Robert A. Kullen (1949 – November 2, 1990) was an American

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 ...

coach and player. He was the

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 ...

of the University of

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

for a short time in the late 1980s before a rare heart condition that necessitated a

heart transplant A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common proce ...

forced him to step away from his position and ultimately cost him his life a month later. In addition to coaching New Hampshire's ice hockey team, he also coached the New Hampshire golf team and soccer team.

Career

Bob Kullen starred as a defenseman for

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

until graduating in the spring of 1971. He continued playing in a short minor league career, appearing for the Braintree Hawks in two seasons then for the Manchester Monarchs (CAHL), Manchester Monarchs in the only year the Can-Am Hockey League was in operation before calling it quits after 1974. He turned to coaching afterwards, finding his way onto the staff of Charlie Holt at

starting in 1977–78 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, 1977–78 and remaining as an assistant there until Holt's retirement in 1985–86 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, 1985–86. Kullen was chosen as Holt's successor and began rebuilding the team that had won only 5 games the year before. His first two recruiting classes lay the foundation for UNH's success in the 1990s, included NHL players Chris Winnes, Adren Plavisc, Kevin Dean, Scott Morrow, and All-Americans Joe Flanagan and Domenic Amodeo, and Hockey East all-stars David MacIntyre and Savo Mitrovic. After a season of modest gains it was discovered that Kullen suffered from a rare form of heart disease and had to have an immediate heart transplant that caused him to miss the entire 1987–88 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, 1987–88 season. Another long-time UNH assistant, Dave O'Connor filled in for Kullen, but the team was predictably flat in his absence. Kullen returned behind the bench the following year and continued the work he had started, getting the team to 12 wins in 1988–89 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, 1988–89 and then followed it up with a 17–17–5 mark, their first .500 season since leaving ECAC Hockey after 1983–84 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, 1983–84. While he was expecting to continue coaching for the foreseeable future, Kullen began rejecting the transplanted heart in the fall of 1990 and was forced to turn over the team to Dick Umile to recover but he died about a month later on November 2. In his memory, Hockey East renamed their List of Bob Kullen Coach of the Year Award, Coach of the Year Award in his honor and fittingly the first recipient of the 'Bob Kullen Coach of the Year Award' was the man who replaced him at New Hampshire. in 1991 Bob Kullen became the first player to have his uniform number retired by Bowdoin College in the history of the athletic department.

Head coaching record

References

External links

*
Bob Kullen Historical Record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kullen, Bob 1949 births 1990 deaths American ice hockey coaches Bowdoin Polar Bears men's ice hockey players College golf coaches in the United States Ice hockey coaches from Massachusetts New Hampshire Wildcats men's ice hockey coaches New Hampshire Wildcats men's soccer coaches Sportspeople from Milton, Massachusetts American soccer coaches Ice hockey people from Norfolk County, Massachusetts Ice hockey players from Massachusetts

Career

Head coaching record

See also

References

External links