Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1990
- Class:
- 1956
Norm Stewart was inducted into the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame as a student-athlete in 1990 and as a coach in 2007. A native of Shelbyville, Missouri, Stewart lettered at MU in basketball and baseball in 1954-55-56. A two-time team captain and all-Big Seven Conference selection in basketball for Coach Sparky Stalcup, Stewart led MU in scoring and rebounding in 1956. His 24.1-point scoring average in ‘56, ranks as the fourth-best figure in school history. He scored 1,112 points in his career. He was drafted by and played with the St. Louis Hawks of the NBA and was twice inducted into the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame – once as a player and once as a coach. He also had a solid career as a pitcher at MU, playing on the 1954 NCAA championship team. He was the MU ERA leader in 1955, and later played in the Baltimore Orioles organization.
One of college basketball’s great all-time and most successful coaches, “Stormin” Norman won 634 games in 32 seasons at his alma mater, coaching from 1967-99. His overall coaching record of 731-375 in 38 seasons (with six years at the State College of Iowa, now Northern Iowa) left him in seventh place on the NCAA Division I all-time wins list at the time of his retirement. Only two coaches had coached in more games than Stewart’s 1,106 when he stepped down on April 1, 1999. At Mizzou, Stewart won more games in his 32 seasons – 634 – than had been won in the 60 years combined of the program’s history prior to him taking over – 630 from 1907-67. Stewart’s teams won 20 or more games 17 times (the only 17 such occurrences in MU history at the time), including a school-record 29 wins during the 1988-89 season. Stewart won eight Big Eight Conference championships and six conference tournament titles. He was voted by the Associated Press and the Kansas City Star as the all-time coach of the Big Eight era (1958-96). Stewart’s teams produced 28 first-team all-conference selections, eight first-team all-Americans and 29 NBA draft choices, including nine in the first round.
Stewart was involved as a player, assistant or head coach in 1,127 of the 2,151 games played in MU’s history at the time of his retirement in 1999 – meaning he’d had a hand in more than 50 percent of the games ever played at the school. He earned district Coach of the Year honors seven times and was named UPI national Coach of the Year in 1982, in addition to earning the same in 1994 from six different organizations, including the Associated Press. The 1993-94 season was perhaps Stewart’s greatest coaching achievement, as he helped guide the Tigers to a perfect 14-0 record in the Big Eight Conference, and his eighth league title. That was one of two Stewart-led teams that reached the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament (1976, 1994). He missed the latter part of the 1989-90 season due to a health condition that turned out to be cancer that he beat. That fight led him to help found Coaches vs. Cancer, an organization which continues today and has raised millions of dollars for cancer research and treatment. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, and in November 2007, was enshrined in the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City. He was named to the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. His MU jersey number-22 is retired.
