Lenny Sachs

Who was Lenny Sachs?

Leonard David Sachs 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, Illinois, where he earned 11 varsity letters before his graduation in 1914. Upon graduation from high school, Sachs joined the US 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 and graduated in 1923. While at college, Sachs played for the Chicago Cardinals in the National Football League 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.