Jerry Steele

Jerry Steele (born March 10, 1939) is a retired American basketball player and coach. Steele was a native of Elkin, North Carolina. He played basketball at Wake Forest University from 1958 to 1961 and in two of those years he was a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Academic team. After graduating from Wake Forest, Steele earned his master's degree from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Steele took over as the Guilford College men's basketball coach in 1962. His first season with the Quakers, he finished with a 5-20 record. Steele then lead the Quakers to two conference titles, four district championship, and four trips to the NAIA Tournament. During the 1969-70 season the Quakers won 29 straight games, finishing 32-4 and fourth in the nation.

In 1970 Steele joined the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association as an assistant coach under Bones McKinney. In November 1970, after the Cougars started the season with a record of 17 wins and 25 losses, McKinney was dismissed and Steele was promoted to head coach. Steele's record for the remainder of the season matched that of McKinney: 17 wins and 25 losses. The Cougars finished the 1970-1971 season with a record of 34 wins and 50 losses, finishing in sixth place in the ABA Eastern Division and missing the playoffs. Steele left the Cougars' head coaching position after the 1970-1971 season concluded. He was replaced by Tom Meschery. Steele moved on to become director of player personnel for the Cougars.

In 1972 Steele became the head coach at High Point University. Among his early players was current Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith. Steele coached at High Point for 32 years, from 1972 to 2003. During his tenure, High Point won eight conference titles, a trip to the NAIA Tournament, and the NCAA DII Tournament twice. His record at High Point was 457-412. He also served as athletic director at HPU for 26 years, from 1978 to 2003. Steele retired after the end of the 2002-2003 season.

Coach Steele's coaching tree includes current Lehigh Men's Head Coach Brett Reed, who was the High Point associate head coach during the 2001–02 season. Adam Walsh, who is currently the Men's Head Coach of Centenary College of Louisiana was a student manager under Steele. Players who Steele coached who went on to become head coaches include Tubby Smith, Dave Odom, and ML Carr.

Steele was elected to the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2002 Steele was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. In 2005 Steele was inducted into the Guilford County, North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. In 2007, the Steele Sports Center was opened on the campus of High Point University, named after the Panthers' prolific coach and his wife, Kitty Steele, who was also a coach at HPU. This facility houses locker rooms, offices and training facilities for 11 of HPU's 16 varsity sports. Ironically, the men's and women's basketball teams are those excluded from this facility, due to the large amount of office space required for the two revenue-earning sports, as well as the former athletic administration's offices' proximity to the varsity basketball arena floor and locker rooms, which the basketball coaches moved into in April 2007.

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