Yum! Center Louisville vs. Michigan 12-3-2019 Photo by William Caudill, TheCrunchZone.com

Legendary Louisville Basketball Player Junior Bridgeman Passes Away

Mark BlankenbakerMarch 11, 2025

Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman, a top-30 career scorer at the University of Louisville who earned All-America honors while leading the Cardinals to the 1975 Final Four, passed away at the age of 71 on Tuesday.

Bridgeman’s number 10 is one of 20 honored jerseys in UofL basketball history. In three seasons (1972-75), he scored 1,348 career points (29^th at UofL) and grabbed 657 rebounds, and his 15.5 career scoring average still ranks in the top 15 in school history.

“Junior Bridgeman was an incredible family man, community leader, business executive and tremendous representative and supporter of the University of Louisville,” UofL Vice-President/Director of Athletics Josh Heird said. “But more than that, he embodied the kindness and humanity that we should all seek in ourselves. Junior used his immense talents and successes in both business and sport to ensure that his life had a positive impact. He cared deeply about making the world a better place for all of us. His life is woven into the fabric of the University of Louisville’s history and story, as a player, as a leader and as a generous supporter of Louisville Athletics and the University. We will be forever indebted to him for all that he did for our student-athletes, our campus, and most importantly, the Louisville community. Words cannot fully express our enormous sense of loss today. Our thoughts and prayers are with his entire family, friends, colleagues, and former teammates during this difficult time.”

Bridgeman, a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year (1974 and 1975) helped the Cardinals reach the 1975 NCAA Final Four and guided the program to a pair of MVC titles during his playing career.

An All-MVC selection in each of his three seasons, Bridgeman guided to the Cards to a 28-3 record in 1975, falling 75-74 to eventual national champion UCLA in the NCAA Final Four in San Diego, Calif.

For his efforts, Bridgeman was named to the NCAA Midwest Region All-Tournament Team and still holds the school record for most points in an NCAA Tournament game when he scored 36 points in against Rutgers in 1975.

That season, Bridgeman averaged 16.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, while shooting 52.5 percent from the field and was voted a USWBA second team All-American.

His junior season, saw Bridgeman average a team-best 16.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, and was considered one of the nation’s top rebounding guards.

Following his career at UofL, Bridgeman was selected as the eighth player overall in the 1975 NBA Draft of the Los Angeles Lakers. He was later dealt that year to the Milwaukee Bucks in a trade that featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley.

Bridgeman went on to play 12 seasons with the Bucks (1975-84, 86-87) and the Los Angeles Clippers. He scored 11,517 points (13.6 scoring average) in his professional career. His number 2 jersey is one of 10 current retired numbers by the Bucks’ organization.

A native of East Chicago, Ind., Bridgeman played in 849 games during his NBA career, 711 coming with the Bucks.

Following his basketball career, Bridgeman served numerous years on the UofL Board of Trustees and ULAA boards. He was also inducted into UofL Athletic Hall of Fame. He served as the National Basketball Players Association president from 1985 to 1988.

In 2000, Bridgeman was named an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winner, which is awarded every year by the NCAA to recognize six distinguished former student-athletes on their 25th anniversary as college graduates.

Bridgeman served the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for 15 years, eight of those as Vice Chairman of the Board. In 2024, the Hall of Fame bestowed him with a “Life Trustee” designation, the highest honor a Board member can receive, reflecting his long-term and passionate commitment to the organization.

Bridgeman also became a minority owner in his longtime NBA team, the Milwaukee Bucks, in the fall of 2024.