Lewis University Athletics

A Chicago native who starred in college basketball for DePaul coach Ray Meyer, he arrived in Joliet in 1950 and since then brought this community to sports heights never previously imagined.

Whether it was coaching Joliet Catholic football, or Lewis basketball or baseball, or baseball or women's basketball at St. Francis, it didn't matter. Gillespie's teams won, and his players ran through the wall for him. They didn't have to be asked.

Gillespie retired from coaching in 2010 with 2,402 total victories against 1,170 losses and eight ties in the three sports combined. That's a .672 winning percentage.

His Lewis teams won three consecutive NAIA baseball championships in the mid-1970s. His Joliet Catholic football teams won four straight state titles from 1975 through 1978 and won a fifth in 1981. His USF baseball team was the NAIA national champion in 1993. He retired from college baseball coaching in 2010 as the winningest coach of all time.

But even more remarkable than all the success, he coached college baseball for 59 years, including 10 years at Ripon in Wisconsin, and coached quality teams in 110 sports seasons.

Of course, for as long as his health allowed, he never really retired. In recent years, he helped his close friend Dan Sharp with the Joliet Catholic football program, mentoring the quarterbacks.

Gillespie was a member of the inaugural class of the Joliet Area Sports Hall of Fame and has been inducted into more halls of fame and received more coach of the year, coach of the decade and coach of the century honors than most of us can even imagine.

Yet as much as he accomplished as a coach, and as much as his legend grew through the years, he was equally talented as a teacher, a public speaker and, most of all, a true friend and human being.

At the induction ceremony for Joliet Catholic's first Hall of Champions class last September, Tom Thayer got up before the crowd, looked over at Gillespie and said, "Gordie, we are all here for you." That spoke volumes.

When Gillespie was asked about possible retirement several years ago, he said, "God will retire me. He'll tell me when it's time."

God has made his decision. He must have needed a baseball coach. Or a football coach or basketball coach. He got the best, perhaps the only person in the world who coached 110 sports seasons at high levels, who always won much more than his share and never seemed to slow down.