By Ben Thomas
AHSAA executive director Alvin Briggs called Roosevelt Sanders a “man of tremendous character.”
Sanders, an AHSAA Hall of Fame basketball coach, died over the weekend at the age of 84.
He led Central-Tuscaloosa to back-to-back state championships in 1990 and 1991, but even that doesn’t speak to the legacy he leaves behind, according to Briggs.
“Coach Roosevelt Sanders was one of the most dedicated coaches in AHSAA history,” he said. “He joined the AHSAA in 1968-69 when the AHSAA and the Alabama Interscholastic Athletic Association (AIAA) merged. It was through strong men of wisdom and leadership like coach Sanders that the merger was so successful from the very beginning.
“He was a man of tremendous character who led his teams with pride and humility. We offer our most sincere condolences and prayers to his family and pray God will sustain them during this time of such great loss.”
Sanders went 699-159 at four Alabama high schools from 1962-1997.
He started his career at R.R. Moton in Tallassee in the AIAA from 1962-1968. He helped that school transition to the AHSAA for the 1968-1969 season, going 26-2 in Class 1A and winning his first state title. His team defeated Suttle High School from Perry County in the final 72-54. Moton also beat Ragland 65-55 in the quarterfinals and Mars Hill Bible 50-47 in the semifinals.
Sanders then spent six seasons at Bullock County and three at Druid. In 1979, Druid, which was predominantly black, combined with predominantly white Tuscaloosa High to form Central.
Sanders’ first Central team in 1979-1980 went 29-1.
“It was intense at first because everything was pretty new at the particular time, but I think sports kept bringing the school together,” Robey Butler, a former Sanders assistant, told the Tuscaloosa News. “It was a binding of everything.”
Sanders went on to coach 21 more years at the school, reaching the final four a total of four times.
His 1991 team finished 31-0 and his teams won 86 straight home games during one stretch in his career. His last 10 Central teams were each area champs. His final team in 1996-97 went 24-8, and he finished his Central career with more than 400 wins.
He was inducted into the AHSAA Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Central-Tuscaloosa gym was named in his honor in 2020. Sanders, a graduate of Carver-Montgomery and Alabama State, was selected state coach of the year four times. He was the first head coach for Alabama in the inaugural Alabama-Mississippi Classic in 1991.
He also spent eight years as head coach at Miles College with a record of 112-108.
