The 52nd class will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 2 p.m. inside Schar Center.
Elon University Athletics has announced its 2022 Sports Hall of Fame class — Ali Ford ’13 (basketball/softball), Jeannie Hairston-Eason ’82 (basketball/volleyball), Tony Pigott (baseball), and Cameron Silverman ’14 (tennis).
The 52nd class will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 2 p.m. inside Schar Center. The group will also be recognized at halftime of the Elon football game against Gardner-Webb at 6 p.m. that evening. More details about the Hall of Fame induction ceremony will follow.
Ali Ford, Basketball/Softball, 2010-14
One of the more versatile student-athletes of Elon’s Division I era, Ford scored more than 2,000 points on the basketball court and was a three-year letterwinner on the softball diamond. She was also named to the Southern Conference’s 100th Anniversary Team.
In basketball, Ford was one of only five players to be named to the Southern Conference’s all-conference team four times. She was the league’s Freshman of the Year following the 2009-10 season after connecting on a league-best 84 three-pointers. She made a school-record 92 long balls as a sophomore and, by her junior year, broke the school’s career three-point made record. She finished her career with 338 three-pointers, a total that puts her more than 100 threes ahead of any other Elon women’s basketball player.
Ford also ranks first in career free-throw percentage (82.6 percent), second in career points (2,020), third in field goals made (673), fourth in career points per game (15.9), fifth in career assists (393), fifth in career free-throws made (336), sixth in career three-point percentage (33.8) and tenth in career steals (188). Ford was named the Elon Female Basnight winner in 2012.
In softball, Ford was a three-year letter winner, who started 53 games at shortstop as a senior, leading the team in assists with 97. She played in 104 career games, starting 95 of those contests. She had a .929 career fielding percentage and hit two home runs. Ford was named to the Academic All-Southern Conference team.
Jeannie Hairston-Eason, Basketball/Volleyball, 1978-82
One of only two players in Elon women’s basketball program history with at least 1,300 points and rebounds, Jeannie Hairston-Eason was a five-year letter winner in basketball and a two-year volleyball letter winner as well.
Hairston-Eason is Elon’s all-time leading rebounder with 1,353 caroms, averaging 11.7 per game, second-most in program history. Her 1,357 career points rank ninth in school history to join former teammate and Elon Sports Hall of Famer Venessa Corbett as the only players to reach those combined totals.
Hairston-Eason also ranks seventh in career field goals made (545) and was 267-of-416 from the free-throw line over her career. Both of those totals are eighth in school history. She earned all-conference honors from 1980-82, all-state for 1981 and 1982, and all-regional in 1982. She was also Most Valuable Player of the 1982 Carolinas Conference Tournament.
As a volleyball player, Hairston-Eason was named to the 1980 and 1981 Carolinas Conference All-Conference team, as well as team MVP in 1981. She was named the winner of the department’s Browne Sportsmanship Award in 1982.
Tony Pigott, Baseball, 1995-97
A two-time all-conference player, Tony Pigott had a .347 career batting average with 13 home runs before being drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 27th round of the 1997 MLB June Amateur Draft.
In 1995, Pigott was named the team’s Freshman of the Year after hitting .305 with three homers and 30 RBI. He followed up that debut season by earning first-team all-conference accolades in each of the next two years.
In 1996, Pigott hit a team-best .335, hit another home run, drove in 22 runs and stole 13 bases. He then posted a team-high .395 batting average in 1997 with nine homers, 48 RBI and 23 stolen bases to go with 47 runs scored. The 1997 squad won the South Atlantic Conference regular season and tournament titles, advancing to the South Central Region Tournament, where Elon went 2-2 in the program’s only Division II National Tournament appearance.
Pigott went on to play five years of Minor League Baseball, as well as two more years of Independent League ball. He had 304 career hits in the minors, along with eight homers and 116 RBI. He batted .301 over two seasons with the Rockford Riverhawks of the Frontier League.
Cameron Silverman, Tennis, 2010-14
A two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year, Cameron Silverman led Elon to a pair of Southern Conference regular-season championships and a 2014 trip to the NCAA Championships.
Silverman finished his career with records of 63-32 in singles play and 53-24 in doubles play, but was even more dominant in conference. He went a combined 32-5 in singles and 30-5 in doubles over the course of his distinguished career. He was 9-0 as a senior in league play and earned the ITA Regional Senior Player of the Year award.
In 2011-12, Silverman won the ITA Summer Circuit event at Cornell and he earned an at-large bid to the 32-player USTA/ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships in 2012-13, advancing to the Carolina Regional championship match. As a junior, he defeated Duke’s Henrique Cunha, who was the No. 1 ranked player in the country at the time.
In his senior season, Elon went 19-6 overall and 9-0 in conference play. The Phoenix defeated Furman to win the league championship before losing to Tennessee 4-1 in the NCAA Championships. Silverman also qualified for the individual championships, losing a hard-fought match to Florida’s Florent Diep 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 7-6 (7-1).