Early Life
Burgess was born in Eudora, Arkansas. A man with a good sense of humor, he once described his hometown as being so small that "the only fast food we had in that town was if you hit a deer going 70 (miles per hour)." He attended Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (Arkansas AM&N), a small school now known as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, for one year while also playing on the basketball team. He then joined the Air Force and spent a four-year tour of duty in Europe. Burgess still played basketball even in Germany and was so good that he was picked to be one of the 10 best Air Force players in the world. While stationed at Hahn Air Force Base he averaged 33.4 points per game. It was during this time that Burgess met Mel Porter, a fellow American Air Force officer and Gonzaga University alumnus. Porter recognized Burgess' talent and played middle man to Burgess and the Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball coach, Hank Anderson. Although Burgess had also started to receive serious interest from Kansas and USC, he ultimately chose to attend Gonzaga because he felt that that school would get him the most prepared for life after basketball. "You have to remember, I had gotten out of the service, and I was married with twin girls. I was about getting an education and taking care of my family," he said to a newspaper reporter later in his life.
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