Norm Sloan

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Norm Sloan
Title Head coach
College NC State University
Sport Basketball
Born June 25, 1926
Place of birth Flag of the United States Indianapolis, Indiana
Died December 9, 2003 (aged 77)
Career highlights
Overall 627-395
Championships
NCAA Men's Basketball Championship (1974)
ACC Tournament Champions (1970, 1973, 1974))
SEC Regular Season Champions (1989)
Awards
ACC Coach of the Year 1970, 1973, 1974
Playing career
1947-1949 NC State University
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1951 - 1955
1956
1957 - 1960
1960 - 1966
1966 - 1980
19801989
Presbyterian College
Memphis State (Asst.)
The Citadel
University of Florida
NC State University
University of Florida

Norm Sloan (June 25, 1926December 9, 2003) was an American college basketball coach.

Sloan was a 1951 graduate of North Carolina State University, where he lettered in basketball under coach Everett Case and was a classmate and teammate of Vic Bubas, who later coached Duke. As players, both won multiple Southern Conference Championships, including 1947,1948 and 1949. Sloan was head basketball coach and assistant football coach at Presbyterian College from 1951 to 1955, with his basketball teams compiling a 69-36 record in four seasons. He was assistant basketball coach at Memphis State University in 1956.

Sloan left Memphis to become head coach at The Citadel, where he built the program from being a laughing stock to as good a record as 15-5 in 1959. His first Bulldog 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. He became the first full-time basketball coach at Florida in 1961. His Florida teams compiled an 85-63 record in six seasons, including the school's first victory (in 1965) over an Adolph Rupp-coached University of Kentucky team.

Sloan was named head coach at N.C. State in 1966 and won three ACC Championships (1970, 1973, and 1974). His 1973 team was undefeated (27-0) and his 1974 team won the NCAA Championship defeating UCLA in the national semi-finals and ending that school's run of seven straight titles. His record at State was 266-127 in 14 seasons. His greatest teams included legendary players such as David 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 program around for a second time. Sloan's Gators won over 20 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 1988-89. His teams compiled a 150-131 record in those nine seasons, giving him an overall record of 235-194 in 15 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 resigned prior to the 1989-90 season in the wake of an NCAA investigation into the Gator program.

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

Sloan's career won-loss record was 627-395, and his victory total ranks him 26th on the career list of Division I coaches. He is still the second-winningest coach in N.C. State history, trailing only Case. His 235 wins at Florida were the best in school history until Billy Donovan passed him in 2006.

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