Hall of Fame
Position: Coach
Years: 1976-1991
Place of Birth: Nashville, TN
Date of Birth: June 30, 1930
Date of Death: Oct. 23, 2020
Coach W.C. Gorden led Jackson State University from 1976 to 1991. Credited with making the football program a SWAC powerhouse, Gorden posted more wins than any other coach in Tigers' history.
During the Gorden era, the Tigers won eight SWAC titles, made nine trips to the NCAA playoffs and won a SWAC-record 28 consecutive conference games from 1985-89. He had just one losing season.
Gorden also brought the university its second HBCU national championship in 1985, and he finished his storied career with a 119-48-5 overall record. Hall of Famer Kevin Dent was among the many notable players under Coach Gorden.
Named conference Coach of the Year six times, Gorden was a 1994 inductee into the SWAC Hall of Fame. The Nashville, Tennessee, native was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and was the 1997 recipient of the Capital City Classic Humanitarian Award.
Gorden initially held two jobs at Jackson State—head baseball coach and defensive coordinator for the football team—before being promoted to head football coach in 1977 after an interim stint at the end of the 1976 season.
After retiring from coaching at JSU, he served as the university's athletics director for two years. In 1997, he was honored by the Mississippi Legislature with a proclamation that cited him as "the winningest football coach in the history of Jackson State University," but also commended him "for his hard-nosed academic oversight policy, under which he led his players to a higher graduation rate than any public school in his conference, and also graduated his players at a higher rate than the rest of the student body during his coaching tenure."
Gorden passed away Oct. 23, 2020. At age 90, he was the fifth oldest living College Football Hall of Fame coach at the time.
