John Patrick Riley (June 15, 1920 – February 3, 2016) was an 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 ...

player and coach. The hockey coach at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

for more than 35 years, Riley coached the

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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 The Lester Patrick Trophy has been presented by the National Hockey League and USA Hockey since 1966 to honor a recipient's contribution to ice hockey in the United States. It is considered a non-NHL trophy because it may be awarded to players, ...

in 1986 and 2002, was inducted into the

United States Hockey Hall of Fame The United States Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1973 with the goal of preserving the history of ice hockey in the United States while recognizing the extraordinary contributions of select players, coaches, administrators, officials an ...

in 1979, and into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998.

Biography

Riley was born in Boston in 1920 and raised in

Medford, Massachusetts Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 United States census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus on both sides of the Medford and Somervill ...

. He played prep-school hockey at Tabor Academy and graduated in 1939. He played

college hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the go ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

(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 The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, was the sixth Ice hockey at the Olympic Games, Olympic Championship, also served as the 15th World Ice Hockey Championships, World Championships and the 26th ...

.) 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 The Spencer Penrose Award is awarded yearly to the top coach in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by the American Hockey Coaches Association. The finalists for each year's award comprise the conference Coach of the Year winners from each Division ...

for

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. ...

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 Brett is an Irish and English surname of Breton origin. It arrived in both countries via the Norman Invasion of England and Norman Invasion of Ireland respectively. Irish Bretts are most commonly found in the counties of Tipperary, Waterford and ...

was named as the inaugural head coach at

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

in 2020. 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 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 ...

(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 Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

. Twenty years later, Brooks would be hired to coach the American team at

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, Essex County, New York (state), New York, United States. In 2020, its population was 2,205. The village of Lake Placid ...

, 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 The "Miracle on Ice" was an ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. It was played between the hosting United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, during the medal round of the men's ice hockey t ...

". 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. Riley was inducted in the

in 1979, and the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998. He is a two-time winner of the

, 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 Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

. 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 Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States and is the oldest town on Cape Cod. The town motto is ''Post tot Naufracia Portus'', "after so many shipwrecks, a haven". The population was 20,259 at the 2020 census. Histor ...

Head coaching record

References

External links

Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, John P. Jr. 1920 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American sportsmen American ice hockey coaches American men's ice hockey forwards Army Black Knights men's ice hockey coaches Boston Olympics players Dartmouth Big Green men's ice hockey players Ice hockey coaches from Massachusetts Ice hockey people from Medford, Massachusetts Ice hockey players at the 1948 Winter Olympics IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Lester Patrick Trophy recipients Tabor Academy (Massachusetts) alumni United States Hockey Hall of Fame inductees United States Navy personnel of World War II

Biography

Head coaching record

See also

References

External links