MU’s Stewart selected for Hall of Fame

Former Missouri coach Norm Stewart was elected Sunday to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 32 seasons at Missouri, Stewart won 634 games and eight Big Eight Conference championships.

His Tigers were also the only team to win four consecutive Big Eight conference championships, winning the league from 1980 to 1983. When he first came to Columbia to coach the Tigers in 1967, they were coming off a 3-22 season and hadn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 1944. When he retired in 1999, the Tigers had reached the tournament 20 times and had made two regional finals.

“On behalf of the University of Missouri, we would like to congratulate Norm, Virginia and the entire Stewart family on this spectacular honor,” director of athletics Mike Alden said in a statement. “Norm has done so much, not only for basketball within the state of Missouri, but nationally as well. His legacy of excellence even transcends athletics. Through the lives he has touched as a coach and mentor, to his efforts in the founding of the Coaches vs. Cancer program, coach Stewart has left a lasting legacy that everyone in this country can truly appreciate. Congratulations to coach Stewart and his entire family.”

The College Basketball Hall of Fame is located in Kansas City inside the College Basketball Experience. The CBE is near the Sprint Center, which will be hosting its first events this fall. Stewart will be inducted along with Lefty Driesell, who spent much of his career at Maryland, and Guy Lewis of Houston. The players that will be inducted are Notre Dame’s Austin Carr, Dick Barnett of Tennessee State and Duke’s Dick Groat. Like Stewart, who was a pitcher at Missouri, Groat was also an accomplished baseball player. In 1960, Groat won the National League Most Valuable Player award with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“What a great honor for a great coach,” current Missouri coach Mike Anderson said. “It’s well deserved and I am certainly excited and happy for coach Stewart. This is such a great tribute for him and his family.”

In 1989, Stewart was diagnosed with colon cancer and had to miss 14 games. After surviving cancer, Stewart created the concept of Coaches vs. Cancer, a foundation which benefits cancer research.