A good friend of mine passed away Monday.
Richard (Doc) Sauers was the basketball coach for the Albany Great Danes from 1955-1997; he won 702 games in his career, went to 10 NCAA tournaments. He is amongst the top 40 all-time winningest coaches in NCAA history.
I was lucky enough to work for Coach Sauers for six years, first as a student manager, then as an associate coach. It was the greatest learning experience of my life, finding out first-hand what it took to run a successful operation.
Doc was also a really good golfer and handball player. He was honest, competitive, fair, he just wanted to win, and boy, he won a lot.
One of Doc’s biggest strengths was how he prepared his team for the opponent we were about to play; I was lucky enough to go on many scouting trips with him, after practice. He would drive to the game (Oneonta, Plattsburgh, Binghamton, wherever……) and I would drive home, while he napped after a very long day of work.
We scouted a game in Jersey City once; got lost on the way home, something we discovered when a sign appeared, “Welcome to Delaware”. But we won that game, the preparation paid off.
If you had an idea for a different kind of statistic, he would listen to you and if it made sense, we would use it. Pretty cool for a 20-year old nerd, to say the least.
Richard (Doc) Sauers passed away Monday at age 96.
RIP, Doc. Thanks a lot, for everything.
