Coach Gardner was the first basketball and baseball coach at Walters State and has been teaching and coaching for 46 years. He guided the Senators baseball team to their first World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1984, with a record of 34-6. After retiring from coaching baseball, Gardner took the position of golf coach in 1988 – a position he still holds. During this time, he has taken the golf team to the National Golf Tournament 28 times. He also coached Ryan Cabbage, the only National Golf Champion in the history of the school, in 1995. Gardner’s golf team won the National Championship in 2014 in Plymouth, Indiana, and was runner up in 2013.

He played professional baseball in the Boston Red Sox organization and is a lifetime member of the Professional Baseball Players Association of America.

In 2013, he was one of six outstanding coaches to win the Dave Williams Award presented by the Golf Coaches of America at the Hall of Fame Banquet in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gardner is a member of the TJCAA Hall of Fame, the Tusculum College Sports Hall of Fame, and the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame.