Best coaches of all time.

[Slasher7]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

This thread is a joke your saying the coach who JUST won the national title game is the best ever... I wonder how many times that has happened...

It's a fair thread, but considering York's track record and the fact he just hit win # 850, its much more worthy than just propping the current national champion.

All I know, is if I could have one coach in history (alive or dead) to win a college hockey game for me, Jerry York would be at the top along with Herb Brooks.

 

[Slasher7]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

A lot easier to do when your team is in an easy Eastern conference, and you always get easier and hometown eastern regionals. It isn't like BC has to go through a regional of death every year, or anything.

You may want to look up their regionals. I cant remember a time when they avoided the region of death. This year's bracket was favorable because the Sioux lost, but they've had a very tough road for the most part.

 

[HarleyMC]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

I look at the job Denver coach Murray Armstrong did in Denver by taking a fledgling program at a school with no local talent pool within 600 miles and dominating the 1960s as he did with 5 NCAA titles between 1958 and 1969. His teams beat the 1960 Gold Medal USA Olympic Team and tied the Russians, which helped put college hockey on the map as capable of producing world class non-professional teams.

He also gave overage Canadians a chance to beat up on eighteen year olds.

 

[Slasher7]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

Not sure if you actually believe this, but BC also advanced to the '99 and '00 Frozen Fours by beating:

Northern Michigan
North Dakota (#1 team in the nation)

Michigan State
Wisconsin (#1 team in the nation)

Those regionals were both at western sites.

Going back to 1998, BC is 12-2 against the CCHA and 9-3 against the WCHA for a record of 21-5 against the big bad west.

99 they beat # 1 UND (out west)
00 they beat # 1 Wisconsin (out west)
01 they beat Maine (no idea where they were ranked)
03 they beat OSU and lost to Cornell
04 they beat Michigan
05 Lost to North Dakota
06 they beat # 1 BU
07 they beat Miami
08 they beat #2 Miami (# 1 seed)
09 Missed
10 Yale

That's not bad. I remember they had to come back and beat a highly ranked MSU team in overtime in 2000 prior to beating Wisconsin.

 

[JB]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

Was BC really great before York though? You mention the 1949 title. Did that alone make BC "great" prior to Jerry York? I'm not so sure.

When I look at the big picture there was a lot more to work with at BC when York took over than at Michigan Tech when MacInnes took over or a Denver when Armstrong took over.

BC has had quite a few top level players and a named history in the past.

Cedorchuk left a mess to say the least. However it is not like BC was nothing. Ceglarski had a history of get great players and at least making the NCAAs with a few final 4s. "Snooks" Kelley was a significant coach in his own right before that with 9 final 4's and 1 title in his last 24 years (the 10 years between 1932-42 I discount as who knows what was happening then in college hockey, I don’t)

I think a reasonable equivalent in the future could be UNH. (I hope!) A future coach takes over and puts together an amazing 15 year run, but UNH was already on the map (somewhere at least) with Umile’s current run of success and Holt’s before him. Neither reached the top of the mount (like Kelley did) but there was something there before this “future coach”.

Now look at Michigan Tech, nothing before MacInnes and nothing after.

 

[Osorojo]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

Ned Harkness has to be in the discussion: 4 national titles at 2 different schools, 3 in hockey and 1 in lacrosse (RPI, 1952)! As a Cornellian, I have to think that his Cornell lacrosse teams (35-1 in his three seasons as coach) would have won a title or two if there had been a tournament (instead of a poll rife with southern snobbery).

Every school he touched (RPI, Cornell, Union) became a contender virtually overnight.

Harkness also coached an undefeated, untied Division I hockey team (1970) ,
29 - 0 - 0, something no other team or coach has equaled. (With Cropper, not Dryden, in goal.)
In 1965, the year before Harkness took over as lacrosse coach, Cornell was 4 - 7, and 12 - 20 for the three years before Harkness. In 1966 Cornell lacrosse under Harkness went 12 - 0 - 0, and 35 -1 -0 for the three years he coached Cornell lax.
Harkness' professional coaching career wasn't too successful, but as a college coach his successes and the way he turned teams around certainly puts him in contention as best all-time college hockey coach.

 

[Puck Swami]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

Harkness also coached an undefeated, untied Division I hockey team (1970) ,
29 - 0 - 0, something no other team or coach has equaled. (With Cropper, not Dryden, in goal.)

Clarskon also went undefeated at 23-0 in 1955-1956. The team was the first Clarkson team to be invited to the NCAA Championships. The Knights, however, refused to go. Clarkson had eight seniors who were four-year varsity players and under NCAA rules were ineligible. The team voted not to go without them and turned down the NCAA bid.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

So I'll take that has none... You didn't play with any or know any as close friends.. Any of them go to your wedding? No, I didn't think so... Of course not everyone hated him, but most do... He's an *******.

you got me... 40+ and stick to the golf course. no hockey for me, no hockey dressing rooms shooting the **** about old times and old coaches.

so are you 29-36? still play in the AHL? ECHL? cool.
i'm guessing not the NHL... but you may. i'm not one to assume.

 

[Timmah!]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

I started reading this thread, but then I got bored. I nominate Gordon Bombay as the greatest coach in the history of hockey. He took a District 5 team with no discipline, and turned them into champions, defeating Iceland in a shoot out thriller to win the Junior Goodwill Games.

I don't have any worthwhile data or facts to support my claims, but neither does anyone else in this stupid thread...

 

[Osorojo]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

Clarskon also went undefeated at 23-0 in 1955-1956. The team was the first Clarkson team to be invited to the NCAA Championships. The Knights, however, refused to go. Clarkson had eight seniors who were four-year varsity players and under NCAA rules were ineligible. The team voted not to go without them and turned down the NCAA bid.

Clarkson has had a successful program for a long time, and their 23-0 run was a beauty. The 29-0 Cornell team under Harkness, however, finished their season by defeating the top teams from leagues across the nation.

 

[blockski]

Re: Best coaches of all time.

That's like saying Jimmy Johnson is the greatest college football coach.

Well, the thread title just says best coach, not best college-only coach.

And, when looking at the best overall coaches with significant service time in the college ranks, guys like Bob Johnson and Herb Brooks will be much higher on the list. Those two are not just great college coaches, but pillars of American hockey.