© 2011 NCSU Student Media
Former men's basketball coach Norm Sloan watches his team compete. Photo courtesy of 1973 Agromeck.
The path to stardom as a basketball player or coach can be a tumultuous road. In Norm Sloan’s case, it was a road filled with bumps but ended with a spot in the newly renovated Coaches’ Corner outside of Reynolds Coliseum.
After all, that is the location where the majority of his success was earned. Last year, the Kay Yow bust was revealed in the first addition to the Coaches’ Corner between the Talley Student Center and Reynolds Coliseum. Over the summer a project began to introduce three men’s basketball coaches to the corner.
Student Government Athletics Chair Alex Williamson and Traditions Chair Andy Walsh are heading the project, which is set to be unveiled around the same time as the conclusion of the Talley project.
Walsh said the project should add to the allure of the new Talley building set to be finalized by Dec. of 2012.
“Our overall goal is to make this garden a quiet place on campus,” Walsh said. “When alumni, students or faculty walk up to the statues, we want them to understand who those coaches were and what they meant to the tradition of N.C. State.”
Walsh said the project will also be an option for the 2011 senior gift, which he hopes will help seniors feel more connected to the project.
“By making the project an option for the senior gift, we hope that students will feel like a part of a unique history and tradition that other universities don’t have in their athletic traditions,” Walsh said.
In Wednesday’s edition of Technician, Everett Case was highlighted as the first new member of the Coaches’ Corner. Sloan not only coached for the Wolfpack, but also played for the basketball team as a guard under Case.
Sloan was recruited out of Indiana as one of Case’s so-called “Hoosier Hotshots.” Sloan was a part of three Southern Conference championships from 1947 through 1949, but the relationship between himself and Case went sour during Sloan’s senior season.
Since Sloan’s playing time was limited during the first few seasons, he decided to pursue playing as a quarterback for the football team.
Less than a week after Case’s battle with cancer ended, Sloan was announced as the men’s basketball coach for the Pack. In only his third season with the team, Sloan won an ACC championship and in the next season began to form a team that would achieve something never before accomplished in State history.
Student Body President Chandler Thompson said that what Sloan brought the University prior to the 1972 season was one of his greatest accomplishments.
“He brought us the greatest ACC basketball player to play the game,” Thompson said. “I don’t know if N.C. State has had as much talent since the 1974 basketball team. David Thompson was a Wolfpack legend, and [Sloan] brought him here.”
During the 1973 and 1974 seasons, Sloan led the Pack to a 57-1 record, including an undefeated season in 1973, back-to-back ACC championships and the 1974 National Championship. Though it finished 27-0 in 1973, allegations that there were NCAA violations in the recruitment of David Thompson led to a postseason ban.
Thompson also went on to say that, thanks to his efforts in bringing in both Monte Towe and David Thompson, Sloan should go down as much more than a great coach for the Pack.
“Sloan was unique as a coach and a recruiter,” Thompson said. “If you look back at the 1973 and 1974 seasons, if we hadn’t been on probation during the 1973 season we might have had two National Championship teams.”