Biography
Dennie Bridges has been athletic director at Illinois Wesleyan University since 1981 and was head basketball coach at the school for 36 seasons, retiring after the 2001 season. He retired as the winningest active coach in NCAA Division III men’s basketball with a record of 667-319.
Bridges’ 2000-01 team finished 24-7 and placed third in the national Division III tournament. His 1997 team won the Division III title, earning him Division III “Coach of the Year” honors, and his 1996 squad also played to a third-place national finish.
He is one of only 22 college coaches (regardless of division) with more than 650 victories and is the second winningest coach, by victories, in Division III history, behind Dick Sauers, who amassed 702 wins at Albany (N.Y.) in 41 seasons from 1956 to 1997.
Bridges, who coached in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin longer and won more league championships than any other coach in CCIW history, had a league mark of 421-129 with 17 titles, a total twice as many as any other CCIW team in that period.
Bridges’ success in national competition was also been a benchmark of his coaching career. He coached teams into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tourney seven times and compiled a record of 23-11 in NAIA postseason competition, with two teams reaching the quarterfinals.
One of Bridges’ greatest recruiting classes came in 1973, when his freshman class included Jack Sikma of St. Anne (Ill.) High School. Sikma is IWU’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder and played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association for the Seattle SuperSonics and Milwaukee Bucks.
Bridges’ teams reached the Division III tournament 14 times in 18 years (1983-2001) of association with the NCAA and posted a 30-14 record with the three top three finishes and five trips to the quarterfinals.
On the heels of the 1995-96 third place Division III tournament finish, the 1996-97 team won the national title and finished with a 29-2 record, the best at IWU since the 1935-36 team was 20-0.
High academic standards were also been a hallmark during Bridges’ coaching tenure. Illinois Wesleyan has had 13 first team Academic All-Americans in men’s basketball since the program’s inception in 1970, second only to UCLA with 17. In 1999 and 2000, IWU’s Korey Coon was named the “Academic All-American of the Year” and won the 2000 Jostens Trophy, recognizing the outstanding student-athlete in Division III basketball. Illinois Wesleyan also has had six others in basketball who earned second- or third-team Academic All-America honors.
Bridges has spent his entire career as an Illinois Wesleyan athlete, coach, and administrator. A native of Anchor, a rural town 25 miles east of Bloomington, Bridges was a four-year letterman and starter in basketball and baseball and a three-year football letterman (all-conference quarterback). In basketball, he was a two-year captain, most valuable player and all-conference once. He is currently 40th in school scoring history with 926 career points.
After graduating in 1961, Bridges coached at Plainfield (Ill.) High School three years before returning to IWU in 1964 as Horenberger’s basketball assistant and head tennis coach with the understanding that he would become head basketball coach for the 1965-66 season. Then, with four starters back from a championship team, the rookie coach led the Titans to a sixth CCIW championship in seven years.
Under Bridges’ tenure as athletic director, the Shirk Center and Fort Natatorium have been constructed, varsity swimming returned for men and was added for women, and men’s and women’s soccer, women’s cross country, and women’s golf have been added as varsity sports. He was extremely active in fundraising for the Jack Horenberger Baseball Field, opened in April 1999, which yielded new facilities in softball, the Neis Soccer Field, along with renovations of the football field and outdoor track.
Bridges, who has conducted basketball clinics in Brazil, New Zealand, and Australia, is a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, received the IBCA’s Buzzy O’Connor award for meritorious service and has been the state’s Division III Coach of the Year several times.
Bridges and his wife, Rita, have three grown children, all former IWU student-athletes. Angela Romani, a four-year regular in tennis, and her husband, Tim, live in Denver, Colo., with their two children — Alyssa and Carly. Steve, a four-year baseball and football letterman, was a second-team Academic All-American in football once and a third-team selection in baseball twice. With a law degree from the University of Illinois, he is a legal consultant for Aon Corporation in Chicago. Eric, a four-year basketball regular and No. 12 in IWU career scoring, has an MBA degree from the University of Iowa, and is employed in Bloomington by State Farm Insurance. He is the father of one son, Keegan and a daughter, Summer.
Many of Bridges’ memories are included in his book, “A Dunk Only Counts Two Points,” published in 2002, as well as his 2006 book, “Kids Don’t Bat Rocks Anymore.” Both books are available by contacting the IWU Bookstore at (309) 556-3059.
