The Achievements of Gordie Gillespie
Many believe that Gordie Gillespie’s record in the four years from the summer of 1974 to the fall of 1978 is simply the greatest coaching achievement of any coach at any level.
His Lewis College baseball and Joliet Catholic High School football teams won seven championships in those four years against great odds. On this page is a brief summary of Gordie’s athletic achievements.
Coaching Resume
Head Basketball Coach
Lewis University, 1950-1965
Head Baseball Coach
Lewis University, 1953-1976
University of St. Francis, 1976-1995
Ripon College, 1996-2005
University of St. Francis, 2006-2011
Head Football Coach
Joliet Catholic Academy, 1959-1985
University of St. Francis, 1986-1993
Director of Athletics
Lewis University, 1956-1976
University of St. Francis, 1976-1995
Head Women’s Basketball
University of St. Francis, 1976-1977
Faculty Member – PhysEd
Lewis University, 1953-1976
University of St. Francis, 1976-1995 and 2006-2011
Ripon College, 1996-2005
THE FOUR FABULOUS YEARS: 1974 – 1978
Won Three Consecutive National College Baseball Championships and Four Consecutive Illinois High School Football Chanpionships
AWARDS
Eighteen Halls of Fame/Lefty Gomez Award/NAIA Coach of the Year four times/NAIA Baseball Coach of the Century/Named Greatest Illinois High School Football Coach of All Time (Chicago Tribune)
Lewis Baseball
Gordie’s three consecutive championships capped off a run in the NAIA College World Series that began with a ragamuffin group of misfits at Lewis in 1962. In the sixteen-year span from Gordie’s surge into the national scene in 1962 until he left Lewis College in 1976, Gordie’s teams:
- 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
The dynasty Gordie started at Joliet Catholic lives on.
There are more than 750 public and private high schools in the state of Illinois who are members of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). In 1974 the IHSA created the state football championship tournaments; there were five classes based on enrollment and each class had a sixteen-school single elimination tournament. Therefore there was a total of 80 schools participating in the tournaments each year.
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 started a football dynasty at Joliet Catholic.
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.
Awards
Most of Gordie’s coaching career was in two sports; baseball and football, even though his first head coaching job was in basketball.
His record on the gridiron is remarkable. In his last 10 years at Joliet Catholic High School, after Illinois instituted the state football championship, his teams won five state championships (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981), compiling an overall record of 222–54–6.
In fifteen years of coaching basketball at Lewis University, Gordie amassed a record of 228–124 and he is still the winningest basketball coach in Lewis history.
But it is in baseball where Gordie coached the longest and where his record is brightest. In addition to the sixteen national NAIA World Series finalists and four national titles, Gordie’s teams also placed second or third six times. Gordie said that his most meaningful award came in 1991 when he received the Lefty Gomez Award given annually by the American Baseball Coaches Association to one person who has most notably shown “dedication, service, and contributions to the game of baseball.” It was his most cherished award because, he said, “when you look at the marvelous people who have won it before and after me – well, it’s humbling.”
Hall of Fames
Gordie also served on several national organizations: he was president of the NAIA three times, served on the 1969 US Olympic Baseball Committee and was the coach of the US National baseball team in the Pan American Games in Columbia.
Gordie was inducted into eighteen Halls of Fame!
- NAIA Coaches Hall of Fame
- NAIA Hall of Fame
- DePaul University Athletic Hall of Fame
- National Football Coaches Association Hall of FameLewis University
- Athletic Hall of Fame
- Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame
- Illinois High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame
- Chicago Sports Hall of Fame
- Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame
- National High School Sports Hall of Fame
- American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame
- Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame
- University of St. Francis Athletic Hall of Fame
- National Football Foundation Hall of Fame
- National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame
- College Baseball Foundation Hall of Fame
- Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame
- Joliet Catholic Academy Hall of Champions