Thomas Ernest "Satch" Sanders (born November 8, 1938) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player and coach. He played his entire professional career as a power forward for the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA). Sanders won eight NBA championships and is tied for third for the most NBA championships. He is also one of three NBA players with an unsurpassed 8–0 record in

NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is aw ...

series. After his playing retirement, he served as a head coach for the Harvard Crimson men's basketball team and the Boston Celtics. Sanders was inducted into the

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

as a contributor in 2011.

Career

After playing at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

as a stand out collegian, he spent all of his 13 years in the

(NBA) with the

. He scored a career-high 30 points to go along with 26 rebounds in a 142-110 win over the Syracuse Nationals on March 13, 1962. He was part of the eight championship teams in 1961–66, 1968 and 1969. In NBA history, only teammates

Bill Russell William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most V ...

and Sam Jones have won more championship rings during their playing careers (three other teammates,

John Havlicek John Joseph Havlicek ( ; April 8, 1940 – April 25, 2019) was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Boston Celtics, winning eight NBA championships, four of them coming in his first four seasons with ...

Tom Heinsohn Thomas William Heinsohn (August 26, 1934 – November 9, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. He was associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcast ...

and K. C. Jones, also won eight championship rings). Sanders underwent knee surgery in 1970 after he injured his left knee during the last Celtics game for the regular season. This immensely affected his ability to play afterwards. He announced he was ending his playing career in 1973. On March 20, 1968, a

housing development A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States a ...

group formed by Sanders (called the Sanders Associates) received a $996,000 FHA commitment through the Boston Rehabilitation Program (BURP) for the rehabilitation of 83 units in

Roxbury, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for neighborhood services coordination. The city states that Roxbury ser ...

after local community activists (including Mel King) criticized BURP for a lack of sufficient community control and racial equity. Following his playing career Sanders became the basketball coach at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, a position he held until 1977. Sanders became the first African-American to serve as a head coach of any sport in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schoo ...

. In

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 – ...

, Sanders became the head coach of the

, taking over for former teammate Tommy Heinsohn. Sanders returned the following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

; however after a 2–12 record he was replaced by

Dave Cowens David William Cowens ( ; born October 25, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player and NBA head coach. At , he played the center position and occasionally played power forward. Cowens spent most of his playing career with the Bo ...

, who took on the role as a

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

. In 1986, Sanders founded the Rookie Transition Program - the first such program in any major American sport.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

BasketballReference.com: Satch Sanders (as coach)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Satch 1938 births Living people African-American basketball coaches African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball players from New York City Boston Celtics draft picks Boston Celtics head coaches Boston Celtics players College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Harvard Crimson men's basketball coaches Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Basketball Association players with retired numbers NYU Violets men's basketball players Power forwards (basketball) Seward Park High School alumni Small forwards 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople