Welcome back to another edition of Husky History, the column that highlights a former UConn athlete and their accomplishments in their collegiate and professional careers.
I often focus on athletes who went on to enjoy great success in playing professionally, but this week I will flip the script and highlight Tom Penders.
Penders, born on May 23, 1945, was named to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2021 for his achievements leading the Tufts, Columbia, Fordham, Rhode Island, Texas, George Washington and Houston programs.
Although his playing days began back in 1964 for the UConn men’s basketball squad, Penders still has well-known family ties present on campus. His nephew is UConn baseball’s Jim Penders, the program leader in wins by a head coach.
Back to Tom Penders, he was a dual-sport athlete in his time in Storrs. He achieved a great feat of playing in both the NCAA Tournament and the College World Series as a baseball team member.
In his sophomore season on the court in 1964-65, the Huskies won the Regular Season Yankee Conference Championship with a perfect 10-0 league record, landing them at 23-3 overall. Penders was as reliable a player as head coach Fred Shabel had on the team, leading the conference in games played while averaging 8.6 points and 1.5 rebounds.
The squad qualified for the NCAA Tournament that year for the third season in a row. Penders posted six points and four rebounds in a loss to St. Joseph’s in the first round.
The next time UConn made the NCAA Tournament was in Penders’ senior campaign when the team won the Yankee Conference once again. That season, the guard averaged 8.0 points and 1.3 rebounds, but fouled out with five points in a first-round loss to Boston College in the Big Dance.
It was certainly a solid playing career, but where Penders shined was drawing up the x’s and o’s. Shortly after his time at UConn, he began his coaching career at Tufts University, a small research school located in Medford, Massachusetts. It did not take him long to turn the team around into a high-level program, and his efforts were noticed at the Division I level.
Penders was handed the job of coaching Columbia in 1974, just over a decade after he was a freshman at UConn. In four seasons, he compiled a 43-60 record.
After Columbia, the coach moved on to Fordham where he enjoyed more success. He led the Rams to the 1983 MAAC Conference Tournament title, defeating Iona 54-53. By the end of his tenure, he sported a 125-114 record.
After that, he returned to New England to coach Rhode Island for a short two-year stint. It ended up being a tremendous move for his career; in 1987 he was named A-10 Coach of the Year after leading the team to a 20-10 record. Despite losing in the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament to Duke 73-72, the season made Penders a hot name in the coaching carousel.
His next stop at Texas rejuvenated a quiet fanbase with his team’s success. From 1993 to 1995, Penders secured consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances by winning the SWC Regular Season and Conference Tournament Championships.
His last two stops came with George Washington and Houston, both of which he led to NCAA Tournament bids, with Houston’s appearance coming in his final coaching season.
When it was all said and done, Penders put together a solid career that is unmatched by most coaches. In 33 years, he assembled a 594-420 record at major schools with four conference and regular season championships. It’s important to note he led four different teams to the NCAA Tournament: something very few coaches have been able to accomplish.
College basketball coaches are often scrutinized for their tournament success. What is overlooked is the young men they help prepare for their professional basketball careers. Penders has had a handful of players make appearances in the NBA, including Tom “Chief” Garrick, who had a four-year stretch in the NBA after a monumental career at Rhode Island.
Penders displays what UConn fans have grown accustomed to: former athletes succeeding at all and any levels of their sport. If interested in learning more about him, he’s active on his Twitter account and is the author of his autobiography “Dead Coach Walking: Tom Penders Surviving and Thriving in College Hoops.”