Gonzaga University Athletics

For a generation of Gonzaga basketball players, Hank Anderson, the coach, was always there. Thor Henry Anderson, an amiable fellow with 6-foot-7 stature, arrived on campus in 1951 after a series of successful high school coaching jobs and a playing career at the University of Oregon. He departed 290 basketball victories later after 21 years here, 19 of them in the dual role of coach and athletic director, en route to more coaching and administrative successes. Anderson was instrumental in the formation of the Big Sky Conference in 1963. His teams shared the conference championship twice and he was 1966 Big Sky coach of the year. Anderson coached basketball for two seasons at Montana State in the early 1970’s and then spent 10 years as athletic director at Northern Arizona. When he retired from college athletics in 1983, Anderson had 318 college basketball victories, ranking him in the top 10 nationally among active coaches.