Shelley Looney (born January 21, 1972, in Brownstown,

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, and raised in

Trenton, Michigan Trenton is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County, Michigan, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city population was 18,853. A Shawnee village was built in the area by war chief Blue Jacket after the 1795 Tre ...

) is 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 head coach. She scored the game-winning goal in the gold medal game for Team USA at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

, the team's first

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

. She won a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

. She played collegiate hockey at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

from 1991 to 1994, winning multiple awards, including ECAC All-Star, 1993 ECAC Tournament MVP and ECAC Player of the Year (1993–94). She was inducted into Northeastern College's Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999 and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2019. Looney is formerly the head coach of the Lindenwood University women's ice hockey team.

Playing career

In the gold medal game at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Looney scored the game-winning goal. In the fall of 2002, she played with Team USA teammate

Cammi Granato Catherine Michelle Granato (born March 25, 1971) is an American former ice hockey player and one of the first women to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2010. She currently works as an assistant general manager for the Vancou ...

for the Vancouver Griffins of the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...

. She finished second on the team and fourth in the Western Conference with 35 points (10–25) in 24 regular-season games. She participated for Team British Columbia at the 2003 Esso Women's Nationals. She was named B.C. Player of the Game in the bronze medal game despite losing to Team Quebec. While still playing for Team USA, Looney went into coaching, serving as an assistant with the Under-17 Boys' National Team Development Program in 2003, then joining the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

as assistant coach of the women's team in 2005–06. She left that position to train for the next Olympics. In 2006, Looney was one of the final players cut from the Olympic team that would go on to win a bronze medal in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. She ended her USA Hockey career with 61 goals and 136 points in 151 games

Looney was the hockey director for the Buffalo Bison Hockey Association until 2019

Looney is head coach of the NCAA Division 1 Lindenwood University Lady Lions women's ice hockey team.

"Thank You Canada"

In 1980, the government of Canada helped Canadian caper, six Americans escape from Iran when students stormed the US embassy, precipitating the

Iran Hostage Crisis The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...

. Looney, then eight years old, wrote a letter of thanks to Canada. The letter was later transcribed and released as a single by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

in March 1980 under the title "(This Is My Country) Thank You, Canada". The brief (1:26) spoken-word record received some airplay and made Cashbox's Top 100 (three weeks, peaking at #98) and

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

's "Bubbling Under The Hot 100" chart nationally, peaking at #109.

Awards and honors

*1993 – ECAC Tournament Most Valuable Player *2019 – Inducted into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame, along with other members of the 1998 U.S. Women's ice hockey team.

References

External links

bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Looney, Shelley 1972 births Living people Ice hockey coaches from Michigan Ice hockey players from Michigan People from Wayne County, Michigan American women's ice hockey forwards Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Lindenwood Lions women's ice hockey coaches Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Northeastern Huskies women's ice hockey players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for the United States in ice hockey 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen