| 1977 | Eddie Hickey, Creighton/St. Louis/Marquette |
| 1978 | Glen Rose, Arkansas |
| 1979 | Not Awarded |
| 1980 | Not Awarded |
| 1981 | Harry Litwack, Temple |
| 1982 | Jack Gardner, Kansas State/Utah |
| 1983 | Ozzie Cowles, Dartmouth/Michigan/Minnesota |
| 1984 | John Wooden, Indiana State/UCLA |
| 1985 | Everett Dean, Carleton/Indiana/Stanford |
| 1986 | Tony Hinkle, Butler |
| 1987 | Howard Hobson, Southern Oregon/Oregon/Yale |
| 1988 | Hank Iba, NW Missouri State/Colorado/Oklahoma State |
| 1989 | Frank McGuire, St. John's/North Carolina/South Carolina |
| 1990 | Stan Watts, Brigham Young |
| 1991 | Pete Newell, San Francisco/California/Michigan State |
| 1992 | Ray Meyer, DePaul |
| 1993 | Clarence Gaines, Winston-Salem State |
| 1994 | Ben Carnevale, North Carolina/Navy |
| 1995 | Marv Harshman, Pacific Lutheran/Washington State/Washington |
| 1996 | Ray Mears, Wittenberg/Tennessee |
| 1997 | Ralph Miller, Wichita State/Iowa/Oregon State |
| 1998 | Guy Lewis, Houston |
| 1999 | Tex Winter, Marquette/Kansas State/Washington/Northwestern/Long Beach State |
| 2000 | Johnny Orr, Massachusetts/Michigan/Iowa State |
| 2001 | Jud Heathcote, Montana/Michigan State |
| 2002 | Abe Lemons, Oklahoma City/Pan American/Texas |
| 2003 | Lefty Driesell, Davidson/Maryland/James Madison/Georgia State |
| 2004 | Don Haskins, University of Texas-El Paso |
| 2005 | Joe Vancisin, Yale University and NABC |
| 2006 | Jim Phelan, Mount St. Mary's College |
| 2007 | John Chaney, Temple University |
| 2008 | Lou Henson, New Mexico State University, University of Illinois |
| 2009 | Dale Brown, Louisiana State University |