American football player and coach (1897?1942)
Leonard David Sachs
(August 7, 1897 ? October 27, 1942) was an American
basketball
and
football
coach
and player. In 1961, he was posthumously enshrined as a coach in the
Basketball Hall of Fame
.
He was born in
Chicago, Illinois
on August 7, 1897. Sachs attended
Carl Schurz High School
in Chicago, where he earned 11 varsity letters before his graduation in 1914. Upon graduation from high school, Sachs joined the
United States Navy
during
World War I
, where he continued playing sports, earning an All-Service team honorable mention in football in 1918 while playing on the
Cleveland
Naval Reserves
football team.
After the war, Sachs enrolled at Chicago's American College of Physical Education?which later merged with
DePaul University
?and graduated in 1923. While at college, Sachs played for the
Chicago Cardinals
in the
National Football League
(NFL) from 1920 to 1922.
Sachs was hired as basketball coach in 1923 at
Loyola University Chicago
, even while continuing his NFL career. From 1923 to 1926 Sachs played for the
Milwaukee Badgers
,
Hammond Pros
, and
Louisville Colonels
, ending his career as a player-coach for the 1926 Louisville Colonels, a road-only team based in Chicago. Sachs was also an assistant football coach at Loyola on the staff of head coach
Roger Kiley
.
[1]
After abandoning his NFL career, Sachs began to flourish as a basketball coach. In the 1926?27 season, the Loyola basketball team improved to 13?4. In 1927?28, the team set a new Loyola record for wins in a season by earning a record of 16?4. And in 1928?29, Loyola was a perfect 16-0 under Sachs' guidance. Loyola recorded 31 consecutive victories between 1928 and 1930.
In the 1930s, Sachs developed an innovative fast-break offense and a 2?2?1
zone defense
that prompted a rule change in 1937 to prevent goaltending. His 1938?39 team was 21?0 before losing to 44?32 to
Long Island University
in the
National Invitation Tournament
final at
Madison Square Garden
.
On October 27, 1942, Sachs suffered a fatal heart attack while advising the
Wendell Phillips High School
football team for their appearance in the
Chicago Public League
championship. He was 45 years old.
Sachs amassed a record of 224?129 as a college basketball coach. In 1935 he earned a graduate degree from Loyola.
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