Goal Driven
BC hockey star Cayla Barnes and Team USA skated off with silver at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Whatâs next?
A Farewell to Jerry York
After twenty-eight years and four national championships at BC, the legendary hockey coach has retired.
Throughout the thousands of practices and games that made up his career, the legendary BC Hockey Coach Jerry York â67 was rarely seen without a spiral notebook in hand. Generations of Yorkâs players speculated about just what was written inside. They never found out.
And now, the contents of Yorkâs notebook will remain a secret forever, as the winningest coach in college hockey history has retired. All told, York coached Division 1 college hockey for fifty years at three different institutionsâClarkson University, Bowling Green State University, and BC. Along the way, he won a staggering 1,123 games and five national championships (no other college hockey coach has won 1,000 games). York, who is widely known for his humility, announced his retirement with little fanfare, simply issuing a press release. The end of his 50th season seemed like the right time to step down, he said. âI am so blessed to have been involved with Boston College these past twenty-eight years,â he said during a meeting with his players and coaches, âand to have had the opportunity to coach so many wonderful student-athletes.â An outpouring of praise for York followed his announcement. âJerry York is not just a championship coach,â the renowned sportswriter Mike Lupica â74 tweeted. âHe is one of the greatest figures in the history of our school. And he is one of the great gentlemen any college sport has ever produced.â The former BC hockey star Blake Bolden â13, who in 2015 became the first African-American woman to compete in the National Womenâs Hockey League, also tweeted her appreciation. âMy goodness, thank you Coach Jerry York,â Bolden wrote. âAn icon that has shaped the lives of so many young men and women, including mine.â
Speaking of icons, perhaps no one in the world is better qualified to assess Yorkâs career than his fellow coaching legend Jack Parker, who led the Boston University menâsÌęhockey program for forty years, won three national championships of his own, and is the third-winningest coach in theÌęhistory of college hockey. Parker and York have spent the majority of their lives as friendsâand fierce on-ice rivals. They both grew up in the Boston area, played against each other first in high school and then in college (York at BC, of course, and Parker at BU), and eventually spent a few decades battling each other as head coaches. That started in the 1970s, when York was coaching Clarkson University and Parker was already at BU. Whenever Parkerâs team would play at Clarkson, Parker recalled, the two head coaches and their assistants would get together at YorkâsÌęhouse to talk hockey over beers. Eventually, their competition would play out on one of the biggest stages in collegeÌęhockey. âBU and BC is an unbelievably heated rivalry,â Parker said. âWhen games were over weâd shake hands at center ice. It was always hard to lose to BU or to BC when you were playing each other. And yet it was always an enjoyable handshake. I donât remember ever having a bad thought about Jerry York as the head coach.â Well maybe just one, Parker admitted when pressed. That time had to do with York successfully recruiting a player Parker also wanted. Parker couldnât remember the playerâs name at first, recalling only that he was a small center. Then it came to himâBrian Gionta. âI thought âBoy, that kid is going to make BC,ââ Parker said.
Gionta â01 did indeed go on to become one of BCâs greatest athletes ever. As captain, he led the Eagles to the NCAA championship in 2001, BCâs first since 1949. He then played for sixteen seasons in the NHL. When Gionta heard York was retiring, his first reaction was shock. âThat kind of longevity, that kind of run, that kind of success, itâs unsurpassed in hockey,â he said. But the lesson that has stuck with him after playing for York all those years ago has nothing to do with hockey. âHe reinforces how you treat people,â Gionta said. âWhether it is the athletic director,Ìęor itâs the security guard when you walk in, or itâs the janitor, the trainer, the equipment manager, everyone is on theÌęsame level. No one is above anyone and no one is below anyone, and everyone is to be treated with respect.â
Outgoing BC Hockey Captain Marc McLaughlin â22 may have joined the program two decades after Gionta,Ìębut the lessons were the same. Asked for a memory ofÌęplaying under York, the first thing McLaughlin mentioned was the friendship the coach had developed withÌęa custodian who cleaned the teamâs locker room. âCoachÌęYork went and introduced himself to him, created a relationship with him, and really made him feel like what heÌęwas doing was important to our team and we were all in this together,â recalled McLaughlin, who recently signed with the Boston Bruins. Later in the season, York brought the custodian in again to give the Eagles a motivational speech before the playoffs. âItâs just little stuff like that,â McLaughlin said. âHe really went beyond the hockey aspect of being a coach.â
Several of Yorkâs former players have gone on to hold prominent positions in the NHL. Among them is George McPhee, who won the Hobey Baker Award as the nationâs outstanding player while playing for York at Bowling Green and today is president of hockey operations for the Vegas Golden Knights. McPhee said that he always admired Yorkâs personality at Bowling Green, so uplifting that he often wondered if the coach had ever had a bad day. So when it came time for his son to choose a hockey program, McPhee knew exactly where he belonged. Graham McPhee â20 played for York at BC. â Heâs demonstrated for the rest of college sports that thereâs a right way to do it,â McPhee said. âIt wasnât just about hockey for Coach York, it wasnât about this cloistered life. It was about family, education, and faith, and then hockey.â
York is one of only three coaches to have won NCAAÌętitles with two different schoolsâBowling Green in 1984, and BC in 2001, 2008, 2010, and 2012. He also led the Eagles to twelve Frozen Four appearances, nine Hockey East Tournament titles, twelve Hockey East regular season championships, and nine Beanpot titles. His forty-one NCAA Tournament victories are the most ever, and he was named Hockey East Coach of the Year five times, most recently in 2021. York coached four Hobey Baker Award winners in his career. Eighteen of his former players were selected in the first round of the NHL draft, and fifty-eight have appeared in at least fifty games in the NHL. In 2019, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. And in 2020 he was named to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Of course, York was a celebrated player before he became a coach. He scored 134 points for Boston CollegeÌęduring his collegiate career, and still ranks among BCâs all-time leaders in points, goals, and assists.
And somewhere along the way, he started carrying that notebook. âFor us, that was the running joke,â Brian Gionta said. âWe wanted to get ahold of his notebook and see whatâs in there. His game notes, or whatever it might be.â Unfortunately for the many players who have called him coach, Jerry York has closed the book for the final time.Ìę
Ìę1,123 victories, a record
5 NCAA titles: 1984 (with Bowling Green), 2001, 2008, 2010, 2012
18 NCAA tournament appearances
12 Hockey East regular-season titles
9 Hockey East Tournament titles
NCAA Division I Coach of the Year in 1977 (with Clarkson)
5-time Hockey East Coach of the Year: 2004, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2021
9 Beanpot titles
Member of both the Hockey Hall of Fame and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame
4 players who won the Hobey Baker Award
18 former players selected in the 1st round of the NHL draft
58 former players with at least 50 games in the NHL
Greg Brown â90 has been selected as BC's next Schiller Family Head Hockey Coach. Itâs a homecoming for Brown, an All-American defenseman at BC who served as an assistant on Jerry Yorkâs staff from 2004 to 2018. âI am truly honored to be named coach,â he said, âand to succeed my coaching mentor and friend Jerry York.â