Norm Sloan

Norm Sloan
Florida Gators men's basketball
coach Norm Sloan, circa 1961.
Sport(s) Basketball
Biographical details
Born June 25, 1926(1926-06-25)
Place of birth Indianapolis, Indiana
Died December 9, 2003(2003-12-09) (aged 77)
Place of death Durham, North Carolina
Playing career
1947–1949 North Carolina State
Position(s) Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1951–1955
1956
1957–1960
1960–1966
1966–1980
1980–1989		 Presbyterian
Memphis State (Asst.)
The Citadel
Florida
North Carolina State
Florida
Head coaching record
Overall 627–395 (.614)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
NCAA Men's Basketball Championship (1974)
ACC Tournament Championships (1970, 1973, 1974)
ACC Regular Season Championships (1973, 1974)
SEC Regular Season Championship (1989)
Awards
SoCon Coach of the Year (1957)
SEC Coach of the Year (1961)
ACC Coach of the Year (1970, 1973, 1974)

Norman Sloan (June 25, 1926 – December 9, 2003), nicknamed "Stormin' Norman," was an American college basketball player and coach. Sloan played college basketball for North Carolina State University, and thereafter, he was the men's basketball head coach for Presbyterian College, The Citadel, the University of Florida and North Carolina State University in a career that spanned thirty-eight seasons.

Contents

Early years

Sloan was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1926. He attended Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis, where he played high school basketball for the Lawrence Central Bears.

College playing career

Sloan received an athletic scholarship to attend North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he played guard for coach Everett Case's NC State Wolfpack from 1947 to 1949. He was one of Case's original six "Hoosier Hotshots," a group of high school stars Case recruited from Indiana. As a member of the Wolfpack, Sloan was a classmate and teammate of Vic Bubas, who later coached the Duke Blue Devils from 1959 to 1969. Sloan was a member of three Wolfpack teams that won Southern Conference championships in 1947, 1948 and 1949. In a dispute with Case over playing time, Sloan did not play his senior basketball season in 1950–1951, but chose instead to concentrate on playing quarterback for coach Beattie Feathers' NC State Wolfpack football team instead In addition to football and basketball, he was also a member of the Wolfpack track and field team.

Sloan graduated from NC State with a bachelor's degree in education in 1951.

Coaching career

Sloan was the head basketball coach and assistant football coach at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina from 1951 to 1955, where his Presbyterian Blue Hose basketball teams compiled a 69–36 record in four seasons. He coached for a single season at Memphis State University in Memphis, Tennessee during 1955–1956, working as an assistant basketball coach for the Memphis State Tigers.

Sloan left Memphis in 1956 to become head coach at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, where he built the Citadel Bulldogs program from a conference also-ran to a respectable 15–5 in 1959. His first Bulldogs team in 1957 won the George Mikan Award for Most Improved Team in the Nation and he was named the coach of the year by the South Carolina Sportswriters Association that year. His Citadel teams compiled a 57–38 record in four years. In 1960, Sloan became the first full-time basketball coach of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. His Florida Gators men's basketball teams tallied an 85–63 record in six seasons, including the school's first victory over an Adolph Rupp-coached Kentucky Wildcats team in 1965.

Sloan was named head coach at at his alma mater, North Carolina State, in 1966, and his NC State Wolfpack teams won three ACC Championships in 1970, 1973 and 1974. His 1973 Wolfpack team was undefeated (27–0), but missed that year's NCAA tournament due to questions about the recruiting of high school phenomenon David Thompson. A year later, he led the Wolfpack to a 30–1 record and the school's first NCAA national championship. En route, the Wolfpack defeated UCLA in the NCAA Final Four, ending UCLA and coach John Wooden's run of seven straight NCAA championships. Sloan's Wolfpack beat Marquette, 76–64, in the 1974 championship game.

Sloan's overall win-loss record at NC State was 266–127 in fourteen seasons. His greatest teams included legendary players such as Thompson, Tommy Burleson, Moe Rivers, Tim Stoddard (who went on to pitch in Major League Baseball), and Monte Towe. "Stormin' Norman" was as well known for his garish red-and-white plaid sports coat as he was for his ACC battles with Lefty Driesell at Maryland and Dean Smith at North Carolina. He was selected the National Coach of the Year in 1973 by Basketball Weekly and again in 1974 by the USBWA and the Associated Press.

Sloan returned to Florida in 1980, turning the Florida Gators basketball program around for a second time. Sloan's Gators won over twenty games and made the NCAA Tournament in each of his last three seasons and won the university's first Southeastern Conference regular season basketball championship in 1988–1989. His teams compiled a 150–131 record in those nine seasons, giving him an overall record of 235-194 in fifteen years with the Gators. His reputation as "Stormin' Norman" continued as he feuded throughout his tenure in Gainesville with LSU Tigers coach Dale Brown. Sloan was forced to resign prior to the 1989–1990 season in the wake of an NCAA investigation into the Gators program.[1]

He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984, and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

Sloan's career win-loss record was 627–395, and his victory total ranks him twenty-sixth on the career list of Division I coaches. He is still the second-winningest coach in NC State history, trailing only Case. His 235 wins at Florida were the best in Gators history until Billy Donovan passed him in 2006.

Sloan lived in Raleigh, North Carolina following his retirement from coaching.[2] He died of complications related to pulmonary fibrosis on December 9, 2003 at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Head coaching record

Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Presbyterian Blue Hose (Little Four) (1951–1955)
1951–1952 Presbyterian 21–7 4–2
1952–1953 Presbyterian 11–15 4–2
1953–1954 Presbyterian 17–8 4–2
1954–1955 Presbyterian 20–6 6–0
Presbyterian: 69–36 18–6
The Citadel Bulldogs (Southern Conference) (1957–1960)
1956–1957 Citadel 11–14 5–9 7th
1957–1958 Citadel 16–11 9–6 4th
1958–1959 Citadel 15–5 7–4 3rd
1959–1960 Citadel 15–8 8–4 3rd
Citadel: 57–38 29–23
Florida Gators (Southeastern Conference) (1960–1966)
1960–1961 Florida 15–11 9–5 4th
1961–1962 Florida 12–11 8–6 4th
1962–1963 Florida 12–14 5–9 9th
1963–1964 Florida 12–10 6–8 9th
1964–1965 Florida 18–7 11–5 4th
1965–1966 Florida 16–10 9–7 5th
Florida: 85–63 48–40
North Carolina State Wolfpack (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1966–1980)
1966–1967 NC State 7–19 2–12 8th
1967–1968 NC State 16–10 9–5 T–3rd
1968–1969 NC State 15–10 8–6 T–3rd
1969–1970 NC State 23–7 9–5 T–2nd NCAA Regional 3rd Place
1970–1971 NC State 13–14 5–9 T–6th
1971–1972 NC State 16–10 6–6 T–4th
1972–1973 NC State 27–0 12–0 1st
1973–1974 NC State 30–1 12–0 1st NCAA Champion
1974–1975 NC State 22–6 8–4 T–2nd
1975–1976 NC State 21–9 7–5 T–2nd NIT Semifinals
1976–1977 NC State 17–11 6–6 5th
1977–1978 NC State 21–10 7–5 T–2nd NIT Finals
1978–1979 NC State 18–12 3–9 T–6th
1979–1980 NC State 20–8 9–5 T–2nd NCAA 2nd Round
NC State: 266–127 103–77
Florida Gators (Southeastern Conference) (1980–1989)
1980–1981 Florida 12–16 5–13 8th
1981–1982 Florida 5–22 2–16 10th
1982–1983 Florida 13–18 5–13 10th
1983–1984 Florida 16–13 11–7 3rd NIT 1st Round
1984–1985 Florida 18–12 9–9 5th NIT 1st Round
1985–1986 Florida 19–14 10–8 4th NIT Semifinal
1986–1987 Florida 23–11 12–6 2nd NCAA Sweet 16
1987–1988 Florida 23–12* 11–7 T–2nd NCAA 2nd Round
1988–1989 Florida 21–13* 13–5 1st NCAA 1st Round
Florida: 150–131* 78–84
Florida: 235–194* 126–124
Total: 627–395*

      National champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference tournament champion
      Conference regular season & conference tournament champion       Conference division champion

See also

Basketball portal
Biography portal
College basketball portal

References

  1. ^ Associated Press, "Florida Coach Retires At School's Request," The New York Times (November 1, 1989). Retrieved June 8, 2011.
  2. ^ Kevin Brockway, "Former Gators coach Norm Sloan dies at 77," Ocala Star-Banner, p. D1 (December 10, 2003). Retrieved June 8, 2011.

Bibliography