Hank Beenders (Born June 2, 1916, Haarlem, Netherlands - d. October 27, 2003, Somerset, New Jersey) was a basketball player. Born on June 2, 1916 in Haarlem, the Netherlands, he lived in Brooklyn, New York and in Scotch Plains, New Jersey before moving to Bridgewater, New Jersey. Beenders came to the United States when he was eight. He played the center position on the 1941 NIT champion Long Island University team. Beenders was also the Long Island's team (the Blackbirds) captain during the 1941-42 season under Hall of Fame coach Clair Bee. After university he became one of the first international basketball players in The National Basketball Association (NBA) (when it was the Basketball Association of America (BAA)) and the first to reach the NBA finals. Beenders played for the Providence Steam Rollers in 1947 and 1948, the Philadelphia Warriors in 1948, and for the Boston Celtics in 1949. In 1949 the year he left basketball, the BAA became the NBA after adding several teams from the rival National Basketball League (NBL). Beenders averaged 12.3 points in his rookie season with Providence, which was 13th best in the league that season.
Beenders was also a war veteran (He served with the Army Air Corps during World War II). He had started his professional basketball career after the war. After ending his basketball career, he become an international sales representative for a clothing exporting company in New York City for 35 years. He was 87 when he died at the Somerset Medical Center in Somerset, New Jersey.
