Steve Newton

Steve Newton (born April 23, 1941) is an American basketball coach. He was head men's coach at Murray State University from 1985 to 1991 and at University of South Carolina from 1991–1993. A native of Terre Haute, Indiana, he was a player at Indiana State University from 1960–1963. A graduate of Terre Haute's Gerstmeyer Tech, he played high school basketball for the legendary Howard Sharpe, the winningest coach in Indiana high school basketball.

Coaching career

Assistant coaching

After serving as head coach at two Indiana high schools, Reelsville H.S. 1963-65 and Plainfield H.S.1965-69, Newton served as an assistant coach under Ron Greene at [[University of New Orleans]1969-1973]. In 1972 he helped lead New Orleans to the Associated Press Division II national championship.^[1] On May 1,1973, Newton was hired by Athletic Director, Charles N Shira, to the Mississippi State University basketball coaching staff. Under Head Coach Kermit Davis, Newton was in charge of recruiting, scouting and defense play responsibilities. On May 11, 1978, following the resignation of Coach Davis, Ron Greene, former Head Coach at University of New Orleans, was named head coach at Mississippi State University by Director of Athletics, Bob Tyler. Greene joined Assistants, Steve Newton and Mike Dill, who were presently on the basketball staff. In 1978, Steve Newton was hired by Athletic Director, Johnny Reagan, at Murray State University, as Associate Coach to newly hired Head Coach Ron Greene. Newton served as associated coach from 1978-1985

Head Coach at Murray State

Steve Newton was named head basketball coach at Murray State University in 1985 by President Kala Stroup, the Board of Trustees and Athletics Director, Johnny Reagan.^[2] In six seasons as the Racers head coach, Newton had an overall record of 116-65 (64%), a Conference mark of 43-7 (86%) and won four Ohio Valley Conference regular season and three OVC Tournament titles. Newton became only the second coach in OVC history to lead his team to four consecutive league titles ( 1987–88, 1988–89,1989–90,1990-91). Only western Kentucky's E.A. Diddle had ever won or shared four straight OVC championships, from 1953-57. The Racers during Newton's tenure earned three NCAA tournament appearances and one NIT appearance. The high point of his career at Murray State came on March 18, 1988 when the Racers defeated the North Carolina State Wolfpack 78-75 in the first round of the 1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. It was Murray State's first Tournament victory. Murray State would lose to eventual national champion Kansas by three points in the second round; that game was KU's closest en route to the championship.^[3]

At the 1988 NCAA Basketball Coaches Convention, Newton was awarded the 1987-88 Kodak Basketball District 7 Coach of the Year in Division 1.He was named OVC Coach of the Year twice (1988, 1990) and recruited and coached 15 All-OVC and four OVC Player of the Year selections, including Racer great Ron "Popeye" Jones.^[4]

Newton was inducted into the Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame in Nashville,TN on June 1, 2007.^[5]

On February 6, 2010, Newton was inducted into the Murray State Hall of Fame in Murray Ky.^[6]

South Carolina

Newton was named the South Carolina Gamecocks head basketball coach on July 11, 1991. He coached the inaugural Southeastern Conference game for the Gamecocks on January 4, 1992 against the University of Kentucky.^[7] Highlights of the year 1991-92 included the Texaco Star Classic in San Diego, Calif, where the Gamecocks downed George Washington and host San Diego State in double overtime to win the title. Leading scorer and rebounder, Joe Rhett, earned MVP honors. The school had its first-ever SEC games in back-to-back outings over Tennessee and Georgia at home. The latter came in a thrilling, 71-69 game before an overflow crowd of 12,555. The home regular-season play finished with an impressive 77-68 victory over Vanderbilt on senior day. The 1992-93 season began with a 95-85 win at Tennessee and after 7 games in the SEC had a winning 4-3 ledger. Included in that span were home wins over Ole Miss and Georgia and another road victory at Florida. Newton recruited forward Emmett Hall, who went on to play in the CBA and coached swingman Jamie Watson, who played for the Utah Jazz and Jo Jo English, who played in the CBA and 2 years with the Chicago Bulls in the NBA^[8] Newton had an overall record of 20-35 during his tenure at South Carolina.^[9]

Newton was named the new Assistant Athletics Director at the University of South Carolina at the end of the 1992 season by Athletics Director, Mike McGee.^[10] He was recognized by the Gamecock Athletics Department at the 100 years of Carolina Basketball celebration on February 23, 2008^[11]

Administrative work

After two years as the assistant athletics director at South Carolina, he became Athletics Director at University of Southern Indiana on April 13, 1995.^[12] He retired in 2001 and his Assistant A.D., John Mark Hall, was hired as his successor.^[13]

References