarterback Danny Strelkauskas ’98, who led the conference that year with 26 touchdown passes, and receiver Junior Lord ’98, who went on to play six seasons in the Arena Football League, the Quakers came together. They finished the season averaging a conference-best 33.9 points per game. Guilford was equally impressive on defense, allowing just 282 yards of offense per game.
The Quakers finished the season 8-2 (4-1 in the conference) and shared the championship with Emory and Henry and Randolph-Macon. That Guilford managed to win a piece of the title is even more remarkable given there were only 49 players on the roster.
Brad says as the season progressed, Guilford coach Mike Ketchum '78 limited practices to helmets and shoulder pads to avoid injuries to an already thin roster. In the final game of the season, a 61-0 blowout win over Chowan, Brad says he remembers the referee coming up to the Quakers’ huddle and asking why players on Guilford’s offensive line were still playing.
“We pointed over to the sidelines and told him we didn’t have anyone to replace us with,” he recalled, laughing.
Marques said the Quakers’ seniors set the tone for the rest of the team. “What I remember most is there was just so much leadership on that team,” he says.
Marques was recruited to Guilford from Riviera, Fla. “The first time I stepped on campus was for school,” he says. “When I would get homesick I remember the seniors having us over to their rooms for parties or taking us (to downtown Greensboro) to get our minds off home. They were like family to us.”
In addition to Brad and Marques, teammates Luke Martin ’99, Daniel Morse ’00, Jimmy Lamour ’00, Garrick Vogt ’00, Dallas Hairston ’01, Idris Coleman ’01 and Doug Robertson ’99 attended the reunion.
This year’s reunion was put together late, which made finding a hotel room difficult for many players who wanted to attend, Brad says. “We want a bigger showing for the next reunion,” he says.
And, yes, says Brad, there will be more reunions. “We need to start getting back together for reunions and not for, you know, funerals when those start happening. What we did was special. It’s hard to believe Guilford hasn’t won a title since. I guess that’s what makes what we did all the more special.”
Brad is hoping to get in touch with more players from the 1997 team. You can contact him at demontennis@gmail.com.