John P. Riley, Jr., American ice hockey player and coach, Died at 95

  Sports

John Patrick “Jack” Riley was born on June 15, 1920, and died on February 3, 2016.

He was an American ice hockey player and coach.

John was the hockey coach at West Point for more than 35 years, he coached the United States to the gold medal at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics.

He has played for the U.S. Olympic team at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics.

His Army coaching career started in 1950 and remaining the Cadets’ head coach through 1986.

Over the period of his career, John won twice the Spencer Penrose Award for NCAA Coach of the Year.

He was succeeded by one of his sons, Rob Riley in 1986.

He had another son, named Brian Riley, took over the job from Rob in 2004.

The Americans surprised the hockey world going unbeaten in winning the country’s first Olympic gold medal and second ever.

He has been inducted in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979, and the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998.

John was a two-time winner of the Lester Patrick Trophy, in 1986 (as a coach) and 2002 (as a member of the Olympic gold-medal-winning United States hockey team of 1960).

During the 1960s, he ran the Eastern Hockey Clinic (a hockey camp for high school age players) in Worcester, Massachusetts.

John P. Riley, Jr. passed away at 95 yrs old a retirement home in Sandwich, Massachusetts.