Rider Athletics Mourns Death of Tom Leyden

November 20, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rider Athletics Mourns Death of Tom Leyden

Rider University Athletics Hall of Famer Tom Leyden passed away Sunday in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 94.

“Tiger” Tom coached the Rider men’s basketball team for 15 years in the 1940s and 1950s, coached golf for a dozen seasons, served as athletic director and was an accounting professor at Rider.

In 1942 Leyden came to Rider as an accounting professor. A native of Huntington, NY, Leyden achieved athletic stardom for Port Washington High School, and later at the University of Mississippi.

At Port Washington he excelled in golf, track, baseball and basketball.

At Ole Miss, he captained the basketball team and was twice an All-Southeast Conference selection and team MVP. Legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp once said that Leyden was the best defensive player in the conference.

At Rider, he coached basketball in 1942-43 before entering the service for World War II. He returned to Rider in 1946 to teach and coach.

Leyden compiled a basketball coaching record of 199-157. His 1957 team was the first Rider squad to win 20 games (20-8). That season Rider defeated heavily favored St. Michael's of Vermont to advance to the National Quarterfinals in Evansville. In 1958, he compiled 11 straight wins on his way to a 17-8 record and the NAIA District 31 playoffs for the third consecutive year, advancing to Kansas City for the National Tournament. His 1956 team was the first Rider squad to advance to the District playoffs.

His golf teams twice won NAIA District Championships, and he coached Buzz Costello to a pair of All-American seasons.

Leyden received the Rider University Award for Distinguished Teaching (formerly the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching) in 1976, and was inducted into the Rider Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993.

-RU-