Many Nebraska fans probably don’t know who Tippy Dye was, but they should.
The former Husker athletic director, who died Wednesday at age 97, hired Bob Devaney to coach NU football in 1962 and Joe Cipriano to take over men’s basketball in 1963. Those proved to be two of the best hires in school history.
Dye was an All-Big Ten football and basketball player at Ohio State in the 1930s. He later coached basketball, leading Washington to its only Final Four appearance in 1953. After stops at Nebraska and Northwestern as athletic director, Dye retired in 1974.
