GREENSBORO, N.C. – Three former student-athletes will be inducted into the Guilford College Athletics Hall of Fame Saturday, Nov. 1, as part of the school’s Homecoming Weekend. The inductees selected are Amy Evans Hisler ’02, Scott Nixon ’84, and Trudy Buckingham Pendergraft ’95.
One of the top two-sport performers in school history, Hisler is arguably Guilford’s best women’s soccer player and ranks among the Quakers’ best in basketball. She was named Guilford’s Best Senior Female Athlete in 2002 and received its prestigious English Athletic Leadership Award in 2001. She graduated with seven school soccer records and still holds four standards, including career goals (69) and points (159). Hisler was Guilford’s first National Soccer Coaches’ Association of America all-region selection and its first four-time All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) pick. Her school-record 55 points led the league’s scorers in 2001 and helped her win the ODAC’s Player of the Year Award, another Guilford first. A team captain, Hisler remains among the league’s top-10 career leaders in goals and assists. Coach Forrest Collier’s ’95 Quakers won 30 games with Hisler on the roster, which ranks among the best four-year totals in school history.
After soccer season Hisler took a couple days off before heading to basketball practice where she helped coach Barb Bausch’s Quakers to ODAC titles and NCAA Division III Tournament appearances in 2001 and 2002. A heady and tough-nosed point guard, Hisler was a four-year starter and a two-time honorable mention All-ODAC performer. As a senior she led the ODAC in assist/turnover ratio (2.73), and placed sixth in the league with 3.46 assists per game. Her 243 career steals stand second in school history while her 343 assists rank fourth on Guilford’s all-time list. Hisler also contributed 791 points and 530 rebounds in 106 career games, seventh-most in school history.
An accomplished student, Hisler graduated with an accounting degree and earned her master’s in business administration from East Carolina University in 2004. She resides in Pikeville, North Carolina, where she works as an assistant state auditor. Hisler, whose husband, Matt, is head women’s soccer coach at the University of Mount Olive, remains a competitive soccer player and coaches the couple’s daughter’s youth soccer team.
Nixon was a dominant midfielder for coach Geoff Miller’s lacrosse teams in the early 1980s and helped the Quakers rise to national prominence. A team captain as a senior, Guilford went 34-15 in Nixon’s four seasons and ranked among the top-15 NCAA Division III teams in 1982 and 1984. The four-year starter served as the Quakers’ face-off specialist and consistently placed among the team’s top scorers. He garnered honorable mention Division III All-America recognition from the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in 1984. His 125 ground balls that season still stand second in school history.
Nixon came to North Carolina after a standout career at Ward-Melville High School in East Setauket, New York. At Guilford, he scored 115 points (71 goals, 46 assists) and won over 65 percent of his face-offs for the Quakers. He graduated as the school’s career goal-scoring leader among midfielders and twice received All-Tri State League recognition. Nixon earned the Quakers’ game ball for his play in Guilford’s 13-9 victory over Duke University in 1984 after winning 16 of 22 draws and scoring three points. Nixon resides in Roswell, Georgia, where he owns and operates an insurance agency.
Like Evans, Pendergraft was accomplished in two sports, earning All-ODAC honors for the Quakers’ volleyball and tennis teams. She captained both of coach Chuck McCracken’s squads and also won the English Athletic Leadership Award, the 1993 Quaker Club Ideal Student-Athlete prize, and the 1994 Outstanding Undergraduate Athlete honor. Pendergraft received multiple academic scholarships and was a four-time Academic All-ODAC Team selection.
Pendergraft captained Guilford’s only ODAC volleyball champions (1991, 1993) and helped the Quakers to a 96-34 record in her tenure. The four-year starting outside hitter earned First Team All-ODAC and Second Team CoSIDA Academic-All District III® honors in 1994 after ranking among the ODAC’s top-10 in kills and digs. As a junior, Pendergraft helped Guilford to a 25-6 mark and the Quakers’ first NCAA Division III Tournament berth. She concluded her 129-match career with 482 kills and 1,004 digs, which remains Guilford’s eighth-highest total.
In the spring, Pendergraft contributed to McCracken’s tennis teams, which went 57-15 (33-4 ODAC) and earned three top-20 national rankings. She twice earned All-ODAC honors in both singles and doubles. Pendergraft had a 55-25 career singles mark and earned all-league recognition in 1993 and 1995. In doubles play, she posted a 51-26 record and teamed with Betsy Parker ’97 to win the ODAC’s number-two flight in 1994, which garnered first-team all-league recognition. She was a Second Team All-ODAC pick with Mignon Ezzell ’97 in 1995 at second doubles. Her overall record of 106-51 ranks 14th among Guilford’s women’s tennis wins leaders. She was a Third Team CoSIDA Academic All-District III® At-Large honoree in 1995.
After receiving a management degree from Guilford, Pendergraft earned her master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2000. She married former Guilford men’s lacrosse player Dr. Will Pendergraft ’96 and the couple has three children. Pendergraft and her family reside in Chapel Hill, where she works as a health economics and outcomes researcher. She spent eight years as a volunteer with Guiding Eyes for the Blind, an organization that raises and trains guide dogs.
This year’s honorees bring Guilford’s Athletics Hall of Fame membership to 217 individual members and three teams. Past inductees include NBA stars M.L. Carr ’73, World B. Free ’76, and Bob Kauffman ’68, major-league baseball players Ernie Shore ’13, Rick Ferrell ’28, Tom Zachary ’18 and Tony Womack ’91, and professional golfer Lee Porter ’89.
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