Norman Sterry

Norman Sedgwick Sterry (July 8, 1878 – February 3, 1971) was an American lawyer and college football player. He represented movie stars and prominent persons as a lawyer in Los Angeles and successfully represented Major League Baseball in the case that resulted in the United States Supreme Court's exemption of baseball from the antitrust laws. As a law student at the University of Michigan, Sterry played at the halfback and end positions on the Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1900 to 1902.

Early years Sterry was born in Emporia, Kansas in 1878, the son of Clinton Norman Sterry (1843–1903) and Lousie Augusta Slocum. He was educated in the public schools in Kansas.

Sterry received his further education at Meaney's Private School for Boys and the University of New Mexico.

University of Michigan In 1900, Sterry enrolled in the Law Department at the University of Michigan and received his law degree in 1903. While at Michigan, Sterry played at the halfback and end positions on the Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1900 to 1902. He was a member of Fielding H. Yost's 1901 and 1902 "Point-a-Minute" football teams that compiled a 22–0 record and outscored opponents 1,197 to 12.

Sterry's father died in May 1903, the same month Sterry was admitted to the Michigan bar.

In the mid-1930s, Sterry also gained national attention for a suit in which he alleged silent film star Mary Miles Minter had been systematically cheated out of her earnings by her mother. Sterry alleged that Minter had earned over $1 million, but she did not have lunch money and was left impoverished by the mother. The case was ultimately settled in the middle of the proceedings.

Sterry also represented dime-store heiress Barbara Hutton in a child custody dispute with her former husband Cary Grant in the 1940s.

In 1953, Sterry, then a senior partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, successfully represented the New Yankees in a case before the United States Supreme Court, Toolson v. New York Yankees, 346 U.S. 356, which upheld an exemption from the antitrust laws for Major League Baseball.

Family and death In 1909, Sterry married Josephine Lewis. At the time of the 1910 United States census, Sterry and his wife lived in Los Angeles with Sterry's mother, Louise, and his three siblings.

Sterry and his wife had a daughter, Louisa, and a son, Lewis Trask Sterry. At the time of the 1920 United States census, Sterry was living in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. At the time of the 1930 United States census, Sterry lived on South Rossmore Street in Los Angeles with his wife, two children, and two servants.

He died in February 1971 at age 92.