A three-time First Team All-Ivy honoree, Mike Cingiser graduated as Brown’s leading scorer and still ranks eighth in Bear history with 1,331 career points. While in school, Cingiser helped the United States to a gold medal at the 1961 Maccabiah Games alongside Larry Brown, who would go on to become the only coach to win both an NCAA national championship and National Basketball Association (NBA) title.
 
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Brown University in 1962, Cingiser was selected in the ninth round of the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft by the Boston Celtics, but instead chose to coach and teach. He spent 11 years as head coach and English teacher at Lynbrook Long Island High School—winning two Long Island South Shore championships and twice being named Long Island Coach of the Year—and two years at Hofstra University as an assistant coach—winning back-to-back East Coast Conference championships and appearing in two NCAA Tournaments.
 
Cingiser returned to his alma mater in 1981 and coached the Bears for 10 seasons, the second-longest tenure in program history behind his own head coach L. Stanley Ward. Paramount among Cingiser’s accomplishments as head coach in Providence was leading the Bears to their lone Ivy League championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1985-86.