Eisspeedway

Charlie Holt

Charlie Holt
Biographical details
BornJuly 17, 1922
Melrose, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMarch 17, 2000 (age 77)
Durham, New Hampshire, U.S.
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1946–1947Cranbrook Schools
1947–1948Melrose High School
1955–1962Northwood School
1962–1968Colby
1968–1986New Hampshire
1989–1996Berwick Academy
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
ECAC Hockey regular season champion (1974)
ECAC Hockey tournament champion (1979)
Awards
1969 Spencer Penrose Award
1974 Spencer Penrose Award
1979 Spencer Penrose Award
1997 US Hockey Hall of Fame
2002 New Hampshire Hockey Hall of Fame
2006 Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame
2010 Hobey Baker Legend of College Hockey Award

Charlie Holt (July 17, 1922 – March 17, 2000) was an American ice hockey coach. He was the head coach of the University of New Hampshire from 1968 thru 1986.[1] He is one of three 3-time recipients of the college ice hockey National Coach-of-the-Year Award (the others being Len Ceglarski and Jack Parker).[2]

Career

Holt began coaching men's ice hockey immediately after graduating from Dartmouth in 1946. He spent one year each at Cranbrook Schools and Melrose High School before joining the US National Team for the 1949 World Ice Hockey Championships helping the Americans to a bronze medal finish, their first medal since the start of World War II. A few years later Charlie found himself behind the bench for Northwood School where he would remain as head coach from 1955-1962 before he got his first collegiate offer.[3]

Holt's college head coaching career began just after he turned 40 in 1962–63 when he took over at Colby College. At the time the Mules were competing in the 28-team ECAC Hockey mega-conference as a Division I program but, two years later when the conference was split, Colby was placed in the Division III league and had competed as such ever since. While Holt wasn't able to lead Colby into the postseason while they were a D-I team, once they dropped down into the lower division he got them to three ECAC playoff appearances in four seasons.[4] After Rube Bjorkman departed New Hampshire to take over the top job at North Dakota the Wildcats announced Holt as their head coach starting with the 1968–69 season.[5]

Holt started his career in Durham off with a bang, earning the Wildcats a 22-win season as well as their first conference postseason appearance. Despite falling in the first round to Harvard Holt was awarded the Spencer Penrose Award by the American Hockey Coaches Association. Holt continued to have great success with New Hampshire over the next several years, recording winning seasons in each of the following ten campaigns, making the ECAC postseason tournament nine times in that span and winning both the regular season and conference tournament title once. Even after recording his first losing record with New Hampshire in 1979–80 season Holt brought the Wildcats back to prominence two years later with three consecutive 20-win seasons and two straight NCAA tournament berths. The returns began to diminish, however, once New Hampshire left the ECAC to become a founding member of Hockey East. In the first year Holt recorded only his second losing season with the Wildcats followed by a 5-win campaign, New Hampshire's worst record in over three decades.[5] Holt stepped down after the 1985–86 season, allowing long-time assistant Bob Kullen to take over.

After taking a few years off Holt returned to his old stomping grounds of high school hockey when he was named as the head coach for Berwick Academy. He stayed in that position for seven years before retiring for good in 1996. In 1997 Holt was inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame.[6] On March 17, 2000 Charlie Holt died as a result of cancer, He was survived by his wife Nancy and their two children: Brad and Brenda.[7] Holt has received several posthumous honors, including being inducted into both the New Hampshire (2002) and Massachusetts (2006) Hockey Halls of Fame and being named the 2010 Hobey Baker Legend of College Hockey.[8][9]

Head coaching record

College

Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Colby Mules (Hockey East) (1962–1964)
1962-63 Colby 7-14-0 6-11-0
1963-64 Colby 5-14-1 6-12-1
Colby: 12-28-1 12-23-1
Colby Mules (ECAC 2) (1964–1968)
1964–65 Colby 6-16-0 6-3-0 4th
1965–66 Colby 13-12-1 8-4-0 5th ECAC 2 Champion
1966–67 Colby 14-9-1 9-2-1 2nd ECAC 2 Runner-Up
1967–68 Colby 20-6-1 15-2-0 2nd ECAC 2 Semifinals
Colby: 53-43-3
New Hampshire Wildcats (ECAC Hockey) (1968–1984)
1968–69 New Hampshire 22-6-1 10-5-1 5th ECAC Quarterfinals
1969–70 New Hampshire 19-10-2 9-6-2 7th ECAC Quarterfinals
1970–71 New Hampshire 20-9-0 11-9-0 9th
1971–72 New Hampshire 20-10-0 12-6-0 5th ECAC third-place game (win)
1972–73 New Hampshire 16-10-3 11-8-0 5th ECAC Quarterfinals
1973–74 New Hampshire 22-9-0 15-5-0 1st ECAC Quarterfinals
1974–75 New Hampshire 21-9-1 17-7-1 5th ECAC Quarterfinals
1975–76 New Hampshire 24-7-0 22-6-0 2nd ECAC Quarterfinals
1976–77 New Hampshire 27-12-0 21-6-0 2nd NCAA consolation game (loss)
1977–78 New Hampshire 18-12-0 14-11-0 8th ECAC Quarterfinals
1978–79 New Hampshire 22-10-3 17-5-3 2nd NCAA consolation game (loss)
1979–80 New Hampshire 12-18-0 9-15-0 13th
1980–81 New Hampshire 19-13-1 13-10-1 8th ECAC Quarterfinals
1981–82 New Hampshire 22-14-0 15-7-0 3rd NCAA consolation game (loss)
1982–83 New Hampshire 22-11-2 15-5-1 3rd NCAA Quarterfinals
1983–84 New Hampshire 20-17-1 13-8-0 2nd ECAC Quarterfinals
New Hampshire: 326-187-14 224-159-9
New Hampshire Wildcats (Hockey East) (1984–1986)
1984–85 New Hampshire 16-26-1 12-21-1 4th Hockey East Quarterfinals
1985–86 New Hampshire 5-29-3 5-27-2 7th Hockey East Quarterfinals
New Hampshire: 21-55-4 17-48-3
Total: 412-313-22

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

See also

References

  1. ^ "Charlie Holt Year-By-Year Coaching Record". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  2. ^ "NCAA Awards". College Hockey Historical Archive. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  3. ^ "A Charlie Holt Timeline". University of New Hampshire. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  4. ^ "Men's Ice Hockey—Coaches' Records". Colby College. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  5. ^ a b "New Hampshire Men's Hockey Team History". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  6. ^ "Enshrinees". US Hockey Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  7. ^ "Charlie Holt; New Hampshire Hockey Coach, 77". New York Times. 2000-03-18. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  8. ^ "Previous Legends". Hobey Baker.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  9. ^ "Legendary coach Charlie Holt Honored at Hobey Baker Awards Banquet". New Hampshire Wildcats. 2010-05-11. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Spencer Penrose Award
1968–69
1973–74
1978–79
Succeeded by
Preceded by Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award
2010
Succeeded by