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University of Houston Athletics
Houston Names Tom Penders Head Basketball Coach
3/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 23, 2004
HOUSTON, Texas - University of Houston Athletics Director Dave Maggard announced Tuesday that Tom Penders will be the school's seventh head basketball coach.
"We feel very fortunate to have someone of Tom Penders' caliber as our coach," Maggard said. "He has been to the NCAA Tournament numerous times and has a breadth of experience at the collegiate level.
"I have spoken with many athletics directors, coaches and others involved in collegiate and pro basketball along with alumni from Houston and Texas. The feedback that I received was very strong, not only in terms of his coaching and recruiting ability, but also on his up-tempo style of play, which appeals to all Cougar fans who watched Guy V. Lewis' teams play here."
"After seeing his passion for wanting to be here, and listening to others, he became the strongest candidate for the University of Houston."
UH President Jay Gogue felt Penders improved Houston's chances to recruit outstanding players.
"The selection of Tom Penders to lead the turnaround of our men's basketball program provides the University of Houston an opportunity to aggressively compete for student-athletes in the months and years ahead," President Gogue said. "Following a thorough review of the candidates available to Athletics Director Dave Maggard, we felt Tom could best handle all the demands of this assignment. We look forward to watching as Tom works to restore the lustre to Cougar basketball."
Penders comes to Houston after compiling a 527-361 record in 30 seasons as a collegiate head coach at George Washington, Texas, Rhode Island, Fordham and Columbia.
"I feel like I am coming back home. I am excited about this opportunity here at the University of Houston. It is both a dream and a desire of mine to bring the Cougars back to national prominence and compete for a national championship.
"When I was a young coach, I had a chance to meet Coach Lewis, and he was one of the most impressive coaches I've met. I took my high school team in 1970 to Madison Square Garden to watch the Cougars play, and to watch what they did was truly impressive.
"The UH-UCLA game in 1968 was the game that put college basketball on the map. It is my goal to have a reunion game to celebrate this landmark game in college basketball history.
"I enjoyed coaching against the University of Houston when I was at Texas. Those games were some of the most competitive and fun games that I have coached. The UH fans used to get on me, and to me, that is a complement.
"(UH Director of Athletics) Dave Maggard, President (Jay) Gogue and (Board of Regent Chairman) Bo Smith are all on the same page. I see no reason why we cannot bring a national championship here to the University of Houston."
Penders was the head coach at George Washington for three seasons from 1998-2001, where he compiled a 49-42 record and led the Colonials to the 1999 NCAA Tournament. He led George Washington to a second-place finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference, and the Colonials set a school record for points scored in a season his second year.
Penders went to George Washington after 10 highly successful seasons at the University of Texas, where he transformed the men's basketball team into a nationally respected program. He set a school record with 208 victories, and led the Longhorns to three Southwest Conference titles and eight NCAA Tournament appearances. In the NCAA Tournament, Penders led the Longhorns to the "Elite Eight" in 1990 and to the "Sweet 16" in 1997.
All of Penders' teams have won. It was the style with which they won that captured a national audience. While averaging 20.8 wins per season at Texas, his Longhorn teams averaged 87.2 points per game on offense and forced over 19 turnovers per contest on defense. The 58-year-old Penders ended his tenure at Texas with a 208-110 record in 10 seasons.
When Penders took over the Texas program in 1988, he inherited a team that had won 16 games the year before and averaged 4,028 fans in a 16,231-seat arena. In the four-year span before Penders' arrival, Texas was 64-55 and had won over 20 games in a season in nine years.
Immediately, Penders put his stamp on the program. He began calling his team the "Runnin' Horns" and spoke to every alumni and booster group in the state. His first team came out of nowhere to finish second in the Southwest Conference and earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns also set 22 school and SWC records while more than doubling their attendance average to 10,011 per game, the largest increase in NCAA Division I.
In 1990, Texas shocked the nation advancing to the "Elite Eight" in the NCAA Tournament and was just three points shy of advancing to the "Final Four". The 1990-91 season saw Texas finish second in the SWC, advance to the second round of the NCAA and finish 23rd in the AP rankings. Penders led the Longhorns to three SWC championships in 1992, 1994 and 1995. The Runnin' Horns also went to the NCAA "Sweet 16" in 1997.
Penders went to Texas after leading Rhode Island to the NCAA "Sweet 16", where the Rams beat Missouri and Syracuse before falling, 73-72, to Duke in 1987-88. Penders took over Rhode Island's program in October 1986, and despite having just two weeks to prepare for preseason practice, led the Rams to a 20-10 record and a NIT appearance in his first year.
He went to Rhode Island after heading the basketball program at Fordham for eight years and compiled a 125-114 record. He took over a program that was 8-18 and within three years guided it to the first of a school-record five straight NIT appearances. In his eight seasons, he led the Rams to 19 wins four times and 18 victories once. In the process, 51 of his 53 players earned degrees (the other two transferred and eventually graduated). In 1981, Penders was named the New York Metropolitan Area Coach-of-the-Year after leading Fordham to a 19-9 record.
Before his stint at Fordham, he took three years to turn a 5-20 Columbia team into a competitor, leading the team to its best Ivy League finish in school history. Columbia was 16-10 and 15-11 in his last two years. In 1977, the Lions were in the thick of the Ivy League's championship race, losing the season's final game at Princeton, and closed out the year with a second-place finish and a 15-11 overall record.
He was hired at Tufts in 1971. He took over a 1-17 team and turned the program around with 12-8, 22-4 and 20-6 records in each of the next three seasons.
Penders began his coaching career at Bullard Havens Tech (Conn.) High School. After one season there, he moved to Bridgeport Central (Conn.) High School for two years. He left for Tufts with a 59-10 record in his three seasons as a high school coach.
A native of Stratford, Conn., Penders attended the University of Connecticut where he starred in both basketball and baseball. He served as team captain for both teams as a senior and is one of select group of student-athletes who participated in both the NCAA Tournament (1965 and 1967) and the College World Series (1965).
He was considered for the school's All-Century team in 2001 after leading the Huskies to two conference championships. Upon graduation, Penders played professional baseball with the Cleveland Indians' organization before moving into the high school coaching ranks in 1968. He continued to play fast-pitch softball during his early years as a coach and was inducted into the Connecticut Softball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Penders and his wife, Susie, have two children- Tommy, a 1995 Texas graduate and two-time Longhorn letterman, and daughter, Karli.
Terms for a five-year contract have been agreed upon in principle, and final details are expected to be completed in the next couple of days.
