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Hockey Godfather Honored in Minneapolis

By Minnesota Hockey, 12/05/14, 8:30AM CST

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As the State of Hockey, Minnesota has been home to many legendary coaches. Names like Mariucci, Brooks, Clark and Ikola will forever be etched into our history because of the lasting impact they had on not just the players they coached but the entire sport.

On December 4th, 2014, Bob O’Connor, another one of this state’s coaching godfathers, was honored with one of the most prestigious awards in hockey, the USA Hockey Builders Award.  O’Connor and his contributions to the game of hockey were recognized by USA Hockey in conjunction with the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2014 Induction Ceremony in Minneapolis.

An impressive symbol of O’Connor’s tremendous influence is that he is the first individual to receive all three of USA Hockey’s major awards. He was recognized with the Wm. Thayer Tutt Award in 1990 for his significant contributions to enhancing the game of hockey at the grassroots level. Then, he was honored in 1997 with the Walter Yaciuk Award for his dedication to the development and education of USA Hockey coaches.

“Coaches are the lifeblood of hockey,” said USA Hockey President Ron DeGregorio, prior to presenting O’Connor with the Builder’s Award. “You would be hard pressed to find someone that has contributed more in driving the USA Hockey Coach Education Program than Bob O’Connor.”

O’Connor started his coaching career in Edina under the guidance of Willard Ikola and Bart Larson, after moving to Minnesota following his playing career at Providence College.  O’Connor coached in the Edina area for nearly 20 years, spanning all age levels and impacting thousands of kids, including current Calgary Flames President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke.

It didn’t take long for O’Connor to set himself apart with his dedication to learning from other coaches. He started by watching Ikola and Larson, but over the course of his career, he studied coaching methods and collected coaching resources from Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia and many more.

“I would stay after practice and just watch these guys,” O’Connor told the City of Edina.  “You could almost say I relearned the game from watching the coaches’ coaching styles and methods.”

For O’Connor, learning about coaching hockey and passing that knowledge on was a lifelong passion.  Perhaps, the best indication of how important it was to him is the lasting legacy he has left in two of the largest hockey resource libraries in the world.

His passion for learning and education made him a great for USA Hockey’s Coaching Education Program (CEP).  O’Connor took his first role in the program when he became the Coach-in-Chief for USA Hockey’s Minnesota affiliate in 1980, a position he would hold through 1994.

Later, he would serve as the director of USA Hockey’s Coaches Section for ten years and spent several years at USA Hockey’s Coach-in-Chief where he guided the direction of coaching education and player development throughout the country, including the initial planning stages of USA Hockey’s Red, White and Blue Hockey for the Mite/8U level.

O’Connor was also involved in guiding several U.S. teams in international competition. He was a coach on seven U.S. select teams and as assistant coach for the 1991 and 1992 U.S. National Junior teams as well as the 1984 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey team.

As President DeGregorio stated, few, if any, have ever made the kind of impact on coaching that O’Connor, and he will forever be remembered here in the State of Hockey. 

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