HOUSTON, Texas (March 31, 2023) – The National Association of Basketball Coaches garnished Rollins men's basketball head coach
Tom Klusman with the 2023 NABC Hillyard Golden Anniversary Award over the weekend at the NCAA Final Four in Houston.
The Golden Anniversary Award is given to an individual who has spent more than 50 years involved with the game of basketball. Past recipients include Lute Olsen, John Chaney, Gene Keady, and John Wooden.
Tom Klusman was named the head coach at Rollins in 1980 at just 26 years old, and in the 43 seasons since has consistently maintained the school's status as one of Division II's elite programs. Klusman completed the 2022-23 season with 746 career victories – the most of any active Division II coach. He is also one of just 10 coaches in Division II history to eclipse 700 career wins. Klusman has led Rollins to NCAA Division II Elite Eight appearances in 2004 and 2017.
At the conference level, Klusman has led the Tars to seven SSC regular season titles, four SSC tournament titles, and eight appearances in the NCAA tournament. He is a two-time winner of the NABC South Region Coach of the Year award (1991, 2003) and has six SSC Coach of the Year awards to his name (1984, 1991, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2011). He is a member of the both the Rollins Athletics Hall of Fame (1992) as well as the Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame (2000).
He has coached six All-Americans, nine All-South selections, four SSC Players of the Year, four SSC Freshmen of the Year, and 53 All-SSC players.
In addition to his vast coaching resume, Klusman was also a standout guard for the Tars, playing between 1972-76. He scored more than 1,000 points in his career, and was elected to the Rollins Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
