Chris Thomforde, a member of the Princeton Class of 1969, helped Princeton to national success on the court before going on to a distinguished career in higher education.
 
Thomforde earned Converse second-team All-America honors in 1967, during a season that saw him and teammate Gary Walters (Legends of Ivy League Basketball Class of 2017) featured on the cover of the February 27, 1967 issue of Sports Illustrated under the heading “Princeton Builds a Basketball Dynasty.” That year, Princeton was ranked as high as third in the nation by the AP and finished with a ranking of fifth after a run to the NCAA Sweet 16.
 
Thomforde went on to earn All-Ivy honors in all three of his seasons, being named to the first team in 1967 and 1968 and the second team in 1969. The winner of the team’s B.F. Bunn Trophy as the most valuable player in 1969, Thomforde graduated as the program’s fourth-leading scorer with 1,122 points. He endures as one of the best free throw shooters and rebounders in program history, graduating third with 382 career free throws, a percentage of .829 that was third-best in program history, and his senior-year free throw clip of .898 was the second-best such season in program history for anyone with at least 40 attempts. On the glass, Thomforde finished fifth in career rebounds with 709.
 
Princeton won the Ivy League title in all three of his seasons, adding an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1969 to their 1967 run.
 
After Princeton, Thomforde went on to earn a master of divinity degree from Yale before returning to Princeton for a doctorate in ministry. He held teaching positions at Colgate and Susquehanna Universities, as well as at Tunghai University in Taiwan, and went on to serve as president of St. Olaf College, Bethany College and finally Moravian College before retiring in 2013.
 
Thomforde put his divinity training to practice as a university chaplain at Colgate and Susquehanna, and as a parish pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Dansville, N.Y.