Hockey legend Ned Harkness dies at 89

Coach Ned Harkness with members of his NCAA champion Cornell hockey teams at Madison Square Garden last fall. 14850 Photo by Mark H. Anbinder.

Ned Harkness, the legendary lacrosse and hockey coach who helmed the only team with a perfect season in NCAA college hockey history, passed away this morning, on his birthday. Harkness, who led Rensselaer to its 1954 NCAA hockey championship before taking Cornell to a pair of championships in 1967 and 1970, was 89.

When I interviewed Coach Harkness on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the 1970 team's perfect season, he modestly insisted that he'd been in the right place at the right time, lucky to be the coach of some outstanding teams. While it's true that Harkness had the advantage of fantastic players to work with, a man who successfully coached two separate college programs to national championships deserves a little of the credit himself.

Harkness was born on September 19th, 1919, in Ottawa, Ontario, and moved to New York's Capital District as a teenager. He started his coaching career in 1941 as a volunteer coach for a Rensselaer lacrosse club. He then created a hockey team at Rensselaer from whole cloth for the 1949-1950 season, and in an improbable four seasons, made it a winning program, league champions, and then, finally, national champions on an overtime title victory over powerhouse Minnesota.

At Cornell, Harkness's two national championship teams included the 1970 Big Red, then and since the only squad in NCAA hockey history to go an entire season without being defeated or even tied. He also coached lacrosse at Rensselaer and Cornell, winning a national title at RPI and a pair of Ivy League championships at Cornell.

After his success at Cornell, Harkness was hired as head coach and then general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, and then returned to college hockey in the mid 1970s, rebuilding Union College's Skating Dutchmen team. He went on to lead the New York Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA).

Coach Harkness has been inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, the Lake Placid Hall of Fame, the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and countless other honor rolls and lists.

In recent years, Harkness had returned to Ithaca, residing at Kendal at Ithaca and enjoying as many Cornell hockey games and events as he could. Last fall, Coach Harkness was honored with the dedication of the multi-purpose Ned Harkness Alumni Room at Lynah Rink, and was introduced in an intermission ceremony during the Cornell vs. Boston University game at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving weekend, along with players from his championship teams.

Coach Harkness died this morning at a hospice in the Rochester area. He had recently suffered a stroke.

I think he would have been happiest remembered alongside those star players, on the ice -- whether at Madison Square Garden, at RPI's Houston Field House, or at Cornell's storied Lynah Rink.