He was head coach of the University of New Mexico Lobo basketball team from 1972 to 1979, winning Western Athletic Conference championships in 1974 and 1978 and compiling an overall record of 134–62 (.684).
His former players included future National Basketball Association (NBA) defensive stand-out Michael Cooper, who helped lead the 1977–78 team that was ranked as high as No.
He served as an assistant for the Chicago Bulls of the NBA from 2000 to 2003 and then coached boys' and girls' high school basketball in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
He was an assistant for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) during the 2012–13 season before returning to high school coaching in Michigan.
[1] After a brief stint in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, he taught science and coached basketball and other sports from 1957 to 1964 at New Haven High, near the Indiana farm where he grew up.
[2][3] In 1964 Ellenberger began coaching at Monmouth College in western Illinois, where he led the football, basketball, and baseball teams at one point.
[6] Despite losing key players to graduation, the 1967–68 Lobos won the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championship and made the first NCAA tournament appearance in school history.
He became a local celebrity in Albuquerque, a restaurateur and man-about-town, earning the nickname "Stormin' Norman" for his flashy attire, fiery coaching style, and flamboyant personality.
The investigation led to a federal indictment of Ellenberger on seven counts of fraud and forgery of academic transcripts, but he was acquitted of those charges at trial.
[6][15] The NCAA investigation into the scandal found 34 violations of recruiting rules, and the Lobo program was placed on probation and banned from post-season appearances for three years.
[2][10] Another longtime friend, Bobby Knight, hired Ellenberger as his lead assistant at Indiana University, where he coached for ten seasons, from 1990 to 2000.
[20] His love of basketball led him to continue coaching, but he had a similar passion for the outdoors, regularly fishing, canoeing, and chopping wood at his lake shore cabin.