Stephen Maxmillian Belko (February 14, 1916 – May 12, 2000) was an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach at Idaho State College and the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

. He was later the third commissioner of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

Playing career

The son of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

immigrants, Belko was born in

Gary, Indiana Gary ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it Indiana's List of municipalities in Indiana, eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historical ...

, and graduated from Froebel High School. He attended Compton Junior College in southern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

for a year, with plans to play basketball at

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

, where his older brother Max (1914–44) starred in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. When the assistant basketball coach at USC that recruited him got the head job at

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

, also a member of the

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a collegiate athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (includin ...

, Belko followed Forrest Twogood north in 1936 and

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over a thousand miles (1600 km) to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. A two-sport athlete for the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

, he was a guard and small forward in

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and a halfback and

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on the

team, and a teammate of future coaches Lyle Smith and Tony Knap. As seniors in

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

, they led the Vandals to a record, Idaho's best in years and the last winning season for a quarter century. Belko opted not to play

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, though he considered it his best sport. A member of the

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American social Fraternities and sororities, fraternities. The fraternity has 244 active undergraduate chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has ...

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and senior class president, he earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1939.

Coaching career

Following his graduation from Idaho in 1939, Belko was a high school coach in northern Idaho at St. Maries for a season and for three at Lewiston, then served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as a

interpreter. Following his military service, Belko briefly returned to Lewiston, then moved to the University of Idaho in Moscow and coached the Vandal freshman teams in football and basketball.

Idaho State

In 1950, Belko was hired as the head basketball coach at Idaho State College in

Pocatello Pocatello () is the county seat of and the largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, containing the city's airport. It is the principal city of the Pocatello metro ...

, which became a four-year school in 1947. His Bengals soon dominated the

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

and made the NCAA tournament in four consecutive seasons (

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

– 56). The NCAA tournament field varied from 22 to 25 teams in the mid-1950s. Belko's six-season record at Idaho State was , and he was named the conference coach of the year three times. The Bengals' conference record in his last four seasons was . This success led to his hiring in June 1956 at

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, then a member of the

Oregon

Belko was the head coach of the Ducks for fifteen seasons and posted a record, with a record in conference play. His teams made the NCAA tournament twice, in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

and

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, as an

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. The 1960 team advanced to the Western regional finals, the national quarterfinals (Elite 8). After five years as an independent, Oregon joined the

Pacific-8 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

(then "AAWU") for the 1964–65 season. In February 1970, the Ducks upset three-time defending national champion

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

McArthur Court McArthur Court is a basketball arena located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene and the former home of the Oregon Ducks men's and women's basketball teams, replaced in 2011 by Matthew Knight Arena. Also known as "The Pit" or " ...

in Eugene, winning 78–65 to snap the Bruins' 25-game winning streak. Following a pair of 17–9 seasons, Belko stepped down in April 1971 at age 55 and remained in Eugene as the assistant

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

at Oregon.

Administrative career

After a year as assistant athletic director, Belko left the Oregon athletic department in 1972 to direct the Far West Classic basketball tournament in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

for three years. In 1975, he moved to

Boise Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...

to work for the

as an evaluator of basketball officials. Belko was named commissioner of the conference in December 1976 and served from 1977 to 1981.

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

Sports-Reference.com
– Steve Belko * {{DEFAULTSORT:Belko, Steve 1916 births 2000 deaths American men's basketball players American people of Russian descent Basketball coaches from Indiana Basketball players from Gary, Indiana Big Sky Conference commissioners High school basketball coaches in Idaho Idaho State Bengals men's basketball coaches Idaho Vandals football players Idaho Vandals men's basketball coaches Idaho Vandals men's basketball players Oregon Ducks men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Gary, Indiana Forwards (basketball) Guards (basketball) United States Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century American sportsmen