Don 'Toot' Cahoon (born April 13, 1949) is a retired American

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 ...

coach. He was the

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 ...

of the

Princeton Tigers The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in me ...

when they won their first conference tournament championship in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. For almost 40 years Cahoon worked behind the bench of various collegiate hockey programs, reaching the

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 A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

twice as a head coach.

Career

Cahoon's start in collegiate hockey came as a player for

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

starting three seasons for the Terriers (typical as

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

did not play varsity at the time) which included back-to-back National Championships in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

. He also played for the United States national team at the 1972 ice hockey world championship pool B tournament in Romania. After graduating with a B.S. in education, Cahoon continued his playing career for one more season, lacing it up for seven games for the New England Blades of the EHL, the league's last year in operation. Cahoon began his coaching career the following season, leading

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...

team to the 1973–74 Mid-Atlantic Conference title. After a successful campaign his first time out, Cahoon joined the staff at 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 ...

, becoming an assistant at BU under 2nd-year

Jack Parker. Cahoon enjoyed as much success as an assistant with the Terriers as he had as a player, winning three consecutive conference tournament titles, three regular season titles, and the

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

National Championship. After five years as an assistant coach Cahoon accepted the head coaching duties for the Division II Norwich Cadets. In his three seasons at Norwich Cahoon led the Cadets to the postseason each year while continuing the University's strong hockey tradition. After 1981–82 Cahoon headed across the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

to become the head coach and direction of hockey operations for the

Vienna Capitals The Vienna Capitals are an Austrian professional ice hockey team that participate in the ICE Hockey League. Founded in 2001, the Capitals play their home games in Vienna, Austria, at Steffl Arena. In the 2004–05 season, the Capitals claimed ...

. Cahoon's European stint only lasted one season, however, and he was back as an assistant coach in college, this time for Massachusetts-Lowell as they made the transition from D-II into the Division I ranks. Though not unexpected Massachusetts-Lowell grew progressively worse while Cahoon was there and he left the university after his third season. After a year off, Cahoon returned to BU for the second time, spending a year as an assistant for Jack Parker before accepting a job as a pro scout for the

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...

of the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

. Cahoon's second foray into professional hockey lasted only slightly longer than his first and he rejoined the Terriers two years after he left for the second time. During his third trip behind the bench for BU, Cahoon also served as the head coach 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

1991 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The 1991 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (''1991 WJHC'') was the 15th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship and was held in various communities in Saskatchewan, Canada. Canada won its second consecutive gold medal, and fifth o ...

, leading the Americans to a respectable 4th-place finish. After 1991 Cahoon left Boston University for good when he received his first Division-I head coaching job, replacing Jim Higgins at Princeton. The Tigers were one of the founding members of

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

and in the thirty years prior to Cahoon's arrival they had a winning season only once, in 1967–68. That trend continued for the early part of Cahoon's tenure but he was able to get the Tigers head's above water with a plus-.500 campaign in 1994–95. After a lull the following year, Cahoon pushed Princeton to three consecutive winning seasons, including a conference tournament title in 1997–98 and its first 20-win season the following year. Despite the success, Cahoon left the Tigers after the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

season to take on the same role with

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, a team that had recently brought back its ice hockey program but had yet to see much success. Similar to how he had improved Princeton, Cahoon took a couple of years to right the ship in Amherst, posting two 8-win seasons before leading the Minutemen to a 19-win campaign in year three, their first winning record since joining

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

in 1994. Cahoon continued to enjoy moderate success with UMass for the next several seasons, hovering around .500, and brought the Minutemen to their first NCAA berth and win in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

behind the stellar goaltending of

Jonathan Quick Jonathan Douglas Quick (born January 21, 1986) is an American professional ice hockey goaltender for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Quick was selected in the third round, 72nd overall, by the Los Angeles Kings at the ...

, but the results started to turn bad in the second decade of the 21st century and Cahoon agreed to resign from his post after the 2011–12 season. Cahoon ended with a 346–398–78 record as a head coach.

Head coaching record

College

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cahoon, Don 1949 births Living people American ice hockey coaches Ice hockey coaches from Massachusetts Minnesota North Stars scouts Norwich Cadets men's ice hockey coaches Sportspeople from Lynn, Massachusetts Ice hockey people from Essex County, Massachusetts Princeton Tigers men's ice hockey coaches UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey coaches UMass Minutemen ice hockey coaches NCAA men's ice hockey national champions Ice hockey players from Massachusetts