Bradly Buetow (born October 28, 1950) is a retired

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and coach. In college, he played for the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

. He played 25 regular season games in the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association () was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972–73 WHA season, 1972 to 1978–79 WHA season, 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (N ...

for the

Cleveland Crusaders The Cleveland Crusaders were a professional ice hockey team from Cleveland. They played in the World Hockey Association from 1972–73 WHA season, 1972 to 1975–76 WHA season, 1976. Their home ice was the Cleveland Arena from 1972 to 1974, and t ...

and 37 games for the Jacksonville Barons of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

in 1973–74. Following his playing career, Buetow was head coach at Minnesota, US International University,

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...

, the

Quad City Mallards The Quad City Mallards were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa that competed in the United Hockey League, International Hockey League, Central Hockey League and ECHL. They were named aft ...

, and the

Waco Wizards The Waco Wizards were an American ice hockey team in Waco, Texas. They played in the Western Professional Hockey League from 1996 to 2000. They played their home games in the Heart of Texas Coliseum. Season-by-season record {, class="wikitable" ...

Career

Brad Buetow began attending the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in the fall of 1969 and started playing under

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Glen Sonmor Glen Robert Sonmor (April 22, 1929 – December 14, 2015) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, scout and coach. He played 28 games in the National Hockey League with the New York Rangers from 1953 to 1955, though most of his career was ...

the following year. Buetow's playing career coincided with an unstable period in the program's history as Sonmor left in the middle of Buetow's Junior year and was replaced by

Ken Yackel Kenneth James Yackel (March 5, 1930 – July 12, 1991) was an American ice hockey player. Yackel played for the American national team at the 1952 Winter Olympics. He briefly played professionally in the National Hockey League, appearing in si ...

who lasted only the remainder of the season in his position before being succeeded by

Herb Brooks Herbert Paul Brooks (August 5, 1937 – August 11, 2003) was an American ice hockey player and coach (ice hockey), coach. His most notable achievement came in Ice hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics, 1980 as head coach of the gold medal-winning Un ...

. While at Minnesota, Buetow was also an

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

high jumper The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

for the

Minnesota Golden Gophers track and field The Minnesota Golden Gophers track and field team is the track and field program that represents University of Minnesota. The Golden Gophers compete in NCAA Division I as a member of the Big Ten Conference. The team is based in St. Paul, Minnes ...

team, finishing 5th at the 1971 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Buetow tried to put the upheaval of his time at Minnesota behind him with a professional career when he signed on to play for the

of the WHA, but he went scoreless in 25 games before finishing out the season with the AHL's Jacksonville Barons and hung up his skates when the season finished. The next season Buetow returned to the Twin Cities to serve as an assistant under Herb Brooks who had taken the Golden Gophers to the first National title the year before. Under Brooks Buetow was part of two more national champion teams. When Brooks accepted the position of head coach/GM for

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

at the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

, Buetow stepped in as interim coach for the 1979–80 season. When his old boss opted not to return, Minnesota removed the interim tag from his title. Buetow was incredibly successful in Minnesota, providing three 30-win seasons and four

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

tournament berths in six seasons, including two WCHA regular-season titles, two WCHA tournament titles and two Final Fours. His best team was the 1980-81 unit, which swept the WCHA regular season and tournament titles and advanced all the way to the 1981 national title game. However, Gopher fans had gotten used to winning national titles, and when Buetow was unable to deliver one, he was fired by his

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

after the 1984–85 season. Buetow moved west to take over at

U.S. International The U.S. International (officially Yonex / K&D Graphics International) is an open international badminton tournament held in Orange County, California, United States. This tournament previously a BWF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold, Grand Prix level ...

which was set to begin play in the newly formed Great West Hockey Conference the next season. The Gulls won the first conference title, going 9–3 against the competition, but immediately the conference was in trouble when

Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. Generally consisting of Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai counties, the region is geographically dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the ...

dropped their program at the end of the year. U.S. International managed to hold on for the next two seasons but after 1987–88 both the conference and the school's Division I hockey program ceased to exist and Buetow was out of a job. Fortunately a position at

opened up and Buetow stepped in to take over for Mike Bertsch. As with many coaches in CC's recent past Buetow had a difficult time getting the team to win games but managed to get the team its first non-losing season in over a decade in 1991–92 and received the WCHA Coach of the Year for his efforts. Unfortunately, he was forced to resign after the following season when an NCAA investigation revealed that Buetow had committed recruiting violations. While Buetow would continue to coach he would never again have a chance at an NCAA school.

Career statistics

Head coaching record

References

External links

*
The Complete World Hockey Association, 9e
by Scott Surgent, Xaler Press, {{DEFAULTSORT:Buetow, Brad 1950 births Living people American ice hockey coaches American men's ice hockey right wingers Cleveland Crusaders players Colorado College Tigers men's ice hockey coaches Ice hockey coaches from Minnesota Jacksonville Barons players Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey coaches Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players United States International Gulls men's ice hockey coaches Ice hockey people from Saint Paul, Minnesota American male high jumpers Minnesota Golden Gophers men's track and field athletes