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.

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

• The Citadel Bulldogs
• Florida Gators
• History of the University of Florida
• List of North Carolina State University people
• NC State Wolfpack
• University Athletic Association

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

• Dortch, Chris, String Music: Inside the Rise of SEC Basketball, Brassey's, Inc., Dulles, Virginia (2002). ISBN 1-57488-439-5.
• Koss, Bill, Pond Birds: Gator Basketball, The Whole Story From The Inside, Fast Break Press, Gainesville, Florida (1996). ISBN 9780813015231.
• Peeler, Tim, Legends of NC State Basketball, Sports Publishing L.L.C., Champaign, Illinois (2004). ISBN 1-58261-820-8.

Persondata
Name	Sloan, Norm
Alternative names	Sloan, Norman
Short description	American college basketball player, college basketball coach, NCAA Tournament championship coach
Date of birth	June 25, 1926
Place of birth	Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Date of death	December 9, 2003
Place of death	Durham, North Carolina, United States