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The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

I'll keep accepting entries into the contest up until #10 is announced. At this point, I think that will happen at some point this evening.
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

#10 - Shawn Walsh
Coached at Maine from 1984-2001
Shawn Walsh comes in at #10. Walsh is the Godfather of the Maine program, leading them from their infancy to national power. He was able to establish an aura around the Maine program that made it almost impossible to play in Orono. Walsh was tutored by the great Ron Mason at Bowling Green, and then Michigan State. In 1984, Maine came calling, and Walsh took over the Blackbear program. Maine was a program with no history, and little early success. Walsh changed that. In only his third season, Walsh led the Blackbears to their first winning season, and their first trip to the NCAA Tournament. The following year, Walsh had the Blackbears in the Frozen Four and the first 30+ winning season in Maine history. He did the same in '89 and '91, and by the '92-'93 season had the Blackbears primed for a great run. In that season, Walsh led the Blackbears to the greatest season in modern college hockey history. Maine went 42-1-2 on their way to the programs 4th Frozen Four, and first ever National Championship. Paul Kariya would win the Hobey Baker that season as well, although teammate Jim Montgomery was just as deserving. In '95 Maine made another run to the championship game, but was beaten by Jack Parker's Boston University squad. The following season would be difficult for Walsh. Maine would suspend Walsh midseason, and took away several program wins from previous seasons, and would limit the number of scholarships that Maine could use for hockey. Walsh came back during the 1996-1997 season, and began getting the Blackbears on the right track. By the 1998-1999 season, and still under scholarship restriction, Maine was again on their way to another Frozen Four, and in Anaheim, Maine beat rival New Hampshire in OT to win the Blackbears second National Championship. In 2000, Maine was back in the Frozen Four, but lost in the semifinal 2-0 to eventual Champion North Dakota. That summer, Walsh was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma. He coached the 2000-2001 season, and led the Blackbears to the NCAA Tournament despite the difficult circumstances. Unfortunately that would be Walsh's last season. Shawn Walsh passed away on September 26th, 2001. In his 17 seasons at Maine, Walsh led the Blackbears to 11 NCAA Tournaments, 7 Frozen Fours, 3 Title game appearances and 2 National Championships. He coached 2 Hobey Baker winners, and won nearly 400 games. The greatest coach in Maine's history, Walsh's time was cut too short. He was only 46 at the time of his death, and one wonders where the Maine program would be if Walsh was still around. As it is, Shawn Walsh comes in at #10.

Points: 166.14
 
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Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

I'll forfeit #10, and I know I'm too late, but would predict anyway:
1 Parker
2 Armstrong
3 Heyliger
4 York
5 Macinnes
6 Berenson
7 Mason
8 Harkness
9 Gasparini
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

Interesting now that we are getting to some coaches who have had some troubles with the NCAA.

Question - Should playing by the rules and graduating your players be part of the formula to determine the greatest coaches of all time?
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

bothman said:
Interesting now that we are getting to some coaches who have had some troubles with the NCAA.

Question - Should playing by the rules and graduating your players be part of the formula to determine the greatest coaches of all time?
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I really think graduating players SHOULD be a part of the formula, but finding uniform data for all the coaches was basically impossible. If you know of a database that has that, I would love to see it and use it in this formula.
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

#9 - Gino Gasparini
Coached at North Dakota from 1978-1994
Gino Gasparini comes in at #9. When John "Gino" Gasparini took over the North Dakota program, he took over a program that had great tradition and history, but had very little success. That changed immediately when Gasparini took over. In his first season, Gasparini led the Sioux to a MacNaughton Cup, and a Frozen Four. The Sioux would advance to the title game, but lost to rival Minnesota 4-3. His second season would see redemption. Once again, Gasparini led North Dakota to another MacNaughton Cup, and again, the Sioux were at the Frozen Four. The Sioux again advanced to the National Title game, and this time Gasparini took the Sioux to the mountain top. North Dakota defeated Northern Michigan to earn the school's third National Championship, and their first in 17 years. Gasparini again led the Sioux to the MacNaughton Cup and Frozen Four in his fourth year in '82. The Sioux again advanced to the National Title game, this time against Wisconsin. Previously this year, the Sioux and Wisconsin played the infamous "Water Bottle" game. This tilt, North Dakota defeated the Badgers, giving Gino his 2nd National Championship, and the Sioux their 4th overall. The following season, Grand Forks was set to hold the Frozen Four on their home ice, and the Sioux were expected to be a contender to be there. Despite a 2nd place finish in the WCHA, and a .611 winning percentage, North Dakota was left out of the NCAA picture. Gino regrouped the team in '84, and led North Dakota to the Frozen Four once again. Unfortunately, they ran into the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, and would settle for 3rd. North Dakota would wait until the 1986-1987 season to return to the Frozen Four. This team, known as the Hrkac Circus for top player Tony Hrkac, stormed through the second half of their schedule, on their way to the Frozen Four. Gino would lead the Sioux to the title game against defending champion Michigan State in Detroit. The Spartans proved outmatched against the Sioux, and North Dakota would win their fifth title overall, and Gasparini's third. Gasparini had several strong squads after this, but would never return to the Frozen Four. His last NCAA Tournament appearance would be in 1990, where UND lost to BU in a best of 3 games series 2 games to 1. In the 1991-1992 season, Gino would suffer his first ever losing campaign. Unfortunately, Gasparini would have losing seasons in the '92-'93 campaign and his final season in '93-'94. Gasparini retired, and gave the program over to Dean Blais. Gasparini eventually went on to become the USHL commissioner/president, and helped grow that league into what it is today as a feeder of talent to college hockey programs. All together, Gasparinin coached 16 seasons, 13 20+ win seasons, 6 NCAA Tournaments, 5 Frozen Fours, 4 Title Games and 3 National Championships. He is one of two coaches to coach a 40+ win team (Shawn Walsh), and one of only 9 coaches to win 3 National Titles. His 15-4 NCAA Tournament record is the third best among coaches on this list. As it stands, Gasparini is the greatest coach ever in Fighting Sioux Hockey history, and #9 overall.

Points: 179.01
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

Dmann said:
What happened in the infamous "water bottle" game?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G-FTg419NM

or you can try this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgr6p8L4emY&NR=1

Other people will be able to give you better specifics, but the way I understand it, is that a Wisconsin player (Newberry?) squirted Cary Eades with a water bottle from the bench. Eades basically flipped out (North Dakota was down 0-3) and stormed the bench. As you can see from watching the videos, it led to utter chaos. Badger Bob even went out on the ice to try to calm things down...Wisconsin started throwing North Dakota's stuff (gloves, sticks etc.) into the crowd. This of course was a time when North Dakota and Wisconsin were the two best teams in College Hockey with UND winning it all in '80 and '82 (beating Wisconsin) and Wisconsin winning in '81 and '83 (in Grand Forks).

These two teams would meet for the National Championship that year ('82) with North Dakota coming out on top.
 
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Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

Fighting Sioux 23 said:
I thought about this before coming up with the formula. It is doable, but very difficult to get an accurate tree. Do we remember who Emil Iverson's assistants were? Were they assistants elsewhere before coming to Minnesota? Is it just assistants that we look at, or do we also look at players they coached that ultimately became coaches? We could probably get some incomplete trees for a lot of the coaches, but I don't know how comfortable I would be with including incomplete trees in the formula.

It would be fun to do just to see some of the trees though.
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There is a thread (from last year) on the Six Degrees of Jack Parker.
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

joecct said:
Hey, even USCHO has it...

1975-76 Bill Rothwell WCHA I 12-24-2 .342
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You missed what I was saying...Bob Johnson coached Wisconsin for the 1974-1975 season and the 1976-1977 season...there for Bob Johnson was the coach at Wisconsin every "year" from 1966-1982...I said year not season. ;)
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

joecct said:
Didn't he take a year off to coach the Olympic team (IIRC Wisconsin was <.500 that season and maybe last place WCHA)???
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Correct. If you noticed in my writeup about Badger Bob, I mentioned that he only coached 15 seasons at Wisconsin, but I didn't talk about how he took a year off. I suppose I should have been more accurate in saying that he was the Head Coach at Wisconsin from 1966-1975, 1976-1982. FWIW, nothing about the '75-'76 season was counted for Badger Bob.

Wisconsin finished tied for last in '75-'76 with North Dakota, Denver and Minnesota-Duluth. I believe that is the only 4-way tie in WCHA history.
 
Re: The Greatest Coaches of All-Time

Fighting Sioux 23 said:
Correct. If you noticed in my writeup about Badger Bob, I mentioned that he only coached 15 seasons at Wisconsin, but I didn't talk about how he took a year off. I suppose I should have been more accurate in saying that he was the Head Coach at Wisconsin from 1966-1975, 1976-1982. FWIW, nothing about the '75-'76 season was counted for Badger Bob.

Wisconsin finished tied for last in '75-'76 with North Dakota, Denver and Minnesota-Duluth. I believe that is the only 4-way tie in WCHA history.
Click to expand...
I thought we were gonna get one a day here? :p
 
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