On April 13, Jerry York announced his retirement from his position as head coach of the Boston College men’s hockey team. York retires as the winningest head coach in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ice hockey history, winning 1123 games, 626 of which he won at Boston College.
In his 50-year career as a head college hockey coach at Clarkson (1972-79), Bowling Green (1979-1994), and BC (1994-2022), York won five NCAA national championships, one with Bowling Green (‘84) and four with BC (‘01, ‘08, ‘10, ‘12), making him one of three head coaches in NCAA history to win a national championship with two different schools. York also holds the record for NCAA tournament victories, winning 41 tournament games in his coaching career. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.
York joined the BC hockey program as a player in 1963. In his junior year, he was a part of the team’s Beanpot title and runner-up finish in the NCAA tournament.
“As a student at BC during the 1960s, I sensed the Jesuit influence in my whole being,” York wrote in the Fall 2017 issue of C21 Resources, a publication of BC’s Church in the 21st Century (C21) Center. “They stressed important principles such as ‘Ever to Excel,’ making the right choices, helping others, and doing more for the people around you … My faith-inspired Jesuit education helped shape my decision-making, how I raised my family, and how I conducted myself professionally. It has always played a unique role in my life.”
York’s experience with Jesuit formation, however, began from his childhood. Dr. Robert York, his father, received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Georgetown University and cared for a number of Jesuits from the BC community in his home office.
“I was always so impressed by them and the way they conducted themselves,” York wrote of the Jesuits. “I was the eighth of 10 children and certainly knew we were destined for Jesuit education. I remember vividly the day a nun in my Catholic grammar school told me I had been accepted to Boston College High School. It was a joyous day for me and my family.”
“He is a great hockey coach. He is a better person,” said Pat Kraft, Director of Athletics at BC at that time, introducing York at his retirement press conference on April 19. “[It’s] never about him. He’s one of the finest human beings I’ve been around in my entire life, so this is a tough day.”
“You talk all about hall-of-fames,” York said later in the press conference, “but I want to be, and I aspire to be, a husband that makes the hall-of-fame, a father that makes the hall-of-fame, a friend to a number and number of people that would make me in the hall-of-fame, so those hall-of-fames [are] more important to me than the other one.”
“Faith, family, and Boston College have been the foundation of my daily life,” York wrote in an April 24 letter to The Heights. “I hope all of you discover your passion and live within it every day. Support your teams, love your University, and live your life as men and women for others.”
Featured Image Courtesy of BC Twitter
Adam is a senior from Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as Campus News and Culture Editor, and boasts the title of least cultured to ever serve as the latter. Holding a minor in Biology, he recently converted from STEM and now majors in Philosophy and Classical Studies. He currently leads Una Voce, the Latin Mass society at BC, and sings with the University Chorale of Boston College and the Chorale Chamber Singers. He enjoys Gregorian Chant, relearning the clarinet, and is an unabashed Ohio apologist.
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