By Donna Cornelius
Most basketball fans would feel right at home in Martin Newton’s house – especially in the pool room.
Framed jerseys signed by the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman fill one wall. Opposite them are jerseys from championship college basketball teams.
At one end of the mantel is the basketball presented to Newton’s father, C.M. Newton, when the former University of Alabama basketball coach and University of Kentucky athletics director was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. At the other end is a Converse tennis shoe autographed by Dr. J – NBA star Julius Erving.
A cartoon for C.M. Newton’s TV show, “Newton’s Laws,” hangs with a photo of the scene after the UA basketball team beat UK for the first time. C.M. Newton is riding high on his players’ shoulders, and the happy little boy in the right side of the shot is Martin.
All these things have special significance for Newton. They represent stages of his career, which includes his years working for Converse and Nike and then as UK’s director of basketball operations.
But it’s the people who live in and visit the Currie Way house who mean the most to the personable Newton.
He and his wife, Cindy, have three children: Katie Newton Champion, a nurse at Brookwood Medical Center; Madison Newton, who owns a Pure Barre in Oxford, Miss.; and Charles Martin Newton III, called “Newty,” an assistant basketball coach at Samford.
Two grandchildren – Newty’s son, Charlie, formally Charles Martin Newton IV, who’s almost 4; and Katie’s son, 2-year-old Sawyer – are the most welcome guests.
“We love spending time with our grandbabies,” Newton said.
Add to the mix a steady stream of Samford student-athletes and a friendly dog named Sammy, and you’ll see why the Newtons almost always have a full house.
“This house actually belongs to Samford,” Newton said. “It works out great because it’s right next to the school. A lot of times I walk to work. The new dorms are close by, and the student-athletes can come over and play pool and watch TV.”
Newton became Samford’s AD in 2011. Taking the job was a homecoming for him; he’s a 1983 Samford graduate.
“I went from second grade through high school in Tuscaloosa,” Newton said. “I was in the last class of Black Bears at Tuscaloosa High School before it became Central High School.”
He played basketball in high school and earned a scholarship to Samford.
“My claim to fame is that I was the point guard for our two all-time leading scorers,” he said with a grin.
Newton said Tuscaloosa was a wonderful place to grow up.
“My greatest memories as a kid were being at the University of Alabama all the time and going to football games and to basketball games at Memorial Coliseum,” he said. “We’d walk to football games and sell Cokes and programs. On Saturdays, my dad and I would go to Krispy Kreme in the morning and then to basketball practice.”
Newton has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Samford.
“I got a degree in finance because I wanted to coach and wanted to be able to manage money,” he said.
C.M. Newton wasn’t keen on the idea of his son becoming a coach, and Martin Newton decided to enter the business world.
“Joe Dean Sr. gave me my first job at Converse,” he said. “I went to work for them and was able to marry my love for sports and shoes. I did a commercial for Converse when I was 12. They couldn’t pay me, so they gave me shoes.”
When he and Cindy, a Tuscaloosa native, married, they lived in Homewood “about two miles from where we live now,” he said.
“We lived on Edgewood Avenue,” Newton said. “All three of our kids were born when we lived in Homewood.”
The family moved to Atlanta and then to Lexington, Ky., when Newton’s father was UK’s athletics director and his mother, Evelyn Newton, became ill.
“We wanted to get the kids near my mother when she got sick,” he said.
Evelyn Newton died in 2000 after a long battle with cancer.
After working at Converse, Newton was with Nike for 13 years, he said.
“I traveled while we lived in Lexington,” he said. “I started out doing pro basketball sports marketing.”
That gave him some up-close-and-personal encounters with NBA stars – one of which was a little too personal.
“When the kids were little, we went to the Berto Center where the Chicago Bulls practiced,” Newton said. “They’d gotten autographs from Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman and were waiting on Michael Jordan to come out.
“He steps around the corner – and he has no clothes on,” Newton said, laughing. “He yelled, and I clapped my hand over Katie’s eyes.”
The extensive traveling that came with the Nike job grew wearing, he said.
“I started helping athletic directors hire coaches,” Newton said. “I helped John Calipari get the job at UK.”
Calipari, who became the Wildcats’ head basketball coach in 2009, hired Newton as director of basketball operations.
“I spent two years there,” Newton said. “We had a chance to build up the program when it was down. That first year, 2009, we were ranked No. 1 for most of the year. The next year, we went to the Final Four.
“Then Samford called to see if I was interested in the AD’s job. It felt like home. I left the Final Four and came here for my new job. The memories I had and the lessons I learned at Samford drew me back.”
Newton said the best thing about his job is “the student-athletes and learning from them.”
“They keep you young. They come in as 18-year-old freshmen who often don’t have a clue and leave as adults. Sports are important, and we’re competitive, but these kids are here primarily to get an education.”
Newton said he and Cindy enjoy living in Homewood.
“Samford is in Homewood, and it’s important for us to be a part of this community,” he said. “There are great people and great schools here.”
His house’s proximity to the Samford campus provides not only convenience but – on at least one occasion – entertainment.
“Samford was playing a baseball game, and it went on and on,” Newton said. “I had come home and was watching the game on TV. The announcers were saying that this game had had everything happen.
“My son’s dog, Fisher, was in our backyard. We didn’t know it, but he’d gotten out of the fence. All of a sudden I hear the announcers say, ‘Now we really have seen everything – there’s a dog in centerfield.’”
Since Newton took over as the Samford AD, the school’s teams have won 11 Southern Conference titles, and a new softball stadium and baseball/softball indoor hitting facility have been built.
Newton also negotiated a schoolwide footwear and apparel deal with Nike. The Samford athletics department has had a significant increase in corporate sales during his tenure, according to the Samford website.
Newton was named to the NCAA Leadership Cabinet for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.
“I served on the council at a pivotal time,” he said. “We were helping to figure out ways to transition through the NCAA’s new governance system. It was interesting, but very time-consuming.”
Newton’s job as AD is a demanding one.
“Samford has 17 sports, and the seasons run from late August to June,” he said. “I think it’s important to go to as many games as I can. You want to be there for the kids.”
When he does have free time, he likes playing golf at Greystone Golf and Country Club and spending time with his family at their home in Sandestin, Florida.
“I love to fish – I have a bass boat – and took Charlie with me for the first time last weekend,” Newton said. “He came home covered in mud from head to toe.”
He considers himself a fortunate man because he has a job he loves and a close family.
For a look inside Birmingham Southern’s Joe Dean Jr.‘s home, follow the link!
