A. F. Bridges was a man dedicated to serving the youth of America. Born in Athens, Louisiana, in 1896, he moved to Fayetteville, Tennessee, where he played baseball, basketball, and football, first at Central High School in Fayetteville and later at Bryson College and Peabody College. Bridges wore many hats in his professional career, being a coach, teacher, school superintendent, football official, and administrator. In 1929 he coached Peabody High School of Trenton to a state baseball championship. Bridges served on the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association board from 1940 to 1946 before being selected as the first full-time executive secretary, a position he held for over twenty-five years. A leader in the formation of a Girls’ National Basketball Rules Committee for Secondary Schools, Bridges was named in 1964 to Life Membership in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A year later, he was also named to Honorary Life Membership in the American Association of Physical Education and Recreation. The awards and honors did not stop there, as in 1970 he was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Bridges died in 1992 at the age of ninety-six. Tennessee in general, and the TSSAA in particular, will always remember with fond appreciation his faithful service.
