Nevin D. (Ned) Harkness (born September 19, 1919 in Ottawa, Ontario,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
- died September 19, 2008 in Rochester, NY) was a successful
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada...
head coachA head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing sports men and women. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...
of
ice hockeyIce Hockey is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced and physical sport...
and
lacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin that is played using a small solid rubber ball and a long-handled racquet called a crosse or lacrosse stick. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose netting that is designed to hold the lacrosse ball...
at
Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university located in Troy, New York, United States.RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking...
and
Cornell UniversityCornell University is a private university located in Ithaca, New York, USA, that is a member of the Ivy League.Cornell counts more than 255,000 living alumni, 28 Rhodes Scholars and 41 Nobel laureates affiliated with the university as faculty or students...
and of ice hockey at
Union CollegeUnion College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in the wake of the American Revolution, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents...
. Harkness was also head coach of the
Detroit Red WingsThe Detroit Red Wings is a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL....
and later was the team's general manager. He was inducted into the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 1993, the
National Lacrosse Hall of FameThe US Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, located in Baltimore, Maryland on the campus of Johns Hopkins University, is operated by US Lacrosse...
in 2001 and into the RPI Hockey Ring of Honor in 2007. He is also a member of the
United States Hockey Hall of FameThe United States Hockey Hall of Fame is a museum located in Eveleth, Minnesota. It showcases the history of the sport of ice hockey in the United States, housing a collection of exhibits and memorabilia relating to the history of hockey in America...
in
Eveleth, MinnesotaEveleth is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, USA. The population was 3,865 at the 2000 census.U.S. Highway 53 and State Highway 37 are two of the main arterial routes in the city....
, having been inducted in 1994.
Early years
Harkness grew up in Ontario, but before coming of age, his family moved to the
Glens Falls, New YorkGlens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,354 at the 2000 census...
region north of Albany (Harkness became a naturalized American citizen in 1949 ). He graduated from the
Worcester AcademyWorcester Academy is an independent coeducational preparatory school spread over in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States. The school is divided into a middle school, serving approximately 150 students in grades six to eight, and an upper school, serving approximately 500 students in...
in 1939. In 1941, Harkness became a volunteer coach for a group of students at
Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university located in Troy, New York, United States.RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking...
in Troy who were interested in forming a lacrosse club. Through that year and the next, the team practiced and scrimmaged with Harkness leading the way, eventually playing games against four varsity programs. World War II led to the disbanding of the team, but when the school formally established a varsity lacrosse program in 1945, Harkness was asked to become its first coach.
Within a year of its establishment, Ned Harkness had Rensselaer ranked among the best lacrosse teams in the country. In 1948, coming off an undefeated season of collegiate play, he took the team to the Olympic Games in London, England, where the team, representing the United States, would tie the British All-Star team before 60,000 at Wembley Stadium while amassing an 8–0–1 record in nine games played in England.
Reviving RPI Hockey
Following World War II, RPI President
Livingston HoustonLivingston Waddell Houston was the eleventh president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was born in 1891 in Wyoming, Ohio. He graduated from Rensselaer in 1913 with a degree in mechanical engineering and was a member of the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi His first job out of school...
began looking for a way to re-establish hockey at the Institute, and Harkness was willing to lend his assistance. After the construction of the
Houston Field HouseHouston Field House is the name of the multi-purpose arena/venue on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. It is the second oldest arena in the ECAC Hockey League behind Princeton University's Hobey Baker Memorial Rink...
was completed in late 1949, the team began play under Harkness in January 1950.
After leading the team to a 4–6–0 record in its first year, Harkness helped form the
Tri-State LeagueThe Tri-State League was the name of five different circuits in American minor league baseball.The first league of that name played for four years and consisted of teams in Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia. The second, which played from 1904-14, had member clubs in Delaware, New Jersey and...
, which would become the first attempt at league organization of college hockey in the east. Later that year, Harkness devised the RPI Holiday Tournament, which has taken place every year since 1951, making it the oldest in-season tournament in the nation.
Harkness coached both hockey and lacrosse at Rensselaer throughout most of the 1950s and continued coaching hockey into the 1960s. In 1952, while continuing to establish a serious hockey program, he coached the lacrosse team to an undefeated record and the national lacrosse championship, which predated the NCAA.
That same year, Harkness led the hockey team to its first Tri-State title with a 15–3 overall record, though the title was later revoked when the team was found to be using an ineligible player.
The team continued to improve rapidly on the ice under Harkness' guidance. In 1953, the team won its first official Tri-State championship and was invited to the
NCAA TournamentThe annual NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship tournament determines the top ice hockey team in the NCAA Division I and Division III. The semi-finals and finals are branded as the Frozen Four, as a parallel to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship - known as the Final Four in later...
for the first time, winning third place. The next season, Harkness guided RPI to an 18–5 overall record, a second straight Tri-State title, and a second straight trip to Colorado Springs for the NCAA Tournament. Though heavy underdogs, Harkness and his team upset traditional powerhouses
MichiganThe Michigan Wolverines comprise 24 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except men's ice hockey which competes in the NCAA D1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association, and women's water polo,...
and
MinnesotaThe Minnesota Golden Gophers are the college sports team for the University of Minnesota. The university fields both men's and women's teams in basketball, cross country, gymnastics, golf, ice hockey, swimming, tennis, and track and field. Men's-specific sports include baseball, football, and...
to win the 1954 NCAA Championship.
Harkness was the head coach of the men's ice hockey team at Rensselaer beginning with the 1949–1950 season through the 1962–1963 season. He led the team to a record of 176–96–7 and NCAA tournament appearances in 1953, 1954, and 1961, winning the NCAA title in 1954. His 1951–52 team averaged 8.28 goals per game, an NCAA record which stands today. He would leave the lacrosse team in 1958 to focus on RPI hockey after leading the team to a record of 112–26–2 in 14 years, and left RPI hockey in 1963 after three NCAA appearances, two Tri-State titles, one NCAA championship, and a record of 176–96–7 record in 14 years.
Moving to Ithaca
In 1963, Harkness moved to
Cornell UniversityCornell University is a private university located in Ithaca, New York, USA, that is a member of the Ivy League.Cornell counts more than 255,000 living alumni, 28 Rhodes Scholars and 41 Nobel laureates affiliated with the university as faculty or students...
, where he replaced Paul Patten as the head coach of the hockey team. In his first year at Cornell, Harkness helped the team to a 12–10–1 record in the fledgling
ECACECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. Despite its name, it is not sponsored by the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. The name derives from the league's former direct association with...
league. His second season saw the team record improve to 19 wins. His stature rose to legendary status with the recruitment of
Ken DrydenKenneth Wayne "Ken" Dryden, PC, MP is a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author, and former NHL goaltender whose playing career won a place for him in the Hockey Hall of Fame...
.
In 1966, Harkness bested the previous year's total by winning 22 games while losing only 5 times. The following season, Ken Dryden came to Ithaca to play in net, and the team began reaping dividends immediately. The 1967 record was 27–1–1. Cornell participated in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, with Harkness' second NCAA championship as the Big Red defeated
North DakotaThe North Dakota Fighting Sioux is the name of the athletic teams of the University of North Dakota which is located in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota, in the United States. The current logo is a Native American figure...
and
Boston UniversityThe Boston University Terriers are the nine men's and twelve women's varsity athletic teams representing Boston University in NCAA Division I competition. The men compete in basketball, cross country, ice hockey, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, and wrestling...
for the title.
The domination continued for the remainder of Harkness' time at Cornell. The next season, Cornell again went to the NCAA Tournament, again with 27 victories, but would lose to North Dakota in the semifinals before defeating
Boston CollegeThe Boston College Eagles are the athletic teams representing Boston College. They compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in Hockey East; in addition skiing, fencing, and sailing are also non-ACC...
for third place. Harkness again won 27 times in the 1968–69 campaign, the only regular season loss coming at the hands of his old team at Rensselaer in a game which later proved to save hockey at his old school a second time. Cornell would defeat Michigan Tech in the NCAA Tournament before dropping the championship game to the Denver Pioneers.
Seemingly with little opportunity to improve upon the team's success, Harkness and his Cornell team achieved a perfect record, undefeated and untied, in 1970. Cornell capped the 29–0–0 season with victories over
WisconsinThe Wisconsin Badgers are the collegiate athletic teams from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This NCAA Division I athletic program has teams in football, basketball, ice hockey, volleyball, soccer, cross country, tennis, swimming, wrestling, track and field, rowing, golf, and softball...
and
Clarkson-Places:Australia* Clarkson, Western AustraliaCanada* Clarkson, Mississauga, Ontario** Clarkson GO Station, a station in the GO Transit network located in the communityUnited States* Clarkson, California* Clarkson, Kentucky* Clarkson, Nebraska...
in the NCAA Tournament, bringing Harkness his third and final NCAA championship, and Cornell's second title in four years. Ironically, Harkness and his team accomplished this feat without Dryden, who is most often associated with the dominance of Cornell during the late 1960s.
While coaching ice hockey at Cornell, his overall record was 163–27–2 over seven seasons, and his teams won 2
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada...
titlesThe annual NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship tournament determines the top ice hockey team in the NCAA Division I and Division III. The semi-finals and finals are branded as the Frozen Four, as a parallel to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship - known as the Final Four in later...
, one in 1967 and one in 1970.
Amidst his success at
Lynah RinkLynah Rink is a 4,267-seat hockey arena at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, that opened in 1957. Named after James Lynah, Class of 1905, who was the director of Cornell athletics from 1935-1943, it is home to the Big Red men's and women's ice hockey teams.Lynah has been home to hockey...
, Harkness returned to coaching lacrosse, coaching the
Cornell lacrosse teamThe Cornell Big Red men's lacrosse team represents Cornell University in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's lacrosse. Cornell competes as a member of the Ivy League, of which they have won 23 conference championships...
to the 1966 and 1968
Ivy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group...
titles, and reaching an astounding 35–1 record during his three years at the helm. Following the 1970 NCAA championship, Harkness left Cornell on top to coach in the National Hockey League.
The NHL
Ned Harkness was hired by the
Detroit Red WingsThe Detroit Red Wings is a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL....
to become head coach on May 22, 1970. He replaced
Sid AbelSidney "Sid" Gerald Abel was a Canadian professional hockey player and later coach in the National Hockey League...
, an interim replacement for
Bill GadsbyWilliam Alexander Gadsby was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played for the Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers, and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League....
. Harkness was 12–22–4 with the Red Wings before
Doug BarkleyDoug Barkley was a professional ice hockey defenceman and, after his playing career, was head coach of the Detroit Red Wings for two separate occasions.-Playing career:...
was hired to complete the season. Harkness was promoted to general manager of the Red Wings in January 1971, where he remained for three seasons.
Despite his success in the college ranks, Harkness was not a successful coach or general manager in the
National Hockey LeagueThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league as a joint venture for its self perpetuating membership of 30 franchised member clubs located in the United States and Canada...
. Harkness had difficulty learning to coach veteran NHL players, and the team had problems with stability in the organization, going through a number of head coaches during his tenure.
Detroit fans still remember this era as "Darkness with Harkness", one of the worst periods in franchise history.
Union College
After his departure from the NHL, Harkness set his sights on college hockey once again. He returned to New York's
Capital DistrictThe Capital District is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...
, where he had lived in Glens Falls and coached the RPI Engineers.
Union CollegeUnion College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in the wake of the American Revolution, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents...
had fielded a hockey team in the early 20th Century but had been unable to bounce back from the loss of the program during World War II. Harkness went to Union and helped create a new program from the ground up.
Achilles CenterThe Frank L. Messa Rink at Achilles Center is a 2,225-seat multi-purpose arena in Schenectady, New York. It is home to the Union College Skating Dutchmen men's and women's ice hockey teams, members of the ECAC Hockey League. In 2004, it was renovated and renamed Frank L. Messa Rink at Achilles...
was built, and Harkness was made rink manager and the team's coach. The school began play in NCAA Division III and with Harkness behind the bench, the team was instantly successful. The Skating Dutchmen finished with a 20–4–1 record in the 1975–76 season, their first since the 1940s, with a roster full of freshmen. Harkness followed up this initial success with a 22–3–1 season, and the young program was well on its way to becoming a Division II powerhouse.
The 1977–78 season started off well for the Skating Dutchmen, as Harkness guided the team to a 4–1–1 record in their first 6 games. However, in late December, Harkness abruptly quit the team, and news began to leak that he had been having disputes with Union administration for quite some time. It was alleged that Harkness had violated NESCAC recruiting rules (and then lied to Union College President Thomas Bonner about it), but there was widespread suspicion on campus that admission standards for hockey players had been compromised. Many of the Union players had come in as freshmen well into their twenties, having played in Canadian Senior A teams (much like Harkness's Cornell protege Dick Bertrand, a Toronto cop who joined Harkness's squad in his late twenties, was a captain of the undefeated team, and then succeeded Harkness as Cornell coach, continuing in that capacity for 11 seasons); others were NHL draftees drawn by the chance to play for the legendary Harkness and his plan to jump the team to Division I. Upon hearing of their coach's decision to leave, the entire varsity roster of the Skating Dutchmen refused to play the remainder of the season in a show of solidarity with their coach. With a team made up of Junior Varsity and intramural players coached by an inexperienced coach, the Skating Dutchmen would lose their next game 19–1 and go on to lose every game remaining on their schedule.
Later years
In the spring of 1978, Harkness was a finalist for the
North DakotaThe North Dakota Fighting Sioux is the name of the athletic teams of the University of North Dakota which is located in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota, in the United States. The current logo is a Native American figure...
head coach position that was ultimately given to John "Gino" Gaspirini.
Harkness later served as director of the
Glens Falls Civic CenterGlens Falls Civic Center is a 4,806-seat multi-purpose arena located in downtown Glens Falls, New York. Built in 1979, it was originally the home Adirondack Red Wings, the American Hockey League farm team for the Detroit Red Wings...
and president of the New York
Olympic Regional Development AuthorityThe Olympic Regional Development Authority is a New York State public benefit corporations, created by the State of New York to manage the facilities used during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid, New York...
, which ran the facilities in
Lake Placid, New YorkLake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638. Lake Placid is named after nearby Lake Placid....
which hosted the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. He was responsible for the construction of the US Olympic Training Center from 1989–1990. He retired from these duties in August 1993. In the spring of 2007 he moved to the suburb of Greece in Rochester, NY, where he very soon after married Patricia Murphy. He died on September 19, 2008, at the age of 89.
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