Lefty Smith passes away

[davyd83]

Former Notre Dame coach Lefty Smith, for whom their new rink is named, has passed away. I had the chance to deal with Lefty on a number of occasions, especially around the time the program was dropped and was working its way back. What a class act, a gentleman and a great ambassador for our game!

http://www.uscho.com/2012/01/04/longtime-notre-dame-coach-smith-dies/

http://www.und.com/sports/m-hockey/spec-rel/010412aaa.html

 

[goldy_331]

Re: Lefty Smith passes away

RIP. A great hockey guy. A couple of my high school classmates went to play for him.

ETA: From the Gopher Sports discussion with Coach Lucia about the upcoming game:

GS: You mentioned your coach Lefty Smith, who we just found out passed away yesterday. What can you tell us about him?

DL: He coached Doug Woog in high school and certainly knew Herb Brooks very, very well and John Mariucci and everyone associated with our program. He went to Notre Dame in 1968 and started the hockey program and built it up to being members of the WCHA. He coached there 19 years and just retired from the university on New Year's Eve. He was running the indoor football facility and was a great man and was somebody that I respected a lot and kept in close contact with over the years. I spoke with him last week and was trying to arrange tickets for a lot of his family members to come to the game on Saturday. It will be a sad day on Saturday that he will not be able to be at the game. Anybody that knew Lefty, loved him.