#16 Tom Sanders, “Satch,” Power Forward, 1960-1973
Born in New York City in 1938, Tom “Satch” Sanders attended New York University from 1957 to ‘60, where he was Third Team All-American and won the Haggerty Award for best college player in New York City, both in 1960.
That year he was drafted eighth overall by the Boston Celtics, and they won the NBA Championship in his rookie year against the St. Louis Hawks. Sanders would win seven more with the team by 1969; against the Los Angeles Lakers in ‘62 and ‘63, the San Francisco Warriors in ‘64, and the Lakers four more times in ‘65, ‘66, ‘68 and ‘69. Sanders is one of only three NBA players to play in eight championships without losing a single one, the others being his Celtic teammates, K. C. Jones and John Havlicek.
Always a strong defensive player, Sanders was named All-Defensive Second Team in 1969, the first year All-Defensive selections were made. Tom Sanders retired following the 1972-73 season, and his number “16” was retired shortly after. He currently sits at eighth all time among Celtics players in rebounds and 15th in points. His career highs include 12.6 points per game in 1965-66, 9.5 rebounds per game in 1961-62, and a free throw percentage of 88% in 1969-70. He scored a career high of 30 points in a March 1962 drubbing of the Syracuse Nationals.
He went on to coach at Harvard from 1973 to ‘77, becoming the first black head coach of any major American sports team at an Ivy League school. Sanders returned to the Celtics as the team’s assistant coach for the 1977-78 season and was promoted to head coach mid-season following the departure of his old teammate, Tom Heinsohn. He was replaced by Dave Cowens, who took on the role of player-coach, 14 games into the next season. In 1986, Sanders became the head of the NBA’s Rookie Transition Program, which was the first of its kind in any major North American sport. In 2011, Tom Sanders was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
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