Nobody expected a lot from the 1993 Guilford baseball team. That was just the motivation the Quakers needed to win the conference tournament.
“We knew we had potential to do something special that year, but nobody else thought we could. We never got much respect so we just went out and made the other schools respect us.”
Thirty years ago the Nasty Boys lived up to their name.
Guilford’s 1993 baseball team, whose players came up with their memorable nickname, won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference baseball title, the last baseball title a Guilford team has won.
Last month, players from that championship team and their coach gathered at Guilford to remember the season – a remarkable run nobody saw coming except maybe the players and coach themselves.
Jeff Thigpen ’93, who is Guilford County Register of Deeds and was the Quakers’ catcher that year, says his knees tell him every day it’s been 30 years “but my mind tells me it was just yesterday.”
“We knew we had potential to do something special that year, but nobody else thought we could,” he says. “We never got much respect so we just went out and made the other schools respect us.”
Jeff and his teammates played hard on and off the field, which is how they came up with their collective nickname. The Nasty Boys finished 30-12, winning the ODAC tournament 1-0 over Ferrum College in the championship game.
Guilford scored the game’s only run in the first inning off Ferrum’s Billy Wagner, who became a seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star and played for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves.
Guilford’s coach that year was Robert Fulton ’74, who was also a member of the College’s 1972-73 basketball team that won the NAIA championship. Robert, who was part of last month’s baseball reunion and one for basketball in February, says the players formed a special bond that never gets old. The baseball team held a 25th reunion on campus in 2018.
“When they get together it’s just like they’re students back on campus when they see each other. It’s great to see,” Robert said.
In addition to Robert and Jeff, members of the 1993 team who attended the reunion were Chad Axford '93, Rick Beville '93, Steven Foulks '93, Shane Handy '92, Brian Heileg '98, Jerry Marshall '94, Kevin O'Neill 95, Jason Smith '93, Jeff Smith '93, Marty Stern '94, Scott Stier '93 and Bron Thompson '93.