Very sad news. I remember him when he played for Denny Crum in Louisville (before the school became a cesspool). He was pretty solid with the Bucks for a while. May he rest in peace.
Junior Bridgeman was a member of the University of Louisville's Board of Trustees. Your extension of respect toward his life's accomplishments includes a rather deep & gratuitous swipe toward an academic institution that little resembles what it was 50 years ago. The same could easily be said of UConn.
It could also be said that UConn has risen further and started ahead of Louisville. And it could be argued that Louisville's academic profile remains the bottom dweller within the athletic conference that Louisville gained admission to and UConn did not. Nevertheless, the present day U of L is a comprehensive R1 research university, with a full compliment of academic and professional programs across the span of arts, sciences, and techology. It is not a serious rival to its highest level conference mates, which include some of the most highly respected public & private schools. UConn would comfortably fit in the middle of the pack of the ACC, in contrast to its position above its Big East mates except for Georgetown.
Nonetheless, you'd be hard-pressed to to flesh out a half-century timeline that you so casually calculated to register as a "cesspool" that would reflect more favorably on such a characterization than it being the product of cavalier prejudice and unflattering ignorance.
If you want to convey respect toward the memory of Junior Bridgeman, you might as well refresh your knowledge base.
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