[2] Prior to his last job as Houston's head coach, Penders was a sports analyst for ESPN and Westwood One Radio.

[2] In 1988, Penders led the Rams to the 1988 NCAA Sweet 16 with wins over Missouri and Syracuse before eventually losing to Duke.

He led the Longhorns to three Southwest Conference championships and eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight in 1990, and the Sweet 16 in 1997.

The Longhorns also set 22 school and SWC records while more than doubling their attendance average to 10,011 per game, the largest increase in NCAA Division I.

[2] In his final year at Texas, Penders underwent heart surgery and was unable to coach the first few games of what would end up being a tumultuous season.

On the heels of a 14-17 season and 9th place finish in the conference, three players met with athletic director DeLoss Dodds to voice complaints about Penders and the program.

Shortly after the suspension, an Austin radio station that claimed to have obtained a copy of Axtell's transcript read his grades on the air.

Penders announced his resignation after the investigation revealed that his assistant coach, Eddie Oran, admitted to faxing the transcript to the radio station.

[10] Penders served as head coach at the George Washington University from 1998 to 2001, where he compiled a 49–42 record and led the Colonials to the NCAA tournament.

[11] Late in the 2000-2001 season, four players used the long-distance access code of his son and assistant coach, Tommy, Jr., to make $1,400 worth of long-distance calls and star guard SirValiant Brown left after his sophomore year for the NBA because he wouldn't qualify to play at GW the next season for academic reasons.

[12] Most seriously, Penders failed to tell athletic director Jack Kvancz that one of his players, Attila Cosby, had been arrested for several serious misdemeanors in January, including forcing a prostitute to perform oral sex at gunpoint and violating her with a broom.

[3] In his first season at the University of Houston, Penders guided the Cougars to the nation's fourth-best turnaround with an 18–14 overall record and Houston led the nation in turnover margin and set both team and individual school records for most three-point field goals made in a season.

[2] Penders led the Houston Cougars to the Conference USA championship game in 2010 where they defeated UTEP for their first NCAA Tournament berth in 18 years.

[2] He was the 116th overall selection in the eighth round of the 1968 Major League Baseball (MLB) January Draft by the Cleveland Indians.

[17] His professional baseball playing experience lasted one year in the Cleveland organization where he split his 1968 season between the Rock Hill Chiefs and Waterbury Indians.