T.K. Bridges
Class of 2020 Special Achievement Award
Few people in North Alabama have devoted as much of their lives to mentoring young athletes as Theodore Kennedy Bridges, known to generations simply as “T. K.”
Born in 1937, Bridges grew up in Decatur and attended Lakewood School, originally known as Decatur Negro High School. Lakewood was the only school for African American students in Morgan County when it opened in 1921 and remained an important educational institution until integration in the 1960s.
Even as a teenager, Bridges stood out physically and athletically. At 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, he was a dominant football player under coach William McKinney. He also played basketball during his senior season and quickly proved equally formidable on the hardwood.
After graduating in 1954, Bridges attended Knoxville College in Tennessee, following in the footsteps of his father, Theodore Wilford Bridges. His father had first attended Knoxville before transferring to Tuskegee Institute to study agricultural science under the legendary George Washington Carver and later served as a county agent in Morgan County for four decades.
Following college and several years teaching and coaching at Davidson Academy in Tullahoma, Tennessee, Bridges was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1961. He served at the Pentagon with a Secret clearance until his honorable discharge in 1963.
In 1964, Bridges moved to Huntsville and became program director for the Northwoods Boys Club, where he organized football, basketball and baseball programs for hundreds of young people. Over the years he also earned a graduate degree in counseling rehabilitation from the University of Alabama and worked at Alabama A&M University.
Later in life, Bridges turned his attention to golf and youth development. With help from local golf professionals and community supporters, he helped establish the Metro Youth Golf Foundation and the North Alabama Junior Golf Tour, providing young people throughout the Tennessee Valley with opportunities to learn the game.
For Bridges, the mission has always been simple: help young people grow. As he often reminds those around him, echoing the words of Booker T. Washington, “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
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