Norman Shepard
| Sport(s) | College basketball |
|---|---|
| Current position | |
| Title | Head coach |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | August 20, 1897 |
| Died | August 22, 1977 (aged 80) Sarasota, Florida |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Basketball | |
| 1923–1924 | North Carolina |
| 1928–1929 | Guilford |
| 1929–1936 | Randolph–Macon |
| 1937–1949 | Davidson |
| 1949–1954 | Harvard |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 1924 – Southern Conference Championship (tied) 1924 – Southern Conference Tournament Championship 1924 – Helms Athletic Foundation National Championship 1924 – Premo-Porretta National Championship |
|
Norman W. Shepard (August 20, 1897 – August 22, 1977) was a head coach of various college athletics at several American colleges and universities. He is best known for being the only Division I college basketball coach to go undefeated in his first season coaching. His 1923–24 Tar Heels team finished the season with a 26–0 record and was retroactively named the national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.
He was born Norman Westbrook Shepard, third son of Alexander Hurlbutt Shepard and Mary Augusta Westbrook.
Shepard attended the University of North Carolina and after graduating played minor league baseball for a time. Before becoming a head coach, Shepard spent three years abroad in France during World War I in the United States army as an artilleryman.
In 1928, he married Edith Ruckert, of Brooklyn, NY, in Peking, China.
Norman's family had various ties to athletics at North Carolina. His brother, Bo Shepard, became the head coach for North Carolina after Norman, and two of his other brothers, Caryle Shepard and Alex Shepard, played basketball for North Carolina.
Shepard decided to accept the head coaching job for the Tar Heels while planning to attend law school on the side.
When Shepard took over, the Tar Heels had been without a head coach for the previous two seasons. Even though the Tar Heels had been without a head coach for the previous seasons, they had managed to win the Southern Conference Tournament at the end of the 1921–22 season and tied for first in the Southern Conference during the 1922–23 season.
When Shepard took over the team, he inherited a well-rounded Tar Heel squad that included returning senior Cartwright Carmichael, who was the first North Carolina All-American in any sport, and Jack Cobb, who would later be named to the All-American team and would later have his number retired at North Carolina. Shepard's North Carolina team earned the nickname the "White Phantoms" because of their fast playmaking and defense.
...
Wikipedia