John P. Riley Jr.
John Patrick "Jack" Riley (June 15, 1920 – February 3, 2016) was an American ice hockey player and coach. The hockey coach at West Point for more than 35 years, Riley coached the United States to the gold medal at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics, during which he cut future Olympic coach Herb Brooks at the last minute. He played for the U.S. Olympic team at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics.
Biographical details | |
---|---|
Born | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | June 15, 1920
Died | February 3, 2016 95) Sandwich, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged
Playing career | |
1940–1942 | Dartmouth |
1946–1947 | Dartmouth |
1947–1949 | US National Team |
1949–1950 | Boston Olympics |
Position(s) | Left Wing |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
1950–1986 | Army |
1959–1960 | US National Team |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 542–343–20 (.610) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
1960 Olympic Gold Medal | |
Awards | |
1957 Spencer Penrose Award 1960 Spencer Penrose Award 1979 US Hockey Hall of Fame 1986 Lester Patrick Award 1998 International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame 2002 Lester Patrick Award 2004 Army Sports Hall of Fame |
Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Men's Ice hockey | ||
Representing the | ||
World Championships | ||
1949 Sweden | ||
Olympics | ||
1960 Squaw Valley |
Biography
Riley was born in Boston in 1920[1][2] and raised in Medford, Massachusetts. He played prep-school hockey at Tabor Academy and was graduated in 1939. He played college hockey at Dartmouth College (1940–1942 and 1946–47) as well as for the U.S. Naval Air Corps (1942–1946). In 1948 he was part of an American team that was disqualified as two rival teams arrived for the Americans at the St. Moritz Olympics. (See Ice hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics.) He was then player-coach of the national team at the 1949 IIHF World Championship.
Riley began his Army coaching career in 1950, remaining the Cadets' head coach through 1986. During his tenure, he twice won the Spencer Penrose Award for NCAA Coach of the Year. He was replaced by one of his sons, Rob Riley in 1986. Another son, Brian Riley, took over the job from Rob in 2004. Rob's son Brett was named as the inaugural head coach at Long Island University in 2020.[3]
Riley's Americans surprised the hockey world going undefeated in winning the country's first Olympic gold medal and second ever.
Riley was inducted in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979, and the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998. He is a two-time winner of the Lester Patrick Trophy, in 1986 (as a coach) and 2002 (as a member of the Olympic gold medal-winning United States hockey team of 1960).
In the 1960s, Riley ran the Eastern Hockey Clinic (a hockey camp for high school-age players) in Worcester, Massachusetts. The camp had many NHL players as coaches, including John Ferguson, Tommy Williams (the only American NHL player at the time), Jean Ratelle, and Charlie Hodge. He died on February 3, 2016 at a retirement home in Sandwich, Massachusetts.[1][4]
Head coaching record
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Army Cadets[lower-alpha 1] (University Division Independent[lower-alpha 2]) (1950–1961) | |||||||||
1950-51 | Army | 2-10-1 | |||||||
1951-52 | Army | 3-12-0 | |||||||
1952-53 | Army | 8-8-0 | |||||||
1953-54 | Army | 10-7-0 | |||||||
1954-55 | Army | 8-8-0 | |||||||
1955-56 | Army | 11-5-0 | |||||||
1956-57 | Army | 14-4-0 | |||||||
1957-58 | Army | 15-4-1 | |||||||
1958-59 | Army | 9-10-1 | |||||||
1959-60 | Army | 16-5-1 | |||||||
1960-61 | Army | 17-8-0 | |||||||
Army: | 113-81-4 | ||||||||
Army Cadets[lower-alpha 1] (ECAC Hockey) (1961–1973) | |||||||||
1961-62 | Army | 17-6-1 | 14-4-1 | 5th | ECAC Quarterfinals | ||||
1962-63 | Army | 17-6-2 | 12-4-2 | 6th | ECAC Quarterfinals | ||||
1963-64 | Army | 20-8-0 | 17-4-0 | 2nd | ECAC Quarterfinals | ||||
1964-65[lower-alpha 3] | Army | 17-7-0 | 3-7-0 | 12th | |||||
1965-66 | Army | 17-7-1 | 3-6-1 | 11th | |||||
1966-67 | Army | 15-12-0 | 4-6-0 | 10th | |||||
1967-68 | Army | 14-10-0 | 5-7-0 | 12th | |||||
1968-69 | Army | 20-7-1 | 4-6-1 | 10th | |||||
1969-70 | Army | 13-12-0 | 5-8-0 | 11th | |||||
1970-71 | Army | 8-14-1 | 3-7-1 | 11th | |||||
1971-72 | Army | 11-14-0 | 1-9-0 | 17th | |||||
1972-73 | Army | 9-17-1 | 1-9-0 | 17th | |||||
Army: | 178-120-7 | 72-77-6 | |||||||
Army Cadets (ECAC 2) (1973–1980) | |||||||||
1973-74[lower-alpha 4] | Army | 20-7-1 | |||||||
1974-75 | Army | 18-11-0 | |||||||
1975-76 | Army | 18-9-1 | |||||||
1976-77 | Army | 22-6-1 | |||||||
1977-78 | Army | 13-12-1 | |||||||
1978-79 | Army | 7-21-0 | |||||||
1979-80 | Army | 19-12-1 | |||||||
Army: | 117-78-5 | ||||||||
Army Cadets (ECAC Hockey) (1980–1986) | |||||||||
1980-81[lower-alpha 5] | Army | 21-13-1 | [lower-alpha 6] | [lower-alpha 6] | |||||
1981-82 | Army | 25-11-0 | [lower-alpha 6] | [lower-alpha 6] | |||||
1982-83 | Army | 25-11-1 | [lower-alpha 6] | [lower-alpha 6] | |||||
1983-84 | Army | 28-5-1 | [lower-alpha 6] | [lower-alpha 6] | |||||
1984-85 | Army | 17-13-0 | 0-11-0 | 12th | |||||
1985-86 | Army | 18-11-1 | 2-9-0 | 11th | |||||
Army: | 134-64-4 | 2-20-0 | |||||||
Total: | 542-343-20 | ||||||||
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
|
- Army now uses Black Knights as its primary athletic nickname, although "Cadets" is still acceptable.
- The NCAA did not split into divisions until the 1956–57 school year. At that time, it established the University Division, the precursor to today's Division I, and the College Division, itself split in 1973 to create today's Divisions II and III. Army became a University Division member at the time of the original split.
- Following the 1963–64 season, the ECAC split its hockey league into two divisions, with the primary ECAC league continuing in the University Division and its second level, known as ECAC 2, becoming the sport's first College Division conference. Army remained in the ECAC top flight through the 1972–73 season.
- With the establishment of the NCAA's current three-division setup in 1973, Army chose to move to Division II hockey, while remaining in Division I for most other sports.
- Army returned to D-I hockey in 1980, and has remained at that level ever since.
- While Army had been readmitted to the ECAC top flight, it did not play a conference schedule until the 1984–85 season.[5]
References
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/02/03/jack-riley-who-coached-hockey-team-gold-dies/otgDTneWWuz8Uw34jsGz6J/story.html
- Many sources give 1922 as a year of birth, but 1920 is backed by the Society for International Hockey Research and the U.S. Public Records Index
- "Riley Announced as Inaugural Head Coach of Men's Hockey at LIU" (Press release). LIU Sharks. May 27, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- http://www.dartmouthsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=11600&ATCLID=210684565
- "2011-12 Army Hockey Media Guide" (PDF). Go Army Sports. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
External links
- masshockey.com Hall of Fame page
- Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or The Internet Hockey Database
Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by William Harrison John Kelley |
Spencer Penrose Award 1956–57 1959–60 |
Succeeded by Harry Cleverly Murray Armstrong |