Baseball

Gordie Gillespie captured nearly half of his 1,677 collegiate baseball coaching victories at University of St. Francis during a span of 19 years from 1977 through 1995.

In 2006, college baseball’s all-time winningest coach will add to that 804-488 mark when Gillespie returns to the St. Francis program to replace his former assistant coach Tony Delgado, who retired upon completion of the 2005 season.

For Gillespie, the 2006 campaign will be his 54th season of coaching on the diamond, where he has amassed a 1,677-859 overall record. The next closest challenger to Gillespie’s record is University of Texas’ Augie Garrido, who owns a 1,525-712 mark.

Gillespie’s re-introduction was made at a press conference on May 9, 2005, by USF president Dr. Michael Vinciguerra and Dave Laketa, director of athletics.

"We are very pleased that the ‘winningest’ coach, Gordie Gillespie, will once again wear a Saint jersey," said Vinciguerra. "He will be an ambassador for the university’s vision and commitment to be the center of education in our region."

Besides his coaching duties, Gillespie also will assist in the university’s fundraising efforts.

Gillespie, who turned 79 in April, returns to Joliet after a successful 10-year run at Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he worked with his son, Bob, the school’s director of athletics.

In his stint with the Red Hawks, Gillespie compiled a 239-130 record and led his teams to the NCAA III playoffs six of the last seven years, while capturing five league titles, including one stretch of four in a row.

Gillespie has also been named conference coach of the year four times (1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003).

"We are most blessed that Coach Gillespie has taken up our offer to return to St. Francis," said Laketa, who played football for Gillespie at USF from 1986-89. "Between his time here as well as at Joliet Catholic High School and Lewis University, he has made a tremendous impact on the lives of an extraordinary amount of young student-athletes in the Joliet area, including myself.

"For our future student-athletes to experience that same feeling first hand as part of their overall education will be an unbelievable benefit to them in preparation for life after college."

An inductee into 15 halls of fame and a four-time NAIA national baseball coach of the year, Gillespie took 16 of his 43 teams to the NAIA World Series between his time at Lewis and St. Francis from 1953-1995.

At Lewis, Gillespie produced a 634-241 record in 24 years (1953-1976), capped off by three straight NAIA World Series titles from 1974-76. One year later, Gillespie moved on to St. Francis, where eight of his teams earned a bid to the World Series, highlighted by the 1993 team that won 38 of its final 39 games en route to the school’s first-ever national championship in any sport.

Overall, 58 of Gillespie's players have gone on to sign professional contracts.

Gillespie, the father of seven through a previous marriage (Mike, Gordie, Jr., Greg, Bob, Margaret Mary, Billie and Jackie), made his way onto the Joliet scene in 1950, serving as the director of athletics for the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). Soon afterwards, he found himself coaching Lewis University’s basketball team, which was in its second season of competition in the fall of that year. That would start a run of 104 sport seasons on the sidelines, including the 2005 baseball campaign. In all, Gillespie's teams have failed to record at least a .500 mark on only 11 occasions. In seven of those years, he fell just one win short of the break-even point.

At the same time that he was building strong programs in baseball at Lewis, as attested by eight NAIA World Series appearances, Gillespie was functioning in a dual role, directing the fortunes of the Flyer basketball program from 1950-1965.

At. St. Francis, he started both the football (1986) and women's basketball program (1976-77), besides serving as the head baseball coach, to go along with his duties as director of athletics from 1976-86 and athletic chairman from 1986-1995.

Prior to making his way over to USF to coach football, Gillespie posted an incredible 222-54-6 record on the gridiron during an illustrious 27-year stay at Joliet Catholic High School, highlighted by five state championships (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1981). For those accomplishments, he was named the head coach of the Chicago Tribune's All-Time Illinois High School Football Team in 1991.

For the record, the graduate of Kelvyn Park High School and DePaul University has captured 2,185 victories against 1,076 losses for a .670 winning percentage in four different sports.

"It is only appropriate that Coach Gillespie conclude his incredible career, where he started it, in a region known for its quality blue-collar athletes and championship-caliber clubs, which are due in large part to him," stated Laketa. "His return only adds to our renewed commitment to athletics as part of the overall learning experience at St. Francis and will extend the long-standing tradition of excellence in the program that he started, that he and Tony nurtured and that Tony continued over the past 10 years."

Gillespie and his wife, Joan, will reside in Joliet. Between the two of them, they have a combined total of 35 grandchildren.

"This is a very exciting time at USF - one of growth, of recommitment to our roots and mission and of outreach to our greater community," concluded Vinciguerra. "We are pleased that Gordie is back on our team at the University of St. Francis."

Fifth-year assistant coach Jerred Delgado has been a fixture at St. Francis since 1981, when his father - and former head coach - Tony Delgado came to USF as an associate head coach.

For the past 16 years, the 33-year-old Delgado has worked as a counselor at St. Francis' summer/winter camps in addition to coaching three years at the junior varsity level on a voluntary basis.

A graduate of Providence Catholic High School, Delgado also works in the special education department at Farragut School in Joliet.

He is single and resides in Joliet.