Joe Cipriano (basketball)

At the time of his retirement, he was far and away the winningest basketball coach in Nebraska history, with 168 more wins than any previous head coach, and one-fifth of the Cornhuskers' all-time wins in 83 years of play. He led the Huskers to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1967, the first postseason appearance in school history, with additional invites in 1978 and 1980. In his third year at Lincoln, the 1965–66 Huskers tallied the program's first 20-win season, runner-up to fourth-ranked Kansas (13–1) in the Big Eight at 12–2, handing the Jayhawks their sole conference loss, but did not garner a postseason bid. During this era, only the conference champion was guaranteed a berth in the 22-team NCAA Tournament, and the NIT invited only fourteen.

At the time of his retirement, he was far and away the winningest basketball coach in Nebraska history, with 168 more wins than any previous head coach, and one-fifth of the Cornhuskers' all-time wins in 83 years of play. He led the Huskers to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1967, the first postseason appearance in school history, with additional invites in 1978 and 1980. In his third year at Lincoln, the 1965–66 Huskers tallied the program's first 20-win season, runner-up to fourth-ranked Kansas (13–1) in the Big Eight at 12–2, handing the Jayhawks their sole conference loss, but did not garner a postseason bid.

Nebraska

In March 1963, Cipriano became the head coach at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, hired by his former mentor, Tippy Dye, who became the NU athletic director a year earlier (and hired head football coach Bob Devaney). Cipriano ran the Big Eight basketball program for over 17 years, until he lost his 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer in Lincoln in November 1980 at age 49. He compiled a record of 254–196 (.564) with the Huskers.