Tanenbaum was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in its Brownsville neighborhood, and was Jewish. He was an all-scholastic player at Thomas Jefferson High School. He met his wife, Bobbie Wolfson, in college when he was a junior.
Biography
A 6' 0" guard/forward, Tanenbaum played college basketball at New York University, where he was captain of the team in 1947, and was a two-time All-American and two-time Haggerty Award winner as the outstanding player in the metropolitan area. He also won the 1947 Bar Kochba Award, which honored him as the bestJewish American athlete in the nation, and was named first team All-Met in all four of his varsity seasons. Wilbur Wood, the sports editor of the New York Sun, wrote of Tanenbaum in 1947: "He is the finest all-around basketball performer ever to don Violet livery." He left NYU as the school's all-time leading scorer, with 992 points. NYU annually awards its top student-athlete the Sid Tanenbaum Memorial Award. Tanenbaum played two seasons in the Basketball Association of America as a member of the New York Knicks and Baltimore Bullets. On February 11, 1949, the New York Knicks traded him to the Baltimore Bullets for Connie Simmons. He scored 633 points in 70 games and tallied 162 assists. He was inducted into the New York CityBasketball Hall of Fame, and in 1997 into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. After his basketball career, he lived in Woodmere, New York, with his wife Barbara and sons Steven and Michael. Sid owned a machine shop specializing in metal spinning and stamping in Far Rockaway, Queens, known as the Able Metal Spinning and Stamping.
Murder
Tanenbaum was murdered on September 4, 1986, aged 60, when he was stabbed to death by a local 37-year-old woman in his shop. Police described Tanenbaum as "something of a benefactor in his neighborhood" who often gave money to people living in the streets. According to reports, he was stabbed because he decided to stop lending money to his attacker after assisting her many times in the past, and when he turned his back she attacked him.
