After 51 years, Illinois Wesleyan University athletic director Dennie Bridges is retiring. (IWU)

By Stew Salowitz/Director of Sports Information – IWU (from press release)

BLOOMINGTON – Illinois Wesleyan University athletic director Dennie Bridges, whose association with the school dates back to enrolling as a freshman in 1957, has announced he will retire on July 31, 2015, the end of his current contract with the University.

A national search will begin immediately to find a replacement for Bridges.

Bridges, who will be 76 next month, took over as athletic director in 1981 and served a dual role as men’s basketball coach and athletic director until 2001.

“I’ve been told that you should retire when you no longer enjoy what you are doing – that won’t work because, in my case, it would be never,” said Bridges. “Retirement age is traditionally 65 and I’m a bit past that. I have been thinking about when to retire for a while and decided a couple of years ago that in 2014 I would have completed 50 years here and that might be a good time. I delayed a year to be closely involved in getting the Shirk Center expansion project going, so it will turn out to be 51 years.”

During Bridges’ tenure as athletic director, the Shirk Center and Fort Natatorium have been constructed, varsity swimming returned for men and was added for women, while men’s and women’s soccer, women’s cross country, women’s golf and men’s and women’s lacrosse have been added as varsity sports.

“Dennie Bridges has provided extraordinary leadership and service to Illinois Wesleyan over a long career, first as men’s basketball coach and then as athletic director,” said IWU President Richard Wilson, who announced his own retirement last month, also effective July 31. “Dennie and I have worked together for the past decade and I could not have been better served by an athletic director.  We share the same philosophy when it comes to the role of intercollegiate athletics on a campus like Illinois Wesleyan.”

 “I’m proud that Coach (Jack) Horenberger and I have been in charge of Illinois Wesleyan athletics for over 70 years,” said Bridges, referring to his predecessor who held the post from 1942 to 1981. “I often rely on his wisdom to deal with today’s issues. In a way, President Wilson’s decision to retire makes my own decision easier because we’ve always had such a great working relationship.”

As the Titans’ basketball coach for 36 seasons, one of Bridges’ strengths was to recruit great players, a trait he feels carried over in his hiring of coaches. “As an accomplishment, I see my treatment of all sports in a championship manner with a special emphasis on raising the level of women’s athletics. And the results of this special emphasis are evident as Illinois Wesleyan is a national player in many sports with the women’s teams right with the men’s teams.”

After coaching the men’s basketball team to the Division III national title in 1997, Bridges has seen IWU teams win national championships in women’s indoor track (2008), women’s outdoor track (2008 and 2010), baseball (2010) and women’s basketball (2012).

“I reflect on the days of Coach Horenberger, Don Larson, Bob Keck and myself pretty much doing it all – coaching multiple sports, teaching the classes, taping the ankles, doing the laundry, driving the teams to games and caring for the fields, while Barb Cothren was doing it all for women’s athletics,” Bridges said. “I refer to those days on occasion in making certain our current coaches understand what the expectations of a Division III coach should be – more often than I suspect they want to hear.”

Bridges cites as another of his top accomplishments the hiring of coaches and personnel who have been successful and have wanted to stay at Illinois Wesleyan like those who preceded them.

“The infrastructure I have built here is as good as any I know of in Division III,” he said. “I feel that over the years have hired good people, supported them and trusted them to do their jobs.”

Bridges says that he and his wife, Rita, are proud that their children – Angie, Steve and Eric – were able to get Illinois Wesleyan educations and adds he is happy to have maintained the same level of trust and friendship with Jim Shirk that Horenberger had with Russell Shirk, saying it is “the backbone of our truly outstanding facilities.

“I’m proud that I wrote the planning document for the Shirk Center and was involved in the planning for the Jack Horenberger baseball field and all of our outdoor venues,” he said. “I’m also proud that, from the start, we have shared our facilities with the community.”

The Shirk family and the Shirk Foundation have been generous in their support of the Shirk Center and Shirk Athletic Complex.

“With significant help from the Shirk family and the Shirk Foundation, Dennie has created one of the finest athletic complexes in Division III,” said Wilson. “He has managed these facilities in a way that benefits not only our students and student athletes but also the community. The philosophy that guides the operation of the Shirk Center and Athletic Complex is unique in higher education.”

A native of Anchor, Ill., a rural town east of Bloomington, Bridges was a four-year letterman and starter in basketball and baseball and a three-year football letterman, where he was an all-conference quarterback. In basketball, he was a two-year captain, most valuable player and all-conference once.

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. With four starters back from a championship team, the rookie coach led the Titans to a sixth conference title in seven years.

Bridges retired with a record of 667-319 and his win total still ranks No. 5 among all Division III coaches and No. 38 regardless of division.

Bridges was awarded Division III “Coach of the Year” honors when his 1997 team won the Division III national championship, and his teams in 1996 and 2001 placed third in the national tournament. His teams reached the Division III tournament 14 times in 18 years of NCAA association (1983-2001) with a 30-14 record and five trips to the quarterfinals.

He coached teams into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tourney seven times with a 23-11 record and two quarterfinal appearances in NAIA postseason competition.

Bridges coached in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin longer and won more league championships than any other coach in CCIW history, finishing with a CCIW mark of 421-129 and 17 titles, a total twice as many as any other CCIW team in that period.

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.