Norm Stewart, who spent 32 years as the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Missouri, tops the list of NCAA men’s basketball greats to be honored during the 2016 College Basketball Awards, hosted in Oklahoma City on April 11. Stewart will be honored with the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award presented by Love’s Travel Stops.
The focus of NCAA men’s college basketball is squarely on Oklahoma City each spring as the College Basketball Awards recognizes the game’s best. The event, held at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, includes the presentation of the Oscar Robertson Trophy for the men’s national player of the year, the Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award, the Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award, the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award, and – for the first time this year – the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award presented to the top player in women’s college basketball.
As a head coach first at Northern Iowa and then at Missouri, Stewart won 731 games, which ranks him sixteenth on the all-time college coaching list. During his coaching career he won eight Big 12/Big Eight Conference championships and took the Tigers to 16 NCAA Tournaments. He won more conference games (246) and conference tournament titles (6) than any coach in league history. Voted the Big Eight Conference’s All-Time Coach by both the Associated Press and the Kansas City Star, Stewart was named District “Coach of the Year” seven times, Big Eight “Coach of the Year” five times, UPI “National Coach of the Year” in 1982, and AP “National Coach of the Year” in 1994. Stewart’s 1994 team made Big Eight History when they became the first to go undefeated in conference play.
Following his retirement in 1999 as MU’s head basketball coach of 32 years, Norm Stewart served as the Special Consultant to the Chancellor at Mizzou. Stewart was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and was inducted on November 18, 2007. He was also nominated to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. In 1998, Stewart was selected as the Missouri Citizen of the Year. He is also a Missouri Squire – one of 100 Missouri Leaders. In 1994, he was honored at the White House where President Bill Clinton presented Stewart with the American Cancer Society Courage Award.
Stewart’s personal fight with colon cancer took on a new meaning when he founded a unique fundraising program at UM. Teaming up with Jerry Quick of the American Cancer Society, they started the “3 Point Attack” project. It was so successful that Coach Stewart took the program to the NABC where it was adopted and remains today the major charity for that organization and became the Coaches vs. Cancer
program. Today, more than 500 Division I, II, and III college coaches are involved in the program that, to date, has raised over $100 million dollars in the fight against cancer.
“Through the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award, we have been very fortunate to honor some of the great humanitarians in college basketball such as Coach K, Dick Vitale, Jim Boeheim, Tom Izzo, and Bill Self,” said Jenny Love Meyer, vice president of communications for Love’s. “As an Oklahoma company, Love’s is proud to be part of an event and an award that honors an individual like Norm Stewart who has had such a profound impact on so many lives.” The Men’s Freshman Player of the Year, Men’s Player of the Year, Women’s Player of the Year, as well as the Coach of the Year, are selected by members of the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
Access Sports serves as the host for the Oklahoma City gala and selects the Humanitarian honoree. Funds raised through the gala are used to support youth basketball programs in Oklahoma that allow disadvantaged youth the opportunity to participate in basketball leagues and training as well as other charitable endeavors
http://www.collegebasketballawards.com/wayman-tisdale-humanitarian-award.html
