Norman Bailey, who rose from Hartford’s playgrounds to a notable career with UConn’s early Big East teams, has died, a UConn spokesperson confirmed. He was 61 years old.
Bailey, who played at Northwest Catholic-West Hartford and at UConn from 1980-83, was 6 feet 5, but remembered for his ability to rise above taller players and dunk the ball at a time when that was not commonplace. During his freshman year, he got loose on a fast break for a throw-down against Villanova in a game in Hartford on Feb. 23, 1981, a play ESPN commentators later called the “dunk of the year.”
He began playing as a youth in Hartford’s Keney Park, then at Northwest Catholic, where he was an all-stater, leading his team to three conference championships, a state semifinal and a state championship game during the late 1970s. Bailey chose to go to UConn, which had just joined the new Big East Conference and play for coach Dom Perno.
In three seasons, Bailey played in 68 games, scoring 552 points, 8.1 per game, with 3.5 rebounds. He went on to play professionally in Europe. He lived most of his life in Connecticut, and frequently attended UConn games. In 2015, he was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.
After his playing days, Bailey worked with youth in the Hartford as a detention officer, and as a supervisor for Community Solutions and with the Connecticut Job Corp. in New Haven. Funeral arrangements are to be determined.
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