Hall of Fame
Norman P. Mitby served as District Director at MATC from 1960 through June of 1988 and is well known for the leadership he provided to our district through those years. You may be unaware of his many efforts to support athletics at our college. If one person could be singled out as having the greatest impact on the development of our athletic program at MATC it would be Mr. Mitby
Mr. Mitby decided early in his career to initate a sports program at MATC. In 1965 he hired an Athletic Director and Basketball Coach. The athletic program grew from one sport in 1965 to the present program which supports seventeen mens and womens teams.
The MATC athletes have been able to practice and compete in beautiful new facilities at the Truax site. It was not always that way. For many years basketball and other sports were played in the old downtown campus, where the court was 73 feet long, the floor had dead spots, and where a great time had shooting the basketball through the steal support beams which hovered over the baskets.
Not only did Mr. Mitby support the establishment of new programs for men and women, but he actively lobbied for construction of quality athletics and physical education facilities at the new campus. The support of the program by Mr. Mitby and the board members he served resulted in the construction of one of the finest two-year physical education and sports facilities in the Midwest.
However, the athletic program owes more to Mr. Mitby than bricks and mortar. He was a staunch supporter at events, a tough administrator who permitted no rules to be broken or the integrity of the institution to be questioned or compromised. For his support of athletics among state technical colleges, he was chosen in 1984 to receive the Sportsperson of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Technical College Conference.
Mr. Mitby is a great friend of our institution; for what he has done for all of the athletes from the past and for all of the athletes in the future, we thank him.
