There are certain coaches you can describe without much debate.

Neil Gordon was never one of them.

Coach Gordon was probably one of the most polarizing figures Penn Hills athletics ever had. You either loved him or you hated him. There wasn’t much middle ground.

Me? I loved Coach Gordon. And as the years go by, I think his impact on Penn Hills athletics deserves to be remembered for what it really was. He was a legendary football coach, an outstanding athletic director and, most importantly to me, somebody who cared about Penn Hills athletes whether they played football for him or not.

That last part matters.

Because I never played for Neil Gordon. I played football when I was younger at Linton, and Coach Gordon stayed on me about playing once I got to the high school. He wanted me on that football field badly. Every time we talked, he was trying to convince me.

And I thought about it. Trust me, I thought about it.

But basketball was becoming my future. Once I became nationally ranked and developed into a Top 100 basketball recruit, Coach Gordon understood the assignment. He knew where my future was headed. And he respected it. That was our relationship.

We respected each other.

 

He Understood Athletes

Coach Gordon had an old-school personality. He gave you tough love.

Some kids responded to that. Some didn’t. Some parents loved it. Some parents hated it.

That comes with coaching, especially when you coach as long as he did and have the type of expectations he had.

There were always people trying to get Coach Gordon fired. There were always complaints. People said he was too hard on players. People accused him of playing favorites. Over the years, I even heard stories that he supposedly didn’t pass along certain recruiting letters.

I can only speak from my experience.

I was heavily recruited in basketball by major Division I programs, and one thing I learned very early is that a recruiting letter doesn’t mean nearly as much as people think it does. If a college really wants you, they’re coming to your school. They’re calling your house. They’re talking to your coaches. They’re building a relationship with you and your family.

A letter can be part of recruiting, but a letter by itself does not mean you have a scholarship waiting for you.

As far as favoritism goes, coaches have always trusted certain players more than others. That happens in high school. It happens in college. It happens in professional sports. Coaches naturally develop stronger relationships with certain players, especially the players they depend on the most.

That doesn’t automatically make someone a bad coach.

 

Penn Hills Athletics Meant Something Under Gordon

What gets lost when people discuss Neil Gordon is the total picture. Penn Hills athletics was strong.

Not just football. Athletics across the district carried a certain expectation. There was pride attached to wearing Penn Hills colors. And when Neil Gordon was the athletic director, there was an understanding that Penn Hills was supposed to compete.

Football, obviously, was the centerpiece. What he built during the 1990s was incredible. Penn Hills wasn’t just considered one of the best programs in Western Pennsylvania. Penn Hills was nationally respected. There were years when Penn Hills appeared in the USA Today national rankings and was discussed among the top high school football programs in America.

Think about how difficult that is.

A public school from Western Pennsylvania being mentioned alongside the best high school football programs in the country.

That doesn’t happen accidentally. That takes players. It takes assistant coaches. It takes community support. And it takes leadership.

Neil Gordon provided that leadership for a long time.

 

Division I Coaches Respected Him

Something else people outside of recruiting circles might not understand is how much respect Coach Gordon had from college coaches.

Especially locally.

Division I coaches knew Neil Gordon. They trusted him. They came through Penn Hills because Penn Hills consistently produced athletes who could play at the next level.

That relationship between a high school program and college recruiters is extremely important. When a coach has credibility, college coaches listen when he tells them a kid can play. Coach Gordon had that credibility.

And I saw it firsthand even though football wasn’t ultimately the sport I chose.

 

He Could Have Treated Me Differently

This is probably the biggest reason I always respected him.

I wasn’t his football player. He didn’t have to invest time in me. He could have been upset that I chose basketball. He could have looked at me as the basketball kid who could have helped his football team.

Instead, he always treated me with respect.

We had countless conversations over the years. Even after high school. When I would come home from playing professional basketball overseas, I would run into him all the time at Panera Bread. And we would sit there and talk. Sports. Penn Hills. Life. The old days. The direction of the athletic department.

I used to tell him something all the time: Penn Hills athletics was different when you were running it.

And I meant it.

After he was no longer the athletic director, I believed Penn Hills athletics lost some of the standard and identity it had during his era. I had strong disagreements with some of the leadership that followed him, but this story isn’t about anybody else. I’m not even going to give another person space in an article meant to honor Neil Gordon.

This is about giving Coach Gordon his flowers.

 

I Believe He Would Have Hired Me

Years later, when I became a WPIAL head basketball coach myself, I understood coaches differently. I understood administration differently. I understood how difficult it is to make decisions knowing somebody is always going to disagree with you.

And I’ve always believed that if Neil Gordon had still been running the Penn Hills athletic department when I was an established WPIAL head basketball coach, he probably would have hired me.

Not because we were friends. Because we respected greatness in each other. He knew basketball was my lane. He knew I understood Penn Hills. He knew I understood athletes. And most importantly, he knew I understood what that Penn Hills name was supposed to represent.

That mutual respect went back decades.

 

Sometimes Tough Love Gets Misunderstood

Today, we sometimes judge old-school coaches through a completely different lens.

Were they perfect? Of course not.

Neil Gordon wasn’t perfect. No coach is. But I understood what he was trying to do. He wanted the best out of you. He demanded something from athletes.

Sometimes his delivery might have rubbed people the wrong way. Sometimes people didn’t agree with his decisions. But when you really understood Coach Gordon, you understood where it came from.

He wanted Penn Hills to win. He wanted Penn Hills kids to succeed. And he wanted that uniform to mean something. That’s why I could never join the crowd that wanted to tear him down.

You didn’t have to love everything Neil Gordon did. But you had to respect what he built.

 

More Than a Coach to Me

Coach Neil Gordon treated my family well. He treated me well. And again, I wasn’t even one of his players.

That tells me everything I need to know.

He saw athletes beyond his own roster. He cared about Penn Hills. And when I look back now, I appreciate that even more than I did as a teenager.

I respected Neil Gordon as a football coach. I respected Neil Gordon as an athletic director. But I respected Neil Gordon even more as a man.

Penn Hills has had a lot of great athletes and coaches throughout its history. Neil Gordon belongs somewhere near the top of the list of people who helped establish what Penn Hills athletics was supposed to look like.

You could love him. You could hate him. You could disagree with him. But you could never say he didn’t matter. And you could never erase what Penn Hills athletics became under his leadership.

Coach Gordon, these are your flowers.

You earned them.