Ira Pierce Norfolk was athletics director and head men’s basketball coach at Barton College for eight years (1964-72). Aside from directing some fine teams, Norfolk is credited with increasing awareness, and support, of the college’s athletics program, evidenced by Bulldog Club memberships rising from 34 to 567 during his tenure.
Norfolk came to Barton after a distinguished career in the military, where he was also an excellent coach. In his military/coaching career, he amassed a record of 379-201 over 16 years and his teams won 20 of 34 tournaments. He led two All-Marine Corps championship teams to the National AAU Championships and the Pan-American Games Trials.
Ira Pierce Norfolk was born on November 13, 1924, in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute of Mechanical Engineering, an all-male high school with an enrollment of 3,200 that emphasized mathematics, engineering, language and the sciences. He lettered in basketball all four years and was co-captain his senior season.
He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned an A.B. degree in health and physical education. He was the third-leading scorer on the Tar Heels’ Southern Conference Championship team that went 22-6 in 1944-45 and was a key player that following season when Carolina seized the NCAA Eastern Regional Championship and eventually lost in the National Championship game to Oklahoma A&M. The Tar Heels went 30-5 that season.
Norfolk married Ruth Marie Sudbrook, also of Baltimore, in January of 1947. Norfolk said: “My co-coach and I are extremely proud of our starting lineup of Ronnie, Jeannette, Lynne, Craig and Allen (their children), and they have produced eight stellar reserves (grandchildren): Kristy, Susan, Mark, Ryan, Brooke, Erin, Allen Jr. and Miriam-Marie.”
So, in a way, Norfolk is still coaching today, and he would have it no other way.
While attending UNC, Norfolk enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in March of 1943. After boot camp, he served in military policy company for a year before he was selected for the Marine Corps V-12 Program in 1944. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1946 and eventually retired in 1963 as a major. His last field assignment was a Provost Marshal for the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune.
During his military career, Norfolk served as athletics director of some of the largest Marine Corps installations for nine years, both in the U.S. and abroad. He was director of the All-Marine Corps and Inter-Service Championships in numerous sports, including baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, track, football and wrestling, and he helped organize the East Coast Inter-Service Conference that was comprised of 14 military bases stretching from Massachusetts to South Carolina. He was head coach in basketball and baseball.
As an infantry officer, he served with the 1st Marine Brigade in Guam, the 1st Marine Division in Korea, the 2nd Marine Division in Europe and the 3rd Marine Division in Japan. He also served two tours of duty with the Headquarter’s Fleet Marine Force in Hawaii.
His military career afforded Norfolk the opportunity to see the world. He has been to Africa, Italy, Turkey, France, Monaco, Greece, Egypt, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. He also attended the U.S. Naval Justice School and the Atomic, Biological and Chemical Warfare School.
In the 1963-64 school year, Norfolk was assistant athletics director and athletics business manager at Virginia Tech. He became athletics director and head coach at Barton the following year. He quickly gained notoriety as an excellent administrator, and served on various NAIA committees, both at the district and national levels. He was chairman of the District 29 Basketball Committee and director of development and a district representative to the NAIA National Athletics Directors’ Committee.
Following his tenure at Barton, Norfolk served as Executive Director of the Pirate Club at East Carolina University from 1972-76. Once again, he worked wonders with a booster organization and was one of the primary players in raising funds to expand ECU’s athletics facilities.
Norfolk has fond memories of his years at Barton, and says one of his greatest accomplishments is that only two of his basketball players left school after their freshman seasons. All the others graduated. Two of his children, Ronnie and Jeannette, are Barton graduates.
