As a freshman, he highlighted an undefeated season by winning the 1965 NAIA National Championships at 115 pounds and earned the Outstanding Wrestler Award.

As a sophomore Sanders lost the first match of his career when he moved up to the 123 pound class and placed third in the NCAA College Division Nationals.

As a junior Sanders had a perfect season going undefeated and winning both the 1967 NCAA College and University Division National Championships at 115 pounds.

[4] As early as his freshman year in college, in 1965, Sanders won his first of five national freestyle championships and made the U.S. World Team.

While hitch-hiking to Greece, he was killed in an automobile accident on October 18, 1972, in Skopje, Yugoslavia when the Land Rover he was riding in crashed head-on into a bus.