Basketball Standouts To Be Honored at Guilford's Legacy Weekend
GREENSBORO, N.C. (1/27/09) -- Guilford College will rename its main basketball court in honor of longtime men's basketball coach Jack Jensen, and honor six former basketball stars during the school's Basketball Legacy Weekend Jan. 30-31. The Ragan-Brown Field House court dedication will follow Guilford's men's basketball game this Saturday with Randolph-Macon College. The ceremony will include the retirement of the jersey numbers worn by Dan Kuzma '64, Bob Kauffman '68, M.L. Carr '73 and World B. Free '76. The jersey numbers of Elizabeth Parker Haskins '76 and Laura Haynes Spainhour '98 will be retired at halftime of Guilford's Jan. 30 women's basketball game with Washington and Lee University.
The most decorated coach in Guilford history, Jensen has coached four of the school’s five national championship teams. He won 386 games in 29 seasons as the Quakers’ head men’s basketball coach and guided the 1972-73 team to the NAIA national title, Guilford’s first in any sport. Enshrined in the NAIA, North Carolina Sports and Guilford College Sports Halls of Fame, Jensen was the second person to coach two different teams to NAIA national titles. As the Quakers' golf coach, he led Guilford teams to national titles in 1989, 2002, and 2005.
Kuzma starred for the Quakers' in the early 1960s and scored over 1,500 points in his career. He twice earned All-Carolinas Conference honors and graduated with school records for points in a season and game. Kuzma's 23 field goals in a Dec. 1963 game still stands as a Guilford record, and he ranks among the Quakers' top-10 career scoring leaders. He was inducted into Guilford's Athletics Hall of Fame in 1978.
Kauffman ranks among Guilford's most accomplished student-athletes and remains the school's career leader in points (2,570) and rebounds (1,801). As a senior, he averaged 24.6 points and 23.3 rebounds per game to lead Guilford to the number-one seed in the 1968 NAIA National Tournament. Upon graduation, the two-time All-American was selected by the Seattle Supersonics with the third pick of the 1968 NBA Draft. Kauffman averaged 11.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in seven professional seasons and later served as the coach and general manager of the Detroit Pistons.
Carr played on two world-champion Boston Celtics teams after starring on Guilford's 1973 NAIA national champions. He scored 1,993 points for the Quakers despite playing in only 13 games his junior season. The 1973 NAIA All-American began his professional basketball career overseas and in the ABA before joining the Detroit Pistons, which started a 10-year NBA tenure. A member of Guilford's Board of Trustees, Carr also serves as the president and CEO of WARM2Kids, an information and role-model resource for youth.
Free was a freshman on Guilford’s 1973 national title team and became the first rookie to win the Chuck Taylor Award as the NAIA Tournament’s MVP. A two-time All-American and the 1975 NAIA Player of the Year, he scored 2,006 points in three seasons before declaring hardship for the 1975 NBA Draft. Free enjoyed a 13-year NBA career with four different teams before retiring in 1988 as the sixth-leading scorer among NBA guards with 17,955 points. He works as the Philadelphia 76ers' Ambassador of Basketball and has received a number of community service awards from local civic organizations.
Spainhour (left) won two Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Player of the Year Awards and was the league's initial four-time first-team all-conference honoree. She scored a school-record 2,283 career points, which ranks 10th in NCAA Division III history. In 1998, the 5-11 center was one of 10 finalists for the Jostens Trophy, given annually to the nation's top Division III player, and earned Guilford's first All-America honor from the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association. After college she married former Guilford basketball player Kevin Spainhour '97. The couple resides in Rural Hall, N.C., with its four children.
Haskins (right) was one of the first women to receive an athletic grant-in -aid at Guilford and the second woman elected to its Athletics Hall of Fame. She lettered all four seasons in volleyball and basketball for the Quakers, and earned numerous special honors. Haskins scored 42 points in a basketball game as a senior, which stood as the Quakers' school record until 2005. Away from the gym, she was an outstanding student, a Dana Scholar, the recipient of the Algie Newlin Senior History Award, and a member of Guilford's Scholarship Society. Following graduation Haskins earned a master’s in education at Duke University and enjoyed a successful teaching and coaching career.
Public receptions for the honorees will follow both games this weekend in Alumni Gym. Friday's women's game begins at 7:00 p.m. Saturday's men's contest starts at 3:00 p.m. General admission to Guilford basketball games is $5 for adults, $3 for non-Guilford students. Children under 12 and Guilford students, faculty and staff with proper identification are admitted free.
