‘I always loved the game’
Tom Penders goes from Stratford to Hall of Fame
The love of basketball was nurtured on Saturday mornings in the Stratford High gymnasium.
Jim Penders, Stratford baseball coach from 1931 to 1968, would bring his son Tom to basketball practices in the mid-1950s. Tom got to know the players and soaked in the game.
It was the start of his life’s work. The road from Stratford took Tom Penders to UConn and Bridgeport, where he coached high school basketball in the late ’60s. And that ignited a college coaching career that began at Tufts in 1971 and ended at Houston 10 years ago.
The long and winding road — highlighted by 649 victories and 11 NCAA Tournament appearances at seven schools — has landed Penders into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
The announcement of the honor came over the weekend, although Penders got word in January. His enshrinement was supposed to be announced at the Final Four, but that was canceled because of COVID-19. There was going to be an announcement in August with a plan for a November ceremony, but that was also scratched.
So the honor finally be
came public on Thanksgiving weekend. Penders, at his home in South Florida, said his reaction is the same now as it was in January.
“Surprised,” the 75-yearold Penders said Monday. “I took a different route than most coaches. Most coaches that go into these things are guys that won national championships, or were at one school for a long time, built a program. But I really never landed at a school that had a long tradition or a predictability for long-term success.
“So that was my thing. You know, Turnaround Tom. Turnaround a program. Get in, get out of town before the posse forms.”
The Penders coaching roadmap: Tufts to Columbia to Fordham to Rhode Island to Texas to George Washington to Houston. Ten years in Texas was his longest tenure.
But his coaching life began at Bridgeport’s Bullard-Havens in 1968, when he was a minor league baseball player still deciding if he would join the family business. His dad was already a Connecticut coaching legend, his older brother Jim was just embarking on his career as a baseball coach at East Catholic in Manchester.
Tom Penders would abandon his professional baseball career and move to Bridgeport Central, before jumping to the college ranks.
“I had no plan,” Penders said. “The opportunities came and I followed them.”
But one thing was certain: Penders was long drawn to basketball. He joked that his father and brother — both more reserved — had personalities that meshed with baseball.
“You have a lot more control over a basketball game than a baseball coach,” Penders said. “You got to hope a guy’s going to get a hit with a man on second or hope a guy can throw strikes with the bases loaded. … To me, baseball coaches are likely to have ulcers.
“For me, basketball just fit me. I was a kid that always had to be doing something. When I wasn’t, I was probably doing something I shouldn’t be doing. I
was always making basketball goals out of peach baskets in my basement and playing with a small basketball. I’d go back and forth. I was pretending I was UConn, the other team was St. John’s or whatever. And my other brothers had no interest in it, but I did. I always loved the game.”
He played both basketball and baseball at UConn, teaming with his brother on a squad that advanced to the College World Series. The thought of coaching basketball sprung from the summer between his junior and senior year at UConn, when he worked camps at Eastern Connecticut State and East Catholic. His teams won, he found he had a skill at teaching and coaching the kids.
“I just fell in love with it,” Penders said.
Penders said he turned
down assistant coaching opportunities at UConn and Boston College, opting to run his own program. There would be three years at Tufts, four at Columbia, and eight at Fordham before he won 48 games in two seasons at URI. The Rams’ Sweet Sixteen run in 1988 led Texas to pursue Penders.
Penders’ son now coaches high school basketball in Texas. He has grandchildren in the state, and he and his wife Susie remain connected to Texas after coaching a total of 16 years in Austin and Houston.
Connecticut? Penders has a house in Rhode Island, so there are frequent visits to his home state. His nephew, Jim, is the UConn baseball coach and Tom gushes about his alma mater. When UConn was considering then-URI coach
Dan Hurley for its head job, Penders gave a glowing review.
“I used to go a lot of of [URI] practices … they’ve got themselves a great coach,” Penders said. “He’s a special guy.”
Penders had back surgery in August. He is recovering in Florida, riding his stationary bike and watching whatever college basketball game is on TV.
Someday, he says, he will get back to Gampel Pavilion to watch Hurley coaches the Huskies. He’ll also see his family, visit Stratford, reconnect with his roots.
“I’ve maintained close ties with Connecticut,” Penders said. “That’s who I am. It’s special to me.”