Norm Ellenberger dies at 83; colorful New Mexico basketball coach

Norm Ellenberger, the flamboyant coach who led New Mexico to two Western Athletic Conference basketball titles in the 1970s, has died. He was 83.

Ellenberger died in his sleep Saturday at his cabin in Watersmeet, Mich., said longtime friends Bob and Diana Briggs of Albuquerque.

The foot-stomping showman -- nicknamed Stormin’ Norman for his sideline antics -- had a 134-62 record with two WAC titles and two NCAA tournament appearances during seven seasons as New Mexico’s coach, from 1972 to 1979.

“He was so intense, and he just loved to play for the crowds,” former Lobo great Marvin Johnson told the Albuquerque Journal this week about playing for Ellenberger.

Ellenberger’s New Mexico career ended in December 1979 when an FBI wiretap uncovered evidence that the academic transcripts of several of his players had been altered to ensure their enrollment. Ellenberger and his chief recruiter, Manny Goldstein, were fired and nine players were ruled ineligible.

The Lobos coach was convicted on 21 state counts and placed on one year of unsupervised probation by District Judge Phillip Baiamonte, who called Ellenberger a “victim of high-pressure college athletics.” In 1983, those convictions were formally dismissed, but Ellenberger did not work as a head coach again.

Born in 1932 in Fort Wayne, Ind., Ellenberger attended Indiana’s Butler University, where he was a team captain and all-conference player on the football team, lettered under Hall of Fame Coach Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle on the Bulldogs’ basketball squad and was a two-time all-conference performer on Butler’s baseball teams.

After New Mexico, Ellenberger went on to work as an assistant for Don Haskins at Texas El Paso, Bob Knight at Indiana and Tim Floyd with the Chicago Bulls. He also spent the 2012 season as an assistant with the WNBA’s New York Liberty and lately helped coach high school basketball.

news.obits@latimes.com