John Mariucci

John Mariucci
John Mariucci
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1985 (Builder)
Born	May 8, 1916; Eveleth, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	March 23, 1987 (aged 70); Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight	200 lb (91 kg; 14 st 4 lb)
Position	Defence
Shot	Left
Played for	Chicago Black Hawks
Playing career	1940–1952
	Coaching career
Biographical details
Alma mater	University of Minnesota
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1952–1955	Minnesota
1956–1966	Minnesota
Head coaching record
Overall	197–140–18 (.580)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
	1953 MCHL Champion; 1954 WIHL Champion; 1960 Big Ten Champion; 1961 WCHA Tournament Champion; 1963 Big Ten Champion; 1965 Big Ten Champion; 1966 Big Ten Champion
Awards
	1953 Spencer Penrose Award

John Mariucci (May 8, 1916 – March 23, 1987) was an American ice hockey player, administrator and coach. Mariucci was born in Eveleth, Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota where he played for both the hockey and football teams. He was named an All-American in hockey in 1940. Mariucci was inducted into the inaugural 1973 class of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1985.

Playing career

After starring for the Eveleth hockey and football teams, Mariucci went to college at the University of Minnesota where he played both sports – leading his hockey squad to an undefeated AAU championship in 1940.^[1] Mariucci played for the Chicago Black Hawks for five seasons and was the team captain in 1945–46 and 1947–48. Mariucci was known primarily as a defensive-minded bruiser, finishing with only 11 goals and 34 assists in 223 games, but totaled 308 penalty minutes. He lost three seasons while serving in World War II (1942–43 through 1944–45), but played two seasons for the United States Coast Guard Cutters in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League.^[1] Mariucci's best season with the Black Hawks came in 1946–47 when he played in 52 of the team's 60 games and finished with 9 goals and 11 assists and his 110 penalty minutes were second in the league to Gus Mortson.

On October 28, 1948, Chicago traded Mariucci to the St. Louis Flyers of the American Hockey League for cash. After one season in St. Louis, on September 4, 1949, Mariucci was traded to the Minneapolis Millers in the United States Hockey League (USHL), again for cash. He spent the 1950–51 season with the USHL St. Paul Saints and then returned to the Millers (this time in the All-American Hockey League) for the 1951–52 season before retiring.

Coaching career

After his professional playing career ended, Mariucci became the head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team. He was noted for not attempting to sign Canadian players for his hockey teams, but instead relying on home-grown talent from Minnesota. This helped to grow youth and high school hockey programs in the state of Minnesota. He was coach at the university from the 1952–53 season until the 1965–66 season, except for the 1955–56 season in which he was the head coach of the US Olympic team that won a silver medal. Mariucci's best Gopher team came in 1953–54 when Minnesota would advance all the way to the NCAA finals before losing to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 5–4 in overtime.

In 1967, he was named the assistant to the general manager for the Minnesota North Stars, with Glen Sonmor becoming the Gophers' coach. He eventually worked for Lou Nanne, one of his Gopher Hockey players, and held the position with the North Stars until his death in 1987. He returned to the international scene as the head coach of the United States team at the 1976 and 1977 Ice Hockey World Championships.

He was involved in a bizarre confrontation with Nanne during the 1977^[2] championships. After loudly criticizing Nanne during the game against the Soviet Union, Nanne responded by charging his coach, which led to a fist fight while the game continued. After the game finished, the fight continued until both men were separated by players and officials.^[3]

The University of Minnesota honored him by first renaming the hockey arena in Williams Arena after him and later when a new hockey arena was opened in 1993, the school transferred his name to that one as well, Mariucci Arena.

In 1983, the John Mariucci Award, began to be awarded to the Minnesota High school coach of the year, as selected by the state's hockey coaches, as Mariucci is immortalized as the "Godfather of Minnesota Hockey".^[1]

Upon his death, the Minnesota North Stars wore a memorial round patch, with initials JM within, for parts of the 1987–1988 season.

Career statistics

			Regular season					Playoffs
Season	Team	League	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1939–40	University of Minnesota	AAU	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1940–41	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL	23	0	5	5	33	5	0	2	2	16
1940–41	Providence Reds	AHL	17	3	3	6	15	—	—	—	—	—
1941–42	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL	47	5	8	13	44	3	0	0	0	0
1942–43	United States Coast Guard Cutters	EAHL	45	23	23	46	67	12	4	8	12	14
1943–44	United States Coast Guard Cutters	EAHL	34	11	16	27	29	12	3	8	11	18
1945–46	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL	50	3	8	11	58	4	0	1	1	10
1946–47	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL	52	2	9	11	110	—	—	—	—	—
1947–48	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL	51	1	4	5	63	—	—	—	—	—
1948–49	St. Louis Flyers	AHL	68	12	30	42	74	7	0	1	1	12
1949–50	Minneapolis Millers	USHL	67	8	24	32	87	7	0	2	2	23
1950–51	St. Paul Saints	USHL	59	2	28	30	85	4	0	0	0	0
1951–52	Minneapolis Millers	AAHL	39	18	31	49	45	—	—	—	—	—
NHL totals			223	11	34	45	308	12	0	3	3	26

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Minnesota Golden Gophers (MCHL) (1952–1953)
1952–53	Minnesota	23–6–0	16–4–0	1st	NCAA Runner-Up
Minnesota:		23–6–0	16–4–0
Minnesota Golden Gophers (WIHL) (1953–1955)
1953–54	Minnesota	23–6–1	16–3–1	1st	NCAA Runner-Up
1954–55	Minnesota	16–12–2	11–12–2	3rd
Minnesota:		39–18–3	27–15–3
Minnesota Golden Gophers (WIHL) (1956–1958)
1956–57	Minnesota	12–15–2	7–15–2	6th
1957–58	Minnesota	16–11–0	13–11–0	4th
Minnesota:		28–26–2	20–26–2
Minnesota Golden Gophers (Big Ten) (1958–1959)
1958–59	Minnesota	12–10–2	4–3–1	2nd
Minnesota:		12–10–2	4–3–1
Minnesota Golden Gophers (WCHA / Big Ten) (1955–1966)
1959–60	Minnesota	9–16–2	8–15–1 / 5–3–0	6th / 1st
1960–61	Minnesota	17–11–1	14–6–0 / 5–3–0	2nd / 2nd	NCAA Third Place Game (Win)
1961–62	Minnesota	9–10–2	5–10–1 / 0–3–1	6th / 3rd
1962–63	Minnesota	16–7–4	10–7–3 / 5–1–2	4th / 1st	WCHA First Round
1963–64	Minnesota	14–12–1	10–6–0 / 5–3–0	3rd / 2nd	WCHA First Round
1964–65	Minnesota	14–12–2	10–8–0 / 5–3–0	3rd / 1st	WCHA First Round
1965–66	Minnesota	16–11–0	13–9–0 / 5–3–0	t-2nd / 1st	WCHA First Round
Minnesota:		95–79–12	73–61–5 / 30–19–3
Total:		197–140–18
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "USA Hockey". USA Hockey. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
^ "Lou Nanne".
^ Stamp, Phil. "The Unusual - funny or strange hockey anecdotes". A-ZHockey.com. Retrieved July 30, 2012.

External links

Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database
Gopher Hockey History Coaches Info
John Mariucci Award

Sporting positions
Preceded by Clint Smith	Chicago Black Hawks captain 1945–46	Succeeded by Red Hamill
Preceded by Red Hamill	Chicago Black Hawks captain 1947–48	Succeeded by Gaye Stewart
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Cheddy Thompson	Spencer Penrose Award 1952–53	Succeeded by Vic Heyliger
Preceded by Vic Heyliger	Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award 1983	Succeeded by Murray Armstrong

[usahockey1-1] "USA Hockey". USA Hockey. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2011.

[2] "Lou Nanne".

[3] Stamp, Phil. "The Unusual - funny or strange hockey anecdotes". A-ZHockey.com. Retrieved July 30, 2012.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey
Playing venues	St. Paul Hippodrome (1923–1934) St. Paul Auditorium (1932–1950) (occasionally) Minneapolis Arena (1925–1950) (primary arena) Williams Arena (1950–93) 3M Arena at Mariucci (1993–present)
Head coaches	I. D. MacDonald (1921–23) Emil Iverson (1923–30) Frank Pond (1930–35) Larry Armstrong (1935–47) Doc Romnes (1947–52) John Mariucci (1952–55, 1956–66) Marsh Ryman (1955–56) Glen Sonmor (1966–71) Ken Yackel (1971–72) Herb Brooks (1972–79) Brad Buetow (1979–85) Doug Woog (1985–99) Mike Guentzel (1996) Don Lucia (1999–2018) Bob Motzko (2018–present)
Seasons	1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Conference affiliations	WCHA (1951–1958, 1959–2013) Big Ten (1958–1981, 2013–present)
Rivalries and trophy games	Minnesota Duluth North Dakota St. Cloud State Wisconsin Mariucci-Bessone Trophy with Michigan State Mariucci-Renfrew Trophy with Michigan
Culture & lore	Mariucci Classic North Star College Cup
All-time leaders	Statistical leaders John Mayasich (298 Points) John Mayasich (144 Goals) Kellen Briggs (84 Wins)
National championships	1974 1976 1979 2002 2003
Runner-Up Finishes	1953 1954 1971 1975 1981 1989 2014
Frozen Four appearances	1953 1954 1961 1971 1974 1975 1976 1979 1981 1983 1986 1987 1988 1989 1994 1995 2002 2003 2005 2012 2014 2022 2023
NCAA Tournament appearances	1953 1954 1961 1971 1974 1975 1976 1979 1980 1981 1983 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2012 2013 2014 2015 2017 2021 2022 2023 2024
Conference Tournament titles	WCHA 1961 1971 1974 1975 1976 1979 1980 1981 1993 1994 1996 2003 2004 2007
Notable players	Aaron Broten Neal Broten Kellen Briggs Mike Crowley Tim Harrer Jordan Leopold John Mayasich Pat Micheletti Todd Richards Robb Stauber
Hobey Baker Award winners	Neal Broten (1981) Robb Stauber (1988) Brian Bonin (1996) Jordan Leopold (2002)
University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN