Mike Cingiser, star basketball player at West Hempstead HS who played and coached at Brown, dies at 84
Mike Cingiser as a basketball coach at Brown Credit: Brown Athletics
Mike Cingiser excelled at everything he did.
He was a star basketball player at West Hempstead High School and Brown University. He would go on to become a successful coach at Lynbrook High School, where he taught English, and at his college alma mater, where he took the team to its last NCAA Tournament bid in 1986.
But above all, he was a genuine family man.
“He loved his family,” said Lisa DiPippo, Cingiser’s daughter and one of four children. “I always think, so many people knew him as a coach and a teacher and everything, and they have that image of him. He’s just my dad. So when I hear stories that people tell about him as a coach and a teacher, I’m like, ‘Oh that’s awesome,’ but he’s my dad. He treasured his family.' ”
Cingiser died in hospice care in Boynton Beach, Florida, on Dec. 18, his family said. He was 84.
“Family was everything to Mike,” said Jim Turner, 60, of New Jersey, who went to Sewanhaka High School and played for Cingiser at Brown. “His wife would come along [on road trips] sometimes, his daughters, his son, David … You got to see him as a person, not just as this authority-figure coach.
“And you knew that his love for his family was similar to his love for his team.”
Cingiser was born in Manhattan on Sept. 23, 1940, and his family later moved to West Hempstead.
He had a storied basketball career at West Hempstead, graduating as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,185 points. Cingiser led the Rams to the 1957 Nassau title as a junior, scoring a then-playoff record 38 points in the semifinals and 24 in the championship to be named tournament MVP.
“I’m 82, he’s one of those in the annals of Nassau County basketball who’s been lost, his greatness has been lost,” said Mike Candel, a longtime friend of Cingiser and former Newsday sportswriter and Nassau Community College basketball and lacrosse coach.
Mike Cingiser played for Brown from 1959-62. Credit: Brown Athletics
“People remember Larry Brown, for obvious reasons. People remember Art Heyman, he was a National Player of the Year, but they forget Mike. And the three of them were [teammates] on the U.S. Maccabi team that won the gold medal [in 1961].”
As a senior, Cingiser received the Carl Molusky Award as the South Shore Athletic League’s top player. He was an honorable-mention all-county baseball player and a first singles tennis player.
Cingiser played at Brown from 1959-62, earning first-team All-Ivy League honors in all three seasons. He graduated as Brown’s all-time leading scorer (1,331 points) and still ranks ninth despite being able to play only three varsity seasons.
“He’s revered,” said longtime Brown radio commentator Russ Tyler, 74, of Connecticut. “He probably is more highly thought of than anybody.”
Selected by the Boston Celtics in the ninth round of the 1962 NBA Draft, Cingiser opted to teach and coach. He graduated from Brown in 1962 with a degree in English Literature.
Cingiser coached 12 years at Lynbrook, winning six league titles and advancing to the county championship twice in an era where only one county champion was crowned. He also coached boys tennis, winning 10 league titles in 10 seasons. Cingiser was inducted into the Nassau County High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.
Brown passed on Cingiser to be its basketball coach multiple times, according to Candel. He was hired ahead of the 1981-82 season but was initially reluctant to take the interview.
“‘You’ve been complaining to me for 10 years and telling me all the things that they do wrong up there and why they’re a doormat,’” Candel recalled telling Cingiser. “I said, ‘Do me a favor, since you don’t think you’re getting the job, go up there and tell them what you think.’ ”
Cingiser coached for 10 years at Brown, leading it to the 1986 Ivy League title and an NCAA Tournament bid. He is the most recent coach to bring Brown to the NCAA Tournament and is in the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame.
“Mike was really easy to deal with individually,” said Mike Waitkus, 60, of Chicago, who was part of Cingiser’s first recruiting class with Turner. “He was stern when he had to be. He defended his players to the end.”
No official funeral is set, though the Cingisers plan for a family service in February. Brown will celebrate Cingiser’s life ahead of its Feb. 15 home game against Penn.
In addition to DiPippo, Cingiser is survived by his wife of 62 years, Marjan, a daughter, Karen, a son, David, and six grandchildren. He is pre-deceased by a daughter, Nicole.
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
