Steve Belko Basketball

In 1950, Belko was hired as the head basketball coach at Idaho State College in Pocatello. His Bengals soon dominated the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and made the NCAA tournament in four consecutive seasons (1953–56). The NCAA tournament field varied from 22 to 25 teams in the mid-1950s.
Belko’s six-season record at Idaho State was 109–51 (.681), and he was named the conference coach of the year three times. The Bengals’ conference record in his last four seasons was 39–3 (.929). This success led to his hiring in June 1956 at Oregon, then a member of the Pacific Coast Conference.