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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Jerry York: BGSU Hall Of Fame Inductee
September 11, 2003 | General
Sept. 11, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University Athletic Hall of Fame will welcome five new members on Friday (Sept. 12), BGSU Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Paul Krebs has announced. The 2003 class will be inducted during a formal dinner on the BGSU campus.
The class of 2003 will include coach and administrator Fred Beyerman, men's swimmer Hank Reest '61, football standouts Mark Szlachcic '93 and Erik White '93 and hockey coach Jerry York.
The official induction ceremony will take place Friday in the grand ballroom of BGSU's Bowen-Thompson Student Union. The social hour begins at 6:00 p.m. with dinner served at 7:00 p.m. and the program starting shortly thereafter.
In addition, the class will be introduced at halftime of Saturday's (Sept. 13) BGSU-Liberty football game at Doyt Perry Stadium. The game begins at 6:00 p.m. and is designated as Varsity BG & Hall of Fame Night.
Tickets for Friday's dinner are $35 and advance reservations are required. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Falcon Club office at (419) 372-7063. Football game tickets can be purchased through the ticket office at 1-877-BGSUTICKET or 372-0000.
The following is the fifth in a series of articles profiling each of the 2003 inductees:
Jerry York, a native of Watertown, Mass., guided the Falcon hockey program to the NCAA championship in 1984. The winningest coach in BGSU hockey history, he compiled a 342-248-31 record during his 15-year tenure with the Brown and Orange, for a winning percentage of .576. Entering the 2003-04 season, York's overall collegiate coaching record stands at 668-473-61 through 31 seasons. He will begin the 2003-04 campaign ranked as college hockey's fifth all-time winningest coach (second among active Division I coaches).
York, currently the head coach at his alma mater, Boston College, also won a national title with the Eagles, in 2001. He is one of only two coaches in NCAA history to lead two different schools to national titles.
York began his collegiate head-coaching career at Clarkson University. He became the youngest head coach in the nation (age 26) when he took the Clarkson job. He posted a 125-87-3 record in seven seasons there (1972-79), and his 1976-77 team went 26-8-0 and won the ECAC, earning him the Spencer Penrose Trophy as the nation's Division I Coach of the Year.
York moved on to BGSU, taking the job on April 10, 1979. At BG, he won four CCHA regular-season titles, including three in a row from 1982-84. The Falcons also won one CCHA Tournament title during his tenure, and advanced to the NCAA tournament on six occasions. York was named the CCHA's Coach of the Year in 1981-82.
The highlight of York's 15-year BGSU career (1979-94), of course, was the 1983-84 season, as he guided the Falcons to a 34-8-2 overall record and a thrilling 5-4 quadruple-overtime victory over Minnesota-Duluth in the national championship game. York led three Falcon teams to 30 or more wins.
While at BGSU, York coached 10 players who earned first-team All-America honors, and saw four of his Falcon players earn Academic All-America recognition. He coached Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner George McPhee in 1982 and had three other BGSU players earn spots among the finalists for college hockey's top honor. A total of 23 different BG players earned first- or second-team All-CCHA recognition under his direction, and a total of 41 of his Falcons were drafted by National Hockey League organizations.
York enters the 2003-04 season with a nine-year record of 201-128-27 at Boston College. He led the Eagles to four consecutive NCAA "Frozen Four" berths (1998-2001) and guided BC to three Hockey East Tournament titles in that four-year span. Last season, the Eagles tied for the HE regular-season title and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in York's BC coaching tenure.
A 1967 graduate of BC, York earned three hockey letters (1965-67) for the Eagles as a centerman. He received first-team All-America (East) honors as a senior after sharing the national scoring title with 67 points. York began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under John "Snooks" Kelley at BC in 1968-69. He then moved to Clarkson where he served as an assistant coach for two years, before assuming the top spot when Len Ceglarski resigned to head BC's program.
York was inducted into the BC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982. He and his wife, Bobbie, have two grown children, Laura and Brendan.
The 2003 class of inductees, the 40th class in history, brings membership in the Athletic Hall of Fame to 177. The 1983-84 national championship hockey team is also in the Hall of Fame.
