Frank Gourdouze - 1996

Frank Gourdouze was born December 20, 1920, in Bicknell, Indiana.  He grew up there and played basketball, baseball, football and ran track and field at Bicknell High School from 1935 to 1939.  In 1939 he was chosen basketball team captain and was named to the first Southern Indiana All-Star Basketball Team.  He graduated from Bicknell High in 1939.  Gourdouze played college baseball at Indiana State University from 1939-43 and was chosen team captain in 1943.  He earned both his bachelor?s and mater?s degrees from Indiana State. 

Gourdouze began his illustrious coaching career at the Naval Training Station in Boston where he coached basketball and baseball from 1945-46.  He led the basketball team to the East Coast Service Team Championship with a record of 31-10.  In 1946, after leaving the Navy following World War II, Gourdouze briefly resumed his athletic playing career as a professional baseball player in the Florida State League at Orlando, Florida.  Gourdouze then set our on a 23-year high school basketball coaching tenure in Indiana.  During that period, he also coached baseball, football, cross country, and track and field.  In 1968 Gourdouze obtained a United States Patent on a rebound training device that was first used by the Indiana All-Star Team and was sold nationally. 

Gourdouze made the move from high school to college coach in 1969 when he joined Southern Union State Junior College.  His first basketball team placed third in the State tournament with a record of 19-11.  Gourdouze was named National Coach of the Year for the National Small College Athletic Association in 1973 and 1978.  With an overall record of 28-5, the 1978 Bison basketball team won the National Small College Athletic Association national championship under the leadership of Gourdouze.  That team made history as the first national champions in basketball for the state of Alabama.  During his career at Southern Union, Gourdouze coached in 10 national tournaments.  He served as coach for the South All-Star Team in 1979 and 1980. 

Gourdouze?s other coaching honors include holding the title of Conference Coach of the Year in basketball for 1976, 1978, 1981, 1984, and 1987.  In 1984 he was named Conference Coach of the Year in baseball and became the only coach in Alabama?s junior college system to be honored as such in both basketball and baseball during the same year.  He also earned the title of Regional Coach of the Year for basketball in 1987. 

After coaching the Bison basketball team to the 1987 Regional Championship with an overall record of 28-2, Gourdouze retired from coaching.  The following year, he was inducted into the Southern Union State Junior College Hall of Fame.  In 18 years as Southern Union?s basketball coach, Gourdouze accumulated an overall record of 349-174.  For his 15-year tenure as baseball coach, the program?s record was 182-178.  Gourdouze?s career coaching records for basketball and baseball were 694-380 and 432-306, respectively. 

Since retirement, Gourdouze and his wife Grace have lived a life of leisure in Tuscaloosa.  They have three children, twin daughters, Robbyn and Richelle and son Randall, and two granddaughters, Alison and Amie.