Subscribe to Full Court PressGeorgia State’s Bridgette Gordon: From the Wheaties Box to the Coaching Sidelines
Photo Caption: As a 5-11 sixth-grader, Bridgette Gordon could have chosen softball, volleyball, or track. Instead, she chose to commit herself to basketball, and years later, after landing in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, found her photo featured on the proverbial Wheaties box. Today, she paces the sidelines as an assistant coach at Georgia State, where she hopes to imbue young players with her competitive spirit and love of the game.
Photo Credit: Wheaties
By Sarah Bailey
Correspondent
She looked like she was ready for a game of pick-up basketball. Sitting in her white Georgia State sweats, with her long and curly brown hair free falling down to her shoulders, her ebony skin glistening in the light and her welcoming smile ever present, Georgia State Women’s assistant basketball coach and recruiting coordinator Bridgette Gordon sat back and reminisced about her own days inside the perimeter of the basketball court.
Bridgette Gordon already stood 5 feet, 11 inches and was a stellar all-around athlete by the time she entered sixth-grade in sunny DeLand, Florida.
“I was a better softball player than basketball player,” said Gordon, who also excelled at volleyball and track. However, when Gordon reached high school she realized that not much attention was paid to those sports, so she decided to mainly focus on basketball.
“I decided knowing that basketball would take me further and help me get a free education so I put all my energy toward basketball,” said Gordon.
It was a decision that would change her life, taking her to countries she never imagined she would see, finding her photo on a Wheaties box, and ultimately landing her in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Attending the largest district high school in the state of Florida, Gordon started getting noticed her junior year.
“I was lucky enough to win a state championship in 1984,” said Gordon. “In high school it was a great experience.”
With the state championship under her belt, Gordon started looking at colleges and colleges started looking at her. It came down to the last school to contact her—the University of Tennessee.
It was before anyone knew of the now legendary Coach Pat Summit, before any of those national championships, and before the Lady Vols were ever put on the map.
After Coach Summit came down for a home visit and discussed Tennessee’s graduation rates and winning a national championship, Gordon chose Tennessee.
“It was a defining moment in my life,” said Gordon with a smile on her face. “The decision was right to go to Tennessee.”
As Gordon entered her freshman year, people started to question Summit’s decisions and recruiting class. Little did they know that this class would be the one that would bring Coach Summit her first national championship in 1987 and her second in 1989.
For Gordon, however, the experience was both novel and challenging.
“For the first time in my life I was surrounded by ladies who were just as talented or had more ability than I did,” said Gordon. “It was the most challenging time in my career, but being a fierce competitor, I never shy down from competition.”
Because of that fierce competitive edge, success seemed to follow her.
“We had four consecutive Final Four appearances—the first male or female team to do that,” said Gordon. “It was a lot of hard work.”
What Gordon is too modest to say is that she led the Lady Vols to those four back-to-back Final Fours. Gordon still holds the Tennessee record for most career steals (338) and is the second-leading scorer in school history (2,450 points), having averaged 18 points and 6.7 rebounds per game over the course of her college career.
After a taste of a national championship in her sophomore year, and falling just short of making the national championship game her junior year, Gordon wanted to go out a winner. And she did—along with all the honors such as the 1989 Final Four Most Outstanding Player and SEC Player of the Year.
“To win a national championship and win most out standing player was like the finishing touch to a great and unbelievable career that I had a Tennessee,” said Gordon. “I have never been a person who has always been about myself. We did it collectively as a team. All I could think about was going out, on top, as the best.”
A lot of her success on and off the basketball court she attributes to Coach Summit, or as she calls her, Pat.
“We are on a first name basis,” Gordon laughed. “She was a disciplinarian. I was a shy young girl coming from Florida, and she helped me become a lady.”
The admiration is mutual. In her book “Reach for the Summitt,” the legendary coach tells a potentially embarrassing tale on herself that reflects Gordon’s toughness and will to win. During a timeout in an NCAA Championship game, Summitt was annoyed when she observed her team leader keeping her hand over her mouth. Summitt challenged Gordon, pulling her hand from her mouth and instructing her to get back in the game and intensify her effort. Only after the game (and four straight baskets by Gordon) did Summitt learn that Gordon’s tooth had been knocked loose, requiring a trip to the dentist and emergency surgery to save it. In an autographed copy of the book, Summitt praises Gordon’s work ethic, competitive spirit and team leadership.
 | Photo Caption: Gordon rose to greatest at the University of Tennessee, leading the team to four consecutive Final Four appearances and helping a then-little known coach named Pat Summitt to her first two national titles. Gordon is still the Lady Vols all-time record holder in steals and the second-leading scorer in school history. |
| Image Credit: Classic Cards, NCAA Hall of Fame series |
Before winning her second national championship at Tennessee, Gordon took a semester off to play in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. At first, however, it seemed like Gordon might have blown her chance to play with the USA emblazoned across her jersey. Playing a game of pick-up basketball with some of the football players at Tennessee, Gordon dislocated her right index finger.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ I saw a bone and I was nervous and scared that I wasn’t going to be able to play,” said Gordon. But it turned out that luck was again on her side, because she got a waiver from that session of U.S. Olympic team tryouts.
The women’s U.S. Olympic team went on to win gold in South Korea in an era that predated American international dominance in the sport.
“It was, oh God, a great experience,” said Gordon. “It was ... a learning experience for me, learning about other countries and meeting athletes, and just how much it means to them to represent their country” said Gordon. “One in how many actually get to represent the United States? It’s just a humbling experience.”
Gordon knew that in choosing a life on the basketball court, she would in many ways become a role model, a symbol of much more than herself. The Olympics brought this sense of responsibility to a totally new level, however.
“Everything you stand for and who you were representing in the Olympics—it’s not just yourself, it’s not just the University of Tennessee, it’s not just your parents or your siblings, it’s your town, your state, it’s all the people,” said Gordon. She went on to say that people cared enough to stay up to 3 a.m. to watch the games on TV. She basks in the pride of those who tell her that she put DeLand, Florida, on the map.
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| Photo Caption: Gordon took a semester off from Tennessee in 1988 to prepare for and participate in the Seoul Olympics. The team’s motto was “Sole goal - Seoul gold,” and a gold medal for the Americans was far from a foregone conclusion in that day and age. Nonetheless, playing alongside all-time greats Teresa Edwards, Katrina McClain, Anne Donovan and Cynthia Cooper, Gordon helped Team USA to the top of the podium in five games, putting up 20 points in a 101-74 victory over Yugoslavia and helping the US to its first-ever Olympic victory over the Soviet Union. Gordon’s career with USA Basketball also included a gold medal at the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1986, a disappointing fifth place finish despite a 4-1 record at the World University Games in 1987, a bronze at the 1991 Pan American Games, and an unsuccessful tryout for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona that found her featured on an Impel trading card. |
| Photo Credit: Courtesy USA Basketball |
Gordon, who was named to the All-Southeastern Conference first team all four of her years with the Lady Vols, racked up the hardware as she finished her collegiate career. She had already been voted to the Final Four All-Tournament Teams in both 1987 and 1989, and was a two-time Kodak, Naismith, and United States Basketball Writer’s Association All-American.
In 1989, an age when there was no WNBA draft, because there was no WNBA, Gordon moved to Italy to play professional basketball after graduating from Tennessee with her degree in Political Science.
“Glen Rice was the most outstanding player for Michigan the same year I [received the same distinction] for the women. He went on to make millions in the NBA, and I went on to make thousands playing in Italy,” said Gordon. “If I had to change it today I would still do the same thing, because you have the luxury of learning so much about different countries and how people live.”
During her time in Italy, Gordon won seven out of eight championships and two European cups. However, she gained much more than triumph while overseas.
“I got to visit countries I never thought I would have gotten to see,” said Gordon. A few places that Gordon mentioned were Russia, Spain, France, Germany, Australia, Austria, Korea, Brazil, Romania, the Czech Republic.
“I got to see the [Berlin] Wall come down,” said Gordon. “I was there when it was up. Having that experience and being able to win was great.”
Gordon said she will always carry with her the memories of winning in Italy and the experiences she had in Europe.
“I am very sensitive. It touched me to my heart seeing people in Russia waiting on the streets for bread,” said Gordon. “Are you kidding me, people really have to live like this?”
She recalled being in Brazil and their players choosing to play basketball as a way out and for a better life.
“We do it because we love the game of basketball,” said Gordon.
Seeing how others live makes Gordon want to share her lessons with others.
“I always thought if I ever have the opportunity before I leave this world, I would love to take a group of kids over there for them to understand that we are fortunate as Americans,” said Gordon. “We are blessed as Americans.”
Toward the end of her playing career Gordon joined the now-defunct Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA in their inaugural season, starting in all 28 games with an average of 13 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.4 blocks per game, before returning to Italy in the fall. Gordon, then 31, played one more season in the WNBA, also for the Monarchs in the WNBA, before retiring from the pros. It was a disappointing follow to her impressive start the previous year, as she started in just five of the team’s 28 games, with her scoring averaging diving to just 2.6 points per game, and her other stats dipping accordingly. Her stint in the WNBA, albeit brief, gave Gordon the chance to be a pioneer for the women’s professional game in this country and gave her entire family a chance at last to see her play professional basketball.
 | Photo Caption: Gordon’s professional playing career lasted long enough to see her participate in the WNBA’s inaugural season as a starting forward in the now-defunct Sacramento Monarchs’ line-up. Gordon racked up an impressive stat line, but after returning to Italy in the fall, saw her performance drop off markedly in her second and final season with the Monarchs. She retired soon after. |
| Photo Credit: Pinnacle Trading Cards |
Seven years after hanging up her high tops, Gordon received a call from Coach Summit telling her that she was being inducted in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
“I had to shake my head,” said Gordon. “I couldn’t believe it—another achievement that I hadn’t even dreamed of. It’s up there in being special.”
Gordon could not stay away from the game she loved, however. After spending the 2006-07 season as a WNBA scout, she signed on as an assistant women’s basketball coach for Georgia State, where she is now entering her third season on the sidelines. The Lady Panthers are 6-1 so far this season.
| Photo Caption: Today, Gordon has found a home on the sidelines as an assistant coach for the Georgia State Lady Panthers, where she hopes to instill her competitive fire and work ethic in a new generation of players while giving back to the game. |  |
| Photo Credit: Courtesy Georgia State Sports Communications |
“The competitiveness is still there. The fire is still there. The motivation is still there,” said Gordon. “It’s a way of giving back as a coach to the game I so much love.”
“She provides instant credibility with her past success as one of the best players ever in women’s basketball,” Panthers Head Coach Lea Henry of Gordon’s contribution to the program. “She has been an outstanding addition to this program and has a reputation for being a top-notch recruiter.”
Trying to determine what her favorite moment has been thus far is “like comparing apples to oranges to pears,” said Gordon. “You can’t really compare them.” But she did say that one of her most special moments was receiving her college degree.
“Graduating in four years, even with taking a semester off for the Olympics, to graduate with my degree and walk across that stage with my parents, my brother, siblings, and everyone in the stands watching me receive that degree, and being only the second person in a family of eight to receive their degree, that was a very exciting time in my life,” said Gordon.
The memories are precious for Gordon, who is humble and grateful for the opportunity to give back to the game that has given her so much as she looks back over her 22-year basketball career.
“When I look back I am at a loss for words,” said Gordon. “You have people who dream and dream and dream of these defining moments that I had, just to have one that I have had. I am a blessed individual.”
 | Photo Caption: Now in her third year as an assistant at Georgia State, whose Lady Panthers are 6-1 thus far this season, the Hall of Famer expresses nothing but gratitude for the opportunities the sport of women’s basketball has afforded her. |
| Photo Credit: Courtesy Georgia State Sports Communications |
Originally published Thu, December 10, 2009
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