The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1487679
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 ■ 39 FAMILY AFFAIR Like Her Father And Grandfather, Former Wolfpack Point Guard Kristen Gillespie Has Found Success In Coaching KRISTEN GILLESPIE W H E R E AR E T H E Y N O W ? BY TIM PEELER risten Gillespie was destined to be a coach, a profession that is attached to her DNA. T h e fo r m e r Wo l f p a c k point guard is a third-gener- ation college coach who last season guided the Illinois State women's basketball team to its first Missouri Valley Conference cham- pionship since 2009, a total turnaround for a program that had single-digit vic- tory totals in the three years before she took over prior to the 2017-18 season. Her grandfather Gordie Gillespie is an Illinois legend who owned the na- tional college baseball coaching record for more than a decade with 1,893 career victories, while also coaching women's basketball and football during his 58- year career at Lewis University, Ripon College, St. Francis University and Jo- liet (Ill.) Catholic High School. In 1998, Collegiate Baseball named him the NAIA Coach of the Century. Her father, Mike, who played on NC State's 1969-70 freshman basketball team before transferring to play at De- Paul his final three seasons, was both a high school and college coach in Illinois and Florida (Tallahassee Community College and Florida A&M). Both Gordie and Mike Gillespie played basketball for Ray Meyer at DePaul. For good measure, Gillespie's first cousin, once removed, is former Wolf- pack shooting guard Terry Gannon, who played for Gillespie's dad at Joliet Cath- olic from 1979-81 and was a member of Jim Valvano's 1983 NCAA champion- ship team. Gannon's father, Jim, was Mike Gillespie's coach at Joliet Catholic in the late 1960s. In her three-season career with the Wolfpack (1995-99), Gillespie wore the same No. 24 that Gannon wore during his (1981-85). Yet it was her relationship with Nai- smith Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow, the lady who tricked her into transfer- ring from Auburn to NC State after her 1994-95 freshman season, that gave Gillespie her official start in coaching. After transferring from Auburn following her freshman year, Gillespie spent three seasons as a starter in the NC State backcourt. In 1998, she helped lead the Wolfpack to the Final Four. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS K