Paul Sanderford
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A HALL OF FAME WORTHY RESUME
Former Western Kentucky University Lady Topper Basketball coach Paul Sanderford enjoyed one of the most successful runs of any collegiate basketball coach in state history, male or female. In his 26-year career as a head coach at WKU, Nebraska and Louisburg College, he won 616 games and had a career winning percentage of .748. As a Division One coach, he was 453-189 (.706).
Sanderford amassed 365 victories and a .753 winning percentage as Lady Topper head coach from 1982-97, posting 13 seasons with 20-plus victories during his 15-year stint as head coach. That includes a school-record 32 victories during the 1985-86 season. He also led the Lady Toppers to 14 postseason appearances - including 12 NCAA Tournament and the program's three Final Four trips in 1985, 1986 and 1992. The 1992 squad advanced all the way to the National Championship game against Stanford.
The Lady Toppers won 15 NCAA Tournament games
under Sanderford's direction, advancing to at least the Sweet Sixteen four times. WKU claimed five Sun Belt Conference regular-season championships and seven league tournament titles under Sanderford. He earned Sun Belt Coach of the Year honors three times (1982-83, 1985-86 and 1990-91), while coaching seven different All-Americans.
In five years at Nebraska, Sanderford led the Huskers to an 88-69 overall record, ranking him as the second-winningest coach in school history. Sanderford guided Nebraska to three consecutive NCAA Tournament bids in 1998, 1999 and 2000, doubling the previous number of NCAA bids by the school. Sanderford also coached Amy (Gusso) Williams during the 1997-98 season; Williams would later return as the head coach of the Cornhuskers in 2016-17 before being named the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2018.
After accepting the job as Nebraska's eighth women's basketball coach on June 19, 1997, Sanderford led his first Husker squad to a school-record tying 23 victories and claimed just the second NCAA Tournament victory by a Nebraska team. After finishing with a 23-10 overall mark in 1997-98, Sanderford guided a young Husker team to another 20-win season and another NCAA Tournament bid in 1999, marking the first back-to-back tournament appearances in school history. Nebraska's 21-12 overall record in 1998-99 marked just the fourth back-to-back 20-win seasons at Nebraska.
Sanderford's third squad also advanced to the 2000 NCAA Tournament, giving Nebraska three consecutive NCAA bids for the first time in school history. Despite an 18-13 overall record, the 1999-2000 Huskers played arguably the toughest schedule in school history and finished strong with a 10-6 record in Big 12 play, while advancing to the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament for the second straight year.
After losing four seniors from the 1999-2000 team, a young Husker team struggled against a powerful Big 12 Conference schedule, finishing with a 12-18 record, the first losing season in Sanderford's coaching career. The 2001-02 squad battled its own youth and an even stronger Big 12 schedule, which featured seven NCAA Tournament teams, including five Sweet Sixteen qualifies and eventual NCAA runner-up Oklahoma. His final team finished 14-16 overall.
Along with Nebraska's success on the court, Sanderford helped the Huskers earn unprecedented fan support, setting a school record with an average home attendance of 5,000 fans per game in 1999-2000. The women's basketball program set school attendance records in each of Sanderford's first three seasons, and ranked among the top 25 teams nationally in home attendance in each of his first four years.
Sanderford returned to the WKU sidelines for four seasons (2003-07) as an assistant coach on Darrin Horn's men's basketball staff. After volunteering to fill a void on a shorthanded staff at the start of the 2003-04 campaign, he agreed to remain on staff in a full-time capacity for three more seasons. He helped the Hilltoppers to three straight 20-win seasons and a Sun Belt East Division Championship in 2006-07 before retiring. Two years later, he joined the WKU Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 induction class. On Feb. 6, 2010, Sanderford was honored in the rafters of E.A. Diddle Arena with a jersey bearing his name.
Prior to his time at WKU, Sanderford enjoyed an outstanding stint as the head coach at Louisburg College in North Carolina. He was 163-19 in his six years as head coach of the program. He was named the Region X Coach of the Year for four consecutive years to end his stint at the school and was the named the Outstanding Coach at the National Tournament in 1981, the year he took his team to the title. In 1981-82, he was awarded the Wade Trophy, given annually to the national Junior College Coach of the Year.
Prior to his time as the coach at Louisburg College, he spent time at Methodist College, playing baseball and basketball. During his collegiate career, he lettered one year in basketball and two years in baseball at Louisburg College before spending his final two years playing baseball at Methodist College. At Louisburg, he was a All-America selection in 1970. Sanderford holds an AA degree from Louisburg College (1970), a BA in Sociology from Methodist College in Fayetteville (1972) and a MA in Guidance and Counseling from North Carolina State University (1976).
Following his career on the sidelines, Sanderford has enjoyed a successful real estate career and has continued to be part of the game through radio and television broadcasting. His reach continues to the court today as his coaching tree continues to expand. Current WKU women's basketball coach Michelle Clark-Heard, the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year, is a former player of Sanderford's and coached under him at Nebraska. Current Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz coached under Sanderford at WKU and Nebraska and has reached the Final Four on two occasions, one short of Sanderford's mark.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
- Over 600 career wins
- Three Final Four Appearances at WKU including One National Championship Game Appearance
- 12 NCAA Tournament Appearances at WKU and 15 NCAA Tournament Appearances Overall in 20 Years as a Division I Women's Basketball Coach
- One of just four coaches in Sun Belt Conference history to coach multiple years in the league and finish with a winning percentage of over .800 in league games
- One of just three coaches to lead their team to the Final Four in the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance (1985)
- Three-Time Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year (1982-83, 1985-86, 1990-91)
- Big 12 Coach of the Year (1998-99)
- NJCAA National Champions (1979-80)
- NJCAA National Finalist (1980-81)
- Inducted into the WKU Athletics Hall of Fame on Nov. 1, 2008
- Inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015
- Inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2000
- Inducted in Louisburg College Hall of Fame in 2010
- Inducted in the Athletic Hall of Fame at Methodist College in 1999
- Honored in Rafters of E.A. Diddle Arena with Jersey Bearing His Name on Feb. 6, 2010
- Head Coach of North Team at 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival alongside assistant coaches Ed Baldwin and Susan Summons. Additional coaches in the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1993 included Muffett McGraw and Geno Auriemma
- Vice President of the NJCAA Coaches Organization (1981-82)
