Ralph "Cooney" Weiland (November 5, 1904 – July 3, 1985) 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 h ...
forward who played for the
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...
,
Ottawa Senators
The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...
, and
Detroit Red Wings of the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
(NHL). Weiland was part of the Bruins' 1928
"Dynamite Line" with
Dutch Gainor
James Norman "Norm, Dutch" Gainor (April 10, 1904 – January 16, 1962) was a Canadian ice hockey professional forward. Gainor was most notable for playing on the Boston Bruins' 1928 "Dynamite Line" with Cooney Weiland and Dit Clapper, one of t ...
and
Dit Clapper
Aubrey Victor "Dit" Clapper (February 9, 1907 – January 20, 1978) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Clapper played his entire professional career for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was inducted into the Ha ...
, one of the earliest "named" forward lines in NHL history. He was born in
Egmondville, Ontario
Egmondville is an unincorporated rural community in Huron East, Huron County, Ontario, Canada.
History
The community was founded in 1845 by Constant Van Egmond, the eldest son of Anthony Van Egmond and named in honour of his father. Van Edmon ...
, but grew up in
Seaforth, Ontario
Seaforth (2021 population: 2,673) is a Southern Ontario community in the municipality of Huron East, in Huron County, Ontario, Canada.
History
Originally known as ''Four Corners'' and ''Steene's Corners'' after an early settler, much of the a ...
.
Career
Player
Weiland began playing junior hockey in Seaforth, where he spent three seasons with his hometown team. In 1923 he moved to
Owen Sound, Ontario
Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay.
The primary tourist attractio ...
to attend school, planning a career as a druggist. He joined that city's junior team, the
Owen Sound Greys, and led them to the 1924
Memorial Cup
The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...
as Canadian champions. He was the club's top scorer with 68 goals in 25 games.
After the Greys lost the 1925 OHA final to
Toronto Aura Lee, Weiland began a three-year stint with the
Minneapolis Millers
The Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, through 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League. The team played first in ...
of the old
American Hockey Association. That led to the start of his NHL career with Boston, where he celebrated his rookie campaign in
1928–29 with a Stanley Cup victory over the
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...
. It was the first Cup win in Bruins history.
In his second season during
1929–30, he scored 43 goals and 73 points in 44 games. That year, the NHL allowed forward passing for the first time, but it did not create its
offsides rule until December 1929. Weiland flourished under those conditions, shattering the NHL's single-season points record of 51 which had been set two years earlier by
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
legend
Howie Morenz
Howard William Morenz (September 21, 1902 – March 8, 1937) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Beginning in 1923, he played centre for three National Hockey League (NHL) teams: the Montreal Canadiens (in two stints), the Chicago Blac ...
. Weiland held the record alone until
1942–43, when
Doug Bentley
Douglas Wagner Bentley (September 3, 1916 – November 24, 1972) was a Canadian ice hockey left winger who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers as part of a senior and professiona ...
of the
Chicago Black Hawks
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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tied it, and shared it for one more year—Boston's
Herb Cain
Herbert James Cain (December 24, 1912 – February 23, 1982) was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Maroons, Montreal Canadiens, and Boston Bruins between 1933 ...
broke the record with 82 points in
1943–44.
Weiland scored four goals in Boston's 7–0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on February 25, 1930, becoming the third Bruin to achieve the feat.
The Bruins went to the Cup final again in 1930 but were swept by Montreal. Weiland had a brief career with Ottawa and played two seasons in Detroit, reaching the Cup final for a third time in 1934. One of his fellow Red Wings that year was
Teddy Graham, an old teammate from the 1924 Greys. Weiland returned to Boston in 1935 and retired in 1939 with 173 goals and 333 points in 510 career games. But he ended his NHL playing career as he had begun it; the Bruins defeated the
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...
and earned their second Stanley Cup.
Coach
He then stepped behind the bench as the club's new head coach and piloted Boston to its third Cup in
1940–41. Weiland helmed the
Hershey Bears
The Hershey Bears are a professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town located 14 miles east of the state capital of Harrisburg. The current Bears club has played in the American Hockey League since the 1938–39 season maki ...
of the
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...
for the next four seasons, then coached the league's New Haven entry for two more years. In 1950 he began his longest coaching stint, at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, where he compiled a record of 315-173-17 before retiring in 1971. That year also marked his induction into the
Hockey Hall of Fame.
A member of the
Beanpot
A beanpot is a deep, wide-bellied, short-necked vessel used to cook bean-based dishes. Beanpots are typically made of ceramic, though some are made of other materials, such as cast iron. The relatively narrow mouth of the beanpot minimizes evap ...
Hall of Fame, Weiland was twice named coach of the year by the American Hockey Coaches Association, first in 1955, when he led the Crimson to third place in the NCAA tournament, and again in his final season, when his team captured the ECAC tournament. The New England Hockey Writers Association named Weiland its coach of the year five times and honored him with the Schaefer Pen Award for contribution to amateur hockey in 1962. He received the Lester Patrick Award for contribution to hockey in the United States in 1972.
Weiland coached seven All-Americans, including three-time first-team selection Joe Cavanagh '71 and two-time pick
David Johnston
David Lloyd Johnston (born June 28, 1941) is a Canadian academic, author, and statesman who served from 2010 to 2017 as Governor General of Canada, the 28th since Canadian Confederation. He is the commissioner of the Leaders' Debates Commis ...
'63. His players earned a total of 26 first team All-Ivy honors, highlighted by the 1956–57 team, which was made up entirely of Crimson players.
Four of Weiland's Harvard players helped the 1960 U.S. Olympic team win the gold medal in Squaw Valley. Among that group was the legendary Bill Cleary '56, who went on to assist Weiland and succeed him as head coach. Cleary served in that role for 19 seasons and as athletic director for 11. He earned the Hobey Baker Legend of College Hockey Award in 1993.
Cufflinks presented to Weiland after Owen Sound's Memorial Cup win in 1924 are part of a permanent junior hockey exhibit at the
Hockey Hall of Fame in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
.
Career statistics
* Stanley Cup Champion.
Head coaching record
NHL
College
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiland, Cooney
1904 births
1985 deaths
Boston Bruins captains
Boston Bruins coaches
Boston Bruins players
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian ice hockey coaches
Detroit Red Wings players
Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey coaches
Hershey Bears coaches
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Ice hockey people from Ontario
Lester Patrick Trophy recipients
Memorial Cup winners
National Hockey League scoring leaders (prior to 1947–48)
Ottawa Senators (1917) players
Ottawa Senators (original) players
People from Huron County, Ontario
Stanley Cup champions
Stanley Cup championship-winning head coaches