The Achievements of Gordie Gillespie

How Significant are Gordie’s Achievements?

If you just look at the numbers and the championships, perhaps the four years from the summer of 1974 to the fall of 1978 is arguably the finest production Gordie had. His Lewis College baseball teams and Joliet Catholic High School football teams were overmatched, undersized and thought little of by the pundits, but they won seven championships in those four years against great odds.

Gordie would say that he had a bunch of kids from the frigid Chicago baseball fields who took on those highly favored southern teams and won; and it was a bunch of kids from Joliet, from working class backgrounds that he could identify with so passionately, that won four of the first five Illinois State High School Association Football Championships.

Pat Sullivan, who played for Gordie and who Gordie then hired in 1976 when he became Athletic Director at the University of St. Francis to be his first basketball coach, puts it this way:

“Some might say that the greatest coaching achievement of all time is John Wooden’s 10 NCAA basketball championships in 12 years, and while that is certainly a colossal achievement, Gordie’s seven championships in four years was done in two sports! Do you understand how much knowledge, concentration and motivation you have to pass on to your players to do that?! And how did he find the time to do it? It is positively mind boggling.”

But there was a lot more to Gordie’s achievements than these phenomenal four years, as evidenced by Gordie’s academic positions, his athletic achievements and the incredible list of awards on this page.

Lewis Baseball

• Went to the College World Series 8 times. Won three championships. Received a bid to the NAIA regional tournament every year.
• Only one other school in the country, Linfield University, won more than one championship; they won twice.
• Only 9 other schools went to the tournament more than twice:
• Only one other school in the country went to the World Series more than 4 times; Sam Houston State went to the World Series 7 times but won only 1 title (Lewis defeated Sam Houston State twice in the finals).
• Four other schools went to the tournament 4 times.Four other schools went to the tournament 3 times

Gordie’s record of 25 – 11, a winning percentage of .700, was also compelling;

• No other school in the country with more than 16 victories had a winning percentage of over .600.
• Only two other schools with at least 10 victories had a winning percentage of over .500.
• Gordie’s record in the three year span from 1974 to 1976 was 14 – 1, a winning percentage of .933.
• Only two other schools went to the tournament more than 2 consecutive years; Sam Houston State (winning percentage .577) and Glassboro State (winning percentage .538).
• Of the schools that went to the tournament in two consecutive years, no school had a winning percentage of more than .600.
• Gordie won the NAIA Coach of the Year award three times; in 1965, 1971 and 1972. No other coach won the award more than once.
• The five state schools in Illinois other than the University of Illinois (which was in the NCAA) – Eastern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois, Northern Illinois and Illinois State – had a combined record of one appearance with a won-lost record of 1 – 2. In fact, that was the only appearance by any school from Illinois other than Lewis.

Lewis had become the dominant force in NAIA baseball.

Joliet Catholic Football

Joliet Catholic lost in the second round of the 1974 championship. Then Gordie and Joliet Catholic went on a run.

In the four-year span from 1975 to 1978:

• Gordie’s Joliet Catholic teams won 4 championships.
• Only one other school won more than one championship; Genesco won three.

In the seven-year span from 1975 to 1981:

• Gordie’s Joliet Catholic teams won 5 championships.
• Only one other school won more than 2 championships; Genesco won 3.
• Only 4 other schools won 2 championships.

Gordie left Joliet Catholic in 1985 to start a football program at his then-fulltime employer, the University of St. Francis in Joliet, where he had become athletic director and baseball coach. His successors, all former players of Gordie’s at Joliet Catholic, have kept up the tradition of winning.

In the span from 1975 to the present:

• Joliet Catholic teams won 14 championships.
• Only one other school has won more than 10 championships; Mount Carmel has won 12.
• Only two additional schools have won more than 6 championships.

The dynasty Gordie started at Joliet Catholic lives on.