Former Stanford Basketball Player Peter Sauer Dies

[Updated: According to this more detailed report, Sauer collapsed Sunday night.]

Former Stanford basketball player Peter Sauer died Sunday while playing pickup basketball in New York City. That's what we know, and there's no making sense of it. Sauer, who captained the Cardinal's 1998 Final Four team, subsequently co-captained a family of three daughters. He was 35.

My first memory of Sauer is of him swishing a baseline jumper in the final seconds to beat Arizona, 81-80, at Maples Pavilion in 1997. I was 13 and stayed up to watch the game on FX, a rare treat for a Cardinal fan living on the East Coast. I think I still have the game on VHS.

My last memory of Sauer is from Gameday before last November's football game against Oregon. Sauer was selling custom-designed Luck/Corso '12 T-shirts and reveling with former classmates and fellow Stanford fans on the muddy Oval.

I liked what longtime Cardinal assistant coach Eric Reveno had to say about his former player:

Coaching is like parenting, no real favorites. Just qualities you love in each.Peter Sauer had a bunch to love.RIP mercurynews.com/athletics/ci_2…

— Eric Reveno (@CoachReveno) July 9, 2025

My thoughts and prayers go out to Sauer's family. How will you remember him?