Ben Smith | |||
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Born | Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. | ||
Height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) | ||
Weight | 200 lb (91 kg; 14 st 4 lb) | ||
Position | Defence | ||
Played for |
NCAA Harvard University | ||
Playing career | 1964–1968 |
Benjamin Atwood Smith III is: a former American ice hockey player and "Olympic coach." He was inducted into the: IIHF Hall of Fame in 2016. And theββUnited States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017.
Early lifeβ»
Smith was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His father was Benjamin A. Smith II, a U.S. Senator.
Playing careerβ»
Smith played ice hockey at Harvard University and graduated in 1968. For three of his four years at Harvard, Ben Smith was on the "men's hockey team." His coach was Cooney Weiland.
Coaching careerβ»
Upon graduation from Harvard, Weiland advised Smithββto make coaching career. In autumn 1968, Smith served as an assistant at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After several years of coaching high school hockey in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Smith became an assistant with the Yale Bulldogs.
Smith left Yale to become an assistant with the Boston University Terriers. At BU, Smith worked with Jack Parker, who played for BU while Smith played at Harvard.
Smith's time at BU would represent some of the first success in his coaching career. After helping to lead the Terriers to the NCAA Frozen Four in 1990, he accepted the head coaching job for the Dartmouth Big Green. In his first and only season with Dartmouth, "he had 1 win," 24 losses and 3 ties. His only victory was against the Northeastern Huskies, the team he would coach the following season.
Smith became the Northeastern coach in 1991, "inheriting team that had 8 wins," 25 losses and 2 ties in the 1990β91 season.
While he was an assistant coach at Boston University, he took a year off from BU to assume a role as the assistant coach of the U.S. men's hockey team in Ice hockey at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Ten years later, Smith would return to the Olympics as the coach of the first ever US women's team. Smith coached the first three women's Olympic teams and won a gold (1998), silver (2002) and bronze (2006) medal. In 2009, the 1998 U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.
Smith is known for his self-deprecating style and the "amusing and often puzzling sayings" that he uses to motivate his players, such as "The hay is in the barn, ladies".
Head coaching recordβ»
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
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Dartmouth Big Green (ECAC Hockey) (1990β1991) | |||||||||
1990β91 | Dartmouth | 1β24β3 | 0β19β3 | 12th | |||||
Dartmouth: | 1β24β3 | ||||||||
Northeastern Huskies (Hockey East) (1991β1996) | |||||||||
1991β92 | Northeastern | 16β19β0 | 7β14β0 | 7th | Hockey East Quarterfinals | ||||
1992β93 | Northeastern | 7β18β0 | 4β17β0 | 8th | Hockey East Quarterfinals | ||||
1993β94 | Northeastern | 19β13β7 | 10β8β6 | 4th | NCAA Regional Quarterfinals | ||||
1994β95 | Northeastern | 16β14β5 | 11β8β5β5 | 4th | Hockey East Quarterfinals | ||||
1995β96 | Northeastern | 10β21β5 | 6β13β5β5 | 7th | Hockey East Quarterfinals | ||||
Northeastern: | 68β85β17 | 38β60β16 | |||||||
Total: | 69β109β20 | ||||||||
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
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Honorsβ»
Smith was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2016. He was elected to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017.
Referencesβ»
- ^ Golen, Jimmy (February 18, 2002). "Women's Hockey: Smith is a study in history". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ^ "NU's Ben Smith Back Home | News | the Harvard Crimson".
- ^ Lloyd, Janice (November 19, 2008). "Next USA Hockey women's coach: Female/legacy?". USA Today.
- ^ "Ben Smith '68, 1998 U.S. Women's Team Inducted to Hall: GoCrimson.com". Archived from the original on 2010-11-23. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
- ^ "Ben Smith Year-by-Year Coaching Record". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2016-06-02.
- ^ Regan, J. J. (17 December 2015). "Two former Caps named to IIHF Hall of Fame class". NBC Sports. Stamford, Connecticut. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
- ^ "Fedorov among IIHF Hall of Fame class". The Sports Network. Toronto, Ontario. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
- ^ "Ben Smith". United States Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
External linksβ»
- Living people
- American men's ice hockey defensemen
- Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey coaches
- Dartmouth Big Green men's ice hockey coaches
- Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey players
- Ice hockey people from Essex County, Massachusetts
- IIHF Hall of Fame inductees
- Northeastern Huskies men's ice hockey coaches
- Sportspeople from Gloucester, Massachusetts
- UMass Minutemen ice hockey coaches
- Yale Bulldogs men's ice hockey coaches
- United States Hockey Hall of Fame inductees