BC Hockey Preview of Champions: Head Coach Jerry York

Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE

It’s good to be the king.

To Boston College hockey fans, Jerry York already is, but by the end of the 2012-13 season, he will officially take his throne as the winningest college hockey coach of all-time. Along the way, all he has done is win five national championships (four at BC) and almost countless Hockey East Tournaments, Beanpots, and NCAA Tournament games.

York, a Massachusetts native through and through, played his hockey at Boston College from 1963 to 1967. BC runs through his veins, as he is also a Double Eagle. York started his head coaching career in 1972 at Clarkson, then shifting over to Bowling Green in 1979. He remained there for 15 years until the BC job came open again in 1994, whereupon he finally got the chance to return to the alma mater that put him on the map. Before coming back to Chestnut Hill, York won a national title in 1984 with Bowling Green.

Once he returned, it was a slow climb back to the top for York and Boston College. Steve Cedorchuk’s brief reign as coach was a disaster, and as such, the talent was not there at first. By York’s fourth season, 1997-98, BC won Hockey East and made the national championship game against Michigan.

Though the Eagles did not win that game, the rest was history. BC has won four national titles under York since then: 2001, 2008, 2010, and, of course, 2012. He has accumulated 913 wins, only 11 behind Ron Mason for the most ever. The rest of his list of accomplishments is too long to account, but interested parties can see it here.

York is the best college hockey coach of all-time and the best coach Boston College has ever had in any sport. The man is one of the finest representatives of our school that we have ever produced, and by all accounts is a genuine, caring person. He doesn’t fit the stereotypical mold of a winning college coach of being too powerful, underhanded, and sneaky. He runs a clean program and an extremely successful one that can make us all proud. York always has a smile on his face, and why not? He wins.

We are extremely fortunate to have this man on our bench.