Tom Penders Hometown: Stratford, Conn. High School: Stratford (Conn.) '64) Last College: Connecticut '67 Position: Head Coach Birthdate: 05/23/1945 Years Coaching: 35th Overall, Fifth at Houston

Winning basketball has followed head coach Tom Penders everywhere he has worked, and the University of Houston is certainly no exception.

Penders begins his fifth season as the head coach at the University of Houston in 2008-09 with eyes on the program's fourth postseason appearance during the last five years.

Taking over a program that had posted double-digit wins only twice in the seven seasons before he arrived in 2004, Penders has led the Cougars to four straight winning seasons with at least 18 wins each year and three postseason berths

With an 81-49 (.623) overall record at Houston, he has compiled more wins through his first four seasons than any coach in program history.

He also added his name to the national records book as well. With the Cougars' 84-81 win at Conference USA rival UCF on Feb. 2, 2008, Penders recorded the 600th win of his career. Earlier in the season, he competed in the 1,000th game of his collegiate career during a 77-72 win over C-USA rival UTEP on Jan. 19, 2008.

Penders became only the 34th coach in NCAA history to reach 600 victories and only the 24th to have taken part in at least 1,000 games.

He enters the 2008-09 campaign with a 608-410 (.597) record in 34 seasons. That overall total also includes 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, seven NIT berths and one College Basketball Invitational appearance.

Prior to arriving at Houston, Penders coached at six schools and compiled winning records at all but one stop before leaving. Although he departed Columbia with a 43-60 record following the 1977-78 season, he built a program that had won only five games the year before his arrival into one with back-to-back winning seasons during his final two years.

Throughout his coaching career, his teams not only won, but captured a national audience with their record-setting styles of play. His teams at Texas and George Washington set school records for most points in a season, and renewed fan interest at each school.

With such an impressive body of work, Penders added another award to his trophy case in the summer of 2008. For his achievements on the court and his athletic accomplishments during his playing days, Penders was inducted into the Fairfield County (Conn.) Sports Hall of Fame.

This was the third such honor he received during his career. He was enshrined into the Connecticut Softball Hall of Fame in 1989 and was selected for the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in October 2006.

Tom Penders has accomplished much during his storied career with bigger and even better things yet to come at the University of Houston.

GO COOGS!
During each of his four seasons at UH, the Cougars have ranked among the top-four teams in Conference USA in turnover margin and broken both team and individual records for most 3-point field goals made in a game and season.

Guards Robert McKiver and Andre Owens established individual school records for most treys in a game, season and career.

In addition to the record-setting performances, Penders also has coached eight All-Conference USA players after Houston enjoyed only seven All-Conference USA performers from 1997 to 2004.

In 2007-08, Penders guided the Cougars to one of their most successful seasons in recent history. With a 24-10 record, the Cougars finished third in an always competitive Conference USA and posted the program's most wins in nearly two decades.

UH earned a trip to the inaugural College Basketball Invitational for the team's third trip to the postseason in Penders' first four years. With wins over Nevada and Valparaiso, the Cougars advanced to the CBI semifinals before bowing out to eventual champion Tulsa.

The Cougars set school records in 3-pointers made and 3-point attempts and ranked among the league and national leaders in turnover margin and free throw shooting.

Individually, players shined under Penders' tutelage. McKiver was named to the All-Conference USA First Team for the second straight season and set a C-USA single-game record with 52 points against league rival Southern Miss at Hofheinz Pavilion.

With 801 points, McKiver's output was the fourth highest in UH single-season history, and the New Haven, Conn., native was rewarded by being named to the USBWA All-District VII Team and the NABC All-District 9 First Team.

McKiver left the program in 2008 as UH's single-game, single-season and career leaders in 3-pointers made.

In 2006-07, Penders guided the Cougars to their best Conference USA regular season finish and first appearance in the C-USA Tournament's championship game.

The Cougars finished with an 18-15 record, marking the first time UH posted three-straight winning seasons in 14 years.

McKiver was named to the All-Conference USA First Team while Lafayette received Second-Team recognition for the second straight season. Both players also were named to the C-USA All-Tournament Team after helping lead the Cougars to the title game against host Memphis.

The Cougars enjoyed tremendous success in 2005-06 during Penders' second season. With a 21-10 record, UH recorded its first 20-win season since the 1992-93 campaign and advanced to the second round of the NIT.

It marked the second straight year that the Cougars competed in a postseason tournament

The Cougars opened the 2006 NIT with a 77-67 win against BYU, Penders' first career victory and his team's first home appearance in that postseason event. It also was the Cougars' first postseason win of any kind since 1988.

The Cougars recorded back-to-back wins over ranked teams at No. 25 LSU and against 13th-ranked Arizona in a nationally televised game on ESPN2. It was the first time that UH reeled off consecutive wins against ranked opponents since the 1984 NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional.

Following those two wins, Houston appeared at No. 25 in the Dec. 12, 2005, Associated Press Poll, marking the first time since 1992-93 that the Cougars had been ranked.

The Cougars led the nation in steals with a 12.4 average and finished second nationally in turnover margin at +7.5 per game in 2005-06.

McKiver and Oliver Lafayette became the first Cougars named to the C-USA All-Tournament team. McKiver also earned All-C-USA First Team honors, while Lafayette was a Second-Team choice for the second straight year. In addition, Lanny Smith and Ramon Dyer were Second-Team selections.

During his first season at Houston, Penders guided the Cougars to the nation's fourth-best turnaround with an 18-14 overall record in 2004-05. On Jan. 5, 2005, the Cougars captivated a national television audience when ESPN aired the final minutes of their 70-66 upset of No. 16 and eventual-NCAA Final Four participant Louisville. One month later, ESPN televised the Cougars' 66-53 victory against Memphis, a victory that handed UH its 1,000th win in school history.

By the end of the season, the Cougars led the nation in turnover margin.

Besides leading the Cougars to their success on the court, Penders has embraced Houston's storied tradition. As a high school coach, he met Houston's legendary coach Guy V. Lewis when he took his high school team to watch the Cougars play Long Island in Madison Square Garden on Feb. 4, 1971.

As the years passed, he watched Lewis turn the Cougars into a perennial national power and patterned his teams' style of play after the style the Cougars played under Lewis. Following Houston's 1,000th victory, Penders presented the game ball.

TELEVISION & RADIO ANALYST
Before taking over Houston's program on March 3, 2004, Penders spent three years as an analyst for ESPN and Westwood One Radio after spending the previous three seasons as head coach at George Washington (1998-2001).

GEORGE WASHINGTON
At George Washington, Penders compiled a 49-42 record and led the Colonials to the 1999 NCAA Tournament. He also guided the Colonials to an Atlantic 10 West Division championship his first year. In his second year, George Washington finished second in the A-10 standings, and the Colonials set a school record for points scored in a season. His third team at GW advanced to the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament before losing to eventual champion Temple.

TEXAS
Penders went to George Washington after reviving programs at Texas, Rhode Island, Fordham, Columbia and Tufts. He spent 10 seasons as the head coach at Texas and set a school record with 208 victories while leading the Longhorns to three Southwest Conference championships 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.

While averaging 20.8 wins per season at Texas, his Longhorn teams scored nearly 90 points per game and forced more than 19 turnovers per contest. Penders ended his tenure at Texas with a 208-110 record.

The feat is made more remarkable when considering he took a program that had not won 20 games in nine seasons and averaged just 4,028 fans in a 16,231-seat arena the year before he arrived.

Penders immediately put his brand on the program. He called his team the "Runnin' Horns" and spoke to every alumni and booster group in the state. His first team finished second in the Southwest Conference and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Longhorns also set 22 school and SWC records while more than doubling the attendance average to 10,011 per game, the largest increase in NCAA Division I.

In 1990, Texas surprised most college basketball fans across the nation by advancing to the Elite Eight as the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional and was just three points shy of advancing to the Final Four, losing to the fourth-seeded and SWC rival, Arkansas.

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 SWC championships in 1992, 1994 and 1995. The Runnin' Horns also reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1997.

RHODE ISLAND
Penders went to Texas after leading Rhode Island to the 1988 NCAA Sweet 16 by beating Missouri and Syracuse in the first two rounds. Rhode Island`s run in the NCAA Tournament ended with a 73-72 loss against Duke in the Sweet 16 game.

He took over Rhode Island's program on October 4, 1986. Despite having only two weeks before preseason practice began, he led the Rams to a 20-10 record and a berth into the NIT during his first season. That feat earned him Atlantic 10 Co-Coach of the Year.

FORDHAM
Penders went to Rhode Island after heading the basketball program at Fordham for eight years and compiling a 125-114 record. There, 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, Penders coached at Columbia for four seasons. The Lions were 5-20 the year before his arrival, and his first recruiting class couldn't play for a year because the Ivy League did not allow freshmen to play.

COLUMBIA
After his first two years at Columbia, Penders led the school to back-to-back winning seasons. Columbia finished the 1976-77 campaign with a 16-10 record. The following year, the Lions were 15-11 and finished second in the Ivy League standings. At the time, it was Columbia's best Ivy League finish in school history.

TUFTS
Penders began his collegiate coaching career at Tufts in 1971, taking over a 1-17 team and turning it around with 12-8, 22-4 and 20-6 records in the next three seasons. One of his players, Willie Young, also set a school record for most points in a season and ranked second among the school's all-time scoring leaders. In the Fall of 2004, Tufts awarded Penders the school's Outstanding Achievement Award.

HIGH SCHOOL
Penders went to Tufts after a highly successful high school coaching career in Connecticut at Bullard Havens Tech and Bridgeport Central High School. He posted a 59-10 record in his three seasons as a high school coach.

In his first year as a head coach, Penders took a Bullard Havens Tech team that had only one player over six feet tall and a record of 4-14 the year before and guided the team to a 14-6 record. The next year, he inherited a 7-13 team at Bridgeport and led the team to a 23-2 record and a No. 2 ranking in the state. The following year, he was named the New York Daily News Coach of the Year after leading Bridgeport to a 20-1 mark and No. 1 ranking.

STAR ATHLETE AT CONNECTICUT
A native of Stratford, Conn., Penders established himself as one of his high school's greatest athletes. At Stratford High School, he led the state in scoring and the All-MBIAC All-Star team after averaging nearly 15 points per game as a junior and serving as a valuable sixth man as a sophomore.

In baseball, Penders started for three years as a pitcher, shortstop and center fielder. He also was the Student Council President as a senior after serving as Vice President during his junior year and was president of his sophomore class in 1960-61.

Penders went on to the University of Connecticut, where he starred as a center fielder for the baseball team and a point guard for the basketball team. He served as team captain for both teams as a senior and quarterbacked the Husky basketball team to a combined 59-16 record during his career.

Penders is one of a select group of student-athletes who participated in both the NCAA Tournament (1965 and 1967) and the College World Series (1965). In 1965, Penders played on the baseball team with his older brother, Jim, who served as the team captain for the Huskies.

Later, he was considered for the school's All-Century team in 2001 after leading the Husky basketball team to two Yankee Conference championships. In 2001, he received the highest honor given by the Connecticut Department of Athletics, when the school presented him the Red O'Neill Award for Lifetime Achievement. The Hartford Courant also named Penders as one of the three greatest athletes in the 21st Century from the town of Stratford.

PRO BASEBALL CAREER
Upon graduation, the Cleveland Indians drafted Penders in the ninth round of the 1968 Major League Draft. In his one season as a professional baseball player, he played for the Indians' Class A team at Rock Hill and was selected a Western Carolina League All-Star third baseman after hitting .343. Following the All-Star game, he finished the year hitting .302 at Rock Hill before being promoted to Cleveland's Class AA affiliate at Waterbury.

After that one season, Penders retired from baseball and began his career as a basketball coach in 1969. He also played fast-pitch softball during his early years as a coach and was a member of five ASA National Championship teams in 1969, 1970, 1972, 1976 and 1983. He was also named First-Team All-American as a center fielder in 1975 and 1976. He also played for the USA Team that finished in a three-way tie for first place at the 1983 World University Games before being inducted into the Connecticut Softball Hall of Fame in 1989. He was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in October 2006.

A COACHING FAMILY
Penders and his wife, Susie, have two children -- Karli and Tommy, Jr. who played for his father at Texas, and is the head basketball coach at Angleton High School in Angleton, Texas. He also has another daughter, Wendy.

Penders also comes from quite a coaching family. His father, Jim, coached at Stratford High School in Connecticut from 1931-68, won four state championships and ran the town's recreation programs. He also coached all three of his sons, Jim, Tom and Bill, who went on to play at Bates College. Penders also has one sister, Kathy.

After serving as the team captain for Connecticut's 1965 baseball team, his older brother, Jim, became the head coach at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Conn. in 1969. Just like his father, he went on to win four state championships. He was named the national high school Coach of the Year in 1996.

Jim also coached his two sons, Jim III, and Rob, who are collegiate baseball coaches at Connecticut and St. Edwards University in Austin, respectively.