Steve Musulin, a 1976 Guilford graduate, walks with a cane at the age of 50. Musulin, perhaps one of the Quakers’ strongest offensive linemen in school history, was in a car accident that left him with a permanent spinal injury.
It was what he learned at Guilford on the football field that helped him persevere through a difficult time.
“The lessons I learned on that field helped me get over some major obstacles in my life,” he said.
Musulin and five other former Guilford Athletes were honored on Jan. 24 as the 33rd class to be inducted into Guilford’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
Chris Haarlow, the youngest of the six honorees, was a golfer at Guilford. Before he graduated in 1991, Haarlow compiled the tenth-best stroke average in school history. He was also a recipient of Guilford’s English Athletic Leadership and Best Male Senior Athlete awards. Haarlow went on to play professional golf for six seasons.
“To me this is all about what family is,” he said referring to his years at Guilford. “I always felt like I had a support system here. Whether it was coaches, professors, or teammates, there was always someone there for me.”
1961 graduate Don Lineberry recalled what it was like to play sports at Guilford in the ’60s.
“I hear all this talk about kids not wanting to play anymore,” he said. “If you played sports at Guilford College in the ’60s you loved the game.”
Lineberry played basketball for the Quakers from 1958-1961 and led the team in scoring twice. In his sophomore year Lineberry averaged 24.9 points per game, second in the North State conference.
The eldest of the inductees, Lineberry also commented on how tough college athletes of the ’60s were.
“We didn’t have any personal trainers back then,” he said. “If you got hurt you taped it up on your own and kept playing.”
One of the most unique inductees of the night was Johnny Moore. He never played a sport at Guilford but was a successful student Sports Information Director (SID) from 1974-1977.
Moore reported on some of Guilford’s most decorated athletes such as World B. Free, a former basketball player who went on to play in the NBA. Moore is now the founder and president of Moore Productions, Inc., which is a primary commercial distributor of Duke University athletics. Despite the success, Moore has not forgotten about his time spent at Guilford.
“I fell in love with this place the moment I saw it,” he said. “When I left here I felt the same homesickness that I did as a freshman for my real home.”
Other inductees included Stan Smith, a 1976 graduate who captained the Quakers to the NAIA World Series. Smith holds the record for games played in a season with 47 and is among Guilford’s career leaders in home runs and doubles.
Cintonya Allison Somerville graduated from Guilford as a two-sport star in 1986. She captained the volleyball team in 1979 and 1980 and earned All-NAIA District 26 and All-Carolinas conference honors when she was a sophomore. Somerville also earned MVP honors as an infielder for the school’s softball team in 1980.
The formal induction ceremony took place in Sternberger Auditorium. Greg Kerr, WFMY-TV’s sports director, served as the Master of Ceremonies.