North legend Dick Sanders, one of Wichita State’s best athletes, dies at age 90
Dick Sanders, one of Wichita’s best all-around athletes of all-time, died at the age of 90 this past Saturday.
Sanders, a Wichita North High School graduate, was most well-known as a standout baseball player, but he was also a four-sport athlete at Wichita State University from 1950-52.
He has been inducted in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, Wichita Sports Hall of Fame, Shocker Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame, the National Baseball Congress Hall of Fame and the Wichita North Hall of Fame. Sanders was selected as the No. 34 athlete in Wichita sports history in a 2003 article in The Eagle.
According to The Roundhouse, Sanders once told WSU’s Alumni News that he turned down a football scholarship to the University of Kansas to remain in Wichita.
“I’m certainly glad I made that choice,” Sanders said in 1995. “I’ve often wondered why great local athletes don’t come to WSU for the same reason.”
After leading North to state championships in both football and baseball, Sanders began a busy sports career with the Shockers in 1950.
In the fall, he played quarterback and defensive back for the football team. He led the team in passing in the 1951 season, throwing for 674 yards and also added three interceptions on defense. In the winter, he played guard for the basketball team and averaged 4.1 points on coach Ralph Miller’s first WSU team in the 1951-52 season. In the spring, he threw the javelin for the track and field team and was a slick-fielding shortstop for the baseball team.
Sanders told The Eagle in 2015 that Miller was skeptical of him on the basketball team because of his additional duties with the football team.
“Ralph said that he had played both sports at Kansas and it took him two weeks to make the transition,” Sanders said. “He told me it would take at least a month.”
But baseball was always Sanders’ first love.
He signed a professional contract with the New York Yankees following his junior season in 1952 to kick off what would become a six-year professional career. After missing the 1954 and 1955 seasons to serve in the Army, Sanders had his best season of minor-league ball in 1956 when he hit .305 at the plate with 20 home runs. He would play 562 games at the Triple-A level in the Yankees’ and Dodgers’ minor-league organizations.
After leaving the minor leagues in 1960, he found a second wind as a star in the NBC World Series. He played in eight tournaments, winning the MVP in 1964 and leading Wichita Service Auto Glass to the NBC World Series title the same year. He was also selected as the All-America third baseman three times.
Following his playing career, Sanders opened up his own insurance company with an office on South Broadway. He also became a distinguished referee and officiated football and basketball games in the Missouri Valley Conference for 18 years and basketball games in the Big Eight for six years.
He raised his family in Wichita with his long-time wife, Treva, who died in 2018 after 65 years of marriage. Sanders had three children and is survived by son, Kyle.
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 6:11 AM.
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