Abner Oakes III (13 February 1934 - 29 May 2021) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and coach who spent his entire athletic career with

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

Career

After graduating from

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

, Abner Oakes attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

in the autumn of 1952, playing for the ice hockey team under

Eddie Jeremiah Edward John Jeremiah ( hy, Էդդի Ժերեմիա; November 4, 1905 – June 7, 1967) was an American professional ice hockey player who played 15 games in the National Hockey League for the New York Americans and Boston Bruins during the 1931� ...

. Oakes began his career as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

but was shifted to defence during his second season and remained there until he graduated in 1956. Afterwards Oakes signed up for active duty in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, serving four years before becoming a naval reservist. While in the reserves Oakes returned to Dartmouth and served as an assistant under Jeremiah at the end of Jeremiah's career. When Jeremiah stepped away from the team for the 1963-64 season, so that he could coach th
1964 men's Olympic team
Oakes served as an interim

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

and three years later became the full-time bench boss when Jeremiah retired. Oakes stayed with the Big Green until

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

before stepping down and moving to Hamden, Connecticut. He served in the reserves until 1988, retiring as a

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

. In 2010 Oakes was inducted into th
Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oakes, Abner 1934 births 2021 deaths Canadian ice hockey defencemen Dartmouth Big Green men's ice hockey coaches Dartmouth Big Green men's ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Quebec Anglophone Quebec people People from Shawinigan Phillips Academy alumni United States Navy officers People from Hamden, Connecticut Sportspeople from New Haven County, Connecticut