Sanford was captain of the Richmond Spiders football, basketball, and baseball teams, and set school records in the shot put and discus.[3] He then played baseball professionally in the Bi-State and Piedmont leagues while also coaching prep and college teams. He ended his professional career in 1946, having never climbed higher than Class B.
Sanford began his coaching career at Hargrave, coaching for thirteen years at the prep school. He became athletic director and coach of the baseball and basketball teams at Randolph–Macon. His teams won a total of five conference championships over his seven years in Ashland, Virginia, before moving to Wake Forest as freshman football coach. In his second year at Wake Forest, he added baseball to his coaching duties while continuing in various assistant coaching roles with the football team. Most notably, the Deacs won the Atlantic Coast Conference and College World Series in 1955.[2][5]
Sanford also headed the Wake Forest team when it was selected as the representative United States national team at the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[6][7] The Wake Forest team, which was the first U.S. national team to participate in international competition since the 1942 Amateur World Series, took the silver medal.
During the College World Series, a rainout forced a game on Sunday, sparking a small controversy at the Baptist school when word reached Wake Forest.[3] This followed word that Sanford would not be kept full-time after the 1956 season and little recognition from the school of his achievement in Omaha. Sanford therefore resigned from Wake Forest on January 31, 1956, citing his "feeling of insecurity" and that he had "no assurance that I will have a job after the current season is over."[5]
Later life and death
Sanford returned to Virginia after stepping down at Wake Forest, and served as athletic director at Fort Lee. He died on August 8, 1966, in Petersburg, Virginia.[2] In 1977, Sanford was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
Conference regular season champion
Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
Division regular season champion
Division regular season and conference tournament champion
Conference tournament champion
