DAPHNE, Ala. - Gordie Gillespie, the winningest coach in college baseball history, received a Distinguished Service Award (DSA) from the United States Sports Academy. Gillespie, coach at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, was presented with his DSA by Academy alumna and Board of Trustees member Ms. Linda Moore on 21 December 2009 on the St. Francis campus.
Gillespie, who turns 84 in April 2010, will begin his 58th season of coaching baseball next year. He has compiled a career record of 1,816 wins and 922 losses. More than half his victories have come at St. Francis, where he coached from 1977 through 1995 and again from 2006 until the present.
Gillespie has been inducted into 16 halls of fame, including the College Baseball Hall of Fame this past summer, and is a four-time National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Coach of the Year. Gillespie's 1993 team won the first national championship in St. Francis school history, regardless of sport.
The DSA is given annually to those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to national or international sports through instruction, research or service. The DSA is separate from the Academy's Awards of Sport and each recipient also receives the coveted Order of the Eagle Exemplar for their achievements.
Each nominee must possess an extensive background in sports. This means that the individual must have had significant dealings in either instruction, research or service in sports for more than 10 years.
The United States Sports Academy is an independent, nonprofit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and the world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports. For more information about the Academy, call 251-626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.
