Gerald N. "Jerry" Knightley is a Canadian retired ice hockey Winger and coach who was a two-time

All-American 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 ...

for Rensselaer.

Career

Knightley was one of the final recruits for

Ned Harkness Nevin Donald Harkness (September 19, 1919 – September 19, 2008) was an National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA head coach of ice hockey and lacrosse at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University and of ice hockey at Union ...

with the Engineers, arriving in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

in the fall of 1961. Knightley's first season with the varsity team was the last for the legendary bench boss and Knightley produced tremendous results alongside Bob Brinkworth. Unfortunately, the team's defense was rather porous, allowing more than 4 goals per game, and RPI was unable to make the conference tournament. After Harkness' departure, Rube Bjorkman was installed as the head coach and the team's defense improved tremendously. Knightley and Brinkworth, who served as co-captains for the season, formed a powerful scoring duo that finished 1st and 2nd in the nation with Knightly leading the way (75 points). Knightley was named First Team All-ECAC and an All-American and got the Engineers into the conference tournament. RPI finished in third place, and weren't expecting to receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament, however, the conference runner-up St. Lawrence possessed a worse record and were passed over in favor of the 17–7 Engineers. RPI fell to

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

in the semifinal but Knightley helped the team recover to win the consolation game and was named to the All-Tournament Second Team. Bjorkman left after one season and former standout Garry Kearns took over, however, the team was beginning to suffer from two years of little to no recruiting. With Brinkworth gone due to graduation the team's offense was led almost exclusively by Knightley. He finished with just 49 points on the year but still had 11 more than the next Engineer. While

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 ...

had split into two divisions, RPI still declined in the standings and missed out on the postseason. Knightley was still highly regarded for leading his team through a difficult season and was named an All-American once more. After graduating with a degree in

management engineering Engineering management is the application of engineering methods, tools, and techniques to business management systems. Engineering management is a career that brings together the technological problem-solving ability of engineering and the organi ...

, Knightley returned to

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and attended

Western Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay) to the north and no ...

. While earning his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

Knightley also played for the

Mustangs The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

. He was inducted into the RPI Athletic Hall of Fame in 1968.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knightley, Jerry Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian ice hockey forwards Ice hockey people from Scarborough, Ontario RPI Engineers men's ice hockey players Western Mustangs men's ice hockey players AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans