BOURNE, MASS. (WHDH) - A rare find turned up at a home on Cape Cod, where a couple renovating a house said they found a trophy belonging to former Celtics Player Tom “Satch” Sanders.
Sanders earned the trophy playing basketball at New York University, where he was named Varsity Player of the Year in 1959.
The trophy had been missing for more than 20 years, until Kate Conway’s contractor was pulling appliances out of her kitchen for her and her husbands home renovation.
“In the process of ripping out the double-ovens– which were in the corner of the kitchen, so there was a gap behind them– my contractor pulled them out, and I was working in my office from home, and he came in and he was like, ‘hey I found your silver bowl!’ and he put it on my desk, and I was like, ‘I don’t own a silver bowl.'”
“And I picked it up and it was his trophy, Satch Sanders,” she said.
Sanders used to live in the home, and sold it in 2003. Conway estimated the trophy has been hiding for at least 20 years.
“I called my husband at work and I said, ‘hey you’re not going to believe what the contractor found behind the double ovens,’ and my husband was like, ‘what– a body?’ and I’m like, ‘no even better, a trophy from an NBA player,'” Conway said.
“The joke we had when we bought the house was you know like, ‘watch there’ll be something left from him in the backroom!’ turns out it was behind the oven but, you know, same difference.”
Conway actually had the chance to talk to Sanders this week on Zoom, and said he is happy to have it back.
“He said everything’s in storage, you know and I think that speaks volumes to who he is as a person. It’s about who he is with other people and what he’s done for other people rather than all these, rings and championships and awards,” Conway said. “He’s just a good guy.”
As for the trophy’s next journey, Conway said she’s happy Sanders will get it back soon.
“So it’s destined to go back. I have to coordinate with Satch to get it back to him but, really excited to return it to it’s rightful owner,” she said. “All houses have a story, it just happened to be mine is not that old and it had a NBA trophy!”
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