Sloan was a native of Indiana and played college basketball and football at North Carolina State University.

Over a career that spanned 38 seasons, Sloan was named conference coach of the year five times and won the 1974 national championship at North Carolina State, his alma mater.

He was nicknamed "Stormin' Norman" due to his combative nature with the media, his players, and school administrators, and his collegiate coaching career ended in controversy when Florida's basketball program was under investigation in 1989, though Sloan claimed that he was treated unfairly.

Sloan quit the basketball team before his senior year (1950–51) due to an ongoing dispute with Case over playing time.

On the football field, he became the backup to starting quarterback Ed Mooney and appeared in most games under coach Beattie Feathers.

In 1956, Sloan was named the head coach at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina to take over a basketball program which had won a total of two games over the previous two seasons.

The Citadel posted winning seasons over the next three years and made their first appearance in the Southern Conference championship game in 1959.

His 1973 Wolfpack team was undefeated (27–0) but missed that year's NCAA tournament due to questions about the recruiting of high school phenomenon David Thompson.

His greatest teams included legendary players such as Thompson, Tommy Burleson, Moe Rivers, Tim Stoddard (who went on to pitch in Major League Baseball), Kenny Carr, and Monte Towe.

"Stormin' Norman" was as well known for his garish red-and-white plaid sports coat as he was for his ACC battles with Lefty Driesell at Maryland and Dean Smith at North Carolina.

Sloan was named head coach of the Great Britain men's national basketball team ahead of the 1980 Olympic qualifying campaign.

Sloan was personally penalized with a five-year show-cause penalty, which had the effect of blackballing him from the collegiate coaching ranks until 1995 at the earliest.

In a 1990 interview, Sloan stated his belief that UF athletic director Bill Arnsparger and other university officials "panicked" over relatively minor issues in the basketball program due to recent major violations in other sports.

According to Sloan, administrators feared being hit with a "death penalty" if another sport were to be found guilty for major violations.

[20] He died of complications related to pulmonary fibrosis on December 9, 2003, at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Conference tournament champion * NCAA appearances in 1987 and 1988 were subsequently vacated due to Vernon Maxwell being declared ineligible.