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Jack Riley
Biographical details
Born	June 15, 1920; Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	February 3, 2016 (aged 95); Sandwich, Massachusetts, U.S.
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
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 USA
World Championships
Olympics

John Patrick 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. He played for the U.S. Olympic team at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics. He received the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1986 and 2002, was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979, and into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998.

Biography

Riley was born in Boston in 1920^[1]^[2] and raised in Medford, Massachusetts. He played prep-school hockey at Tabor Academy and 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 was appointed to coach the USA team for the 1960 Olympic Games, the ninth held with hockey. The United States had finished with a silver medal in the last two Games in 1952 and 1956, with the latter being the first time the Soviet Union had won the gold medal. One of Riley's last decisions before the Games was to cut Herb Brooks (fresh from his play at Minnesota) from the team. Days later, his American team surprised the hockey world going undefeated in winning the country's first Olympic gold medal. Twenty years later, Brooks would be hired to coach the American team at Lake Placid, New York, which resulted in a gold medal for the country, which beat the Soviets (who had not lost to the Americans since 1960) on February 22, 1980, in the medal round before beating Finland to win the gold; the win over the Soviets is now referred to as the "Miracle on Ice". In Olympic hockey from 1956 to 1988, Riley and Brooks were the only coaches to lead a team to a gold medal over the Soviet Union.^{[citation needed]}

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).^[4]

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

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Army Cadets Independent (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 (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^[a]	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^[b]	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^[c]	Army	21-13-1	^[d]	^[d]
1981-82	Army	25-11-0	^[d]	^[d]
1982-83	Army	25-11-1	^[d]	^[d]
1983-84	Army	28-5-1	^[d]	^[d]
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 Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

^ 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 Hockey 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h While Army had been readmitted to the ECAC Hockey, it did not play a conference schedule until the 1984–85 season.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b "Jack Riley, who coached US hockey team to gold in 1960, dies at 95 - the Boston Globe".
^ 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.
^ ^a ^b "Hockey Legend Jack Riley '44 Passes Away at 95". Dartmouth Big Green. Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
^ "2011-12 Army Hockey Media Guide" (PDF). Go Army Sports. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2014-07-17.

External links

Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame page
Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or The Internet Hockey Database

Awards and achievements
Preceded by William Harrison John Kelley	Spencer Penrose Award 1956–57 1959–60	Succeeded by Harry Cleverly Murray Armstrong
Preceded by Al Renfrew	Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award 1991	Succeeded by John "Connie" Pleban