Don 'Toot' Cahoon (born April 13, 1949) is a retired 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 h ...
coach. 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
Princeton Tigers
The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in ...
when they won their first
conference tournament championship in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
.
For almost 40 years Cahoon worked behind the bench of various collegiate hockey programs, reaching the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
tournament
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
twice as a head coach.
Career
Cahoon's start in collegiate hockey came as a player for
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
starting three seasons for the Terriers (typical as
freshman did not play
varsity at the time) which included back-to-back National Championships in
1971 and
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
. He also played for the United States national team at the 1972 ice hockey world championship pool B tournament in Romania.
After graduating with a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in education,
Cahoon continued his playing career for one more season, lacing it up for seven games for the
New England Blades of the
EHL, the league's last year in operation. Cahoon began his coaching career the following season, leading
Lehigh University
Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epi ...
club team to the 1973–74 Mid-Atlantic Conference title. After a successful campaign his first time out, Cahoon joined the staff at his
alma mater, becoming an assistant at BU under 2nd-year
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 ...
Jack Parker. Cahoon enjoyed as much success as an assistant with the Terriers as he had as a player, winning three consecutive conference tournament titles, three regular season titles, and the
1978 National Championship. After five years as an assistant coach Cahoon accepted the head coaching duties for the
Division II Norwich Cadets
Norwich University – The Military College of Vermont is a private senior military college in Northfield, Vermont. It is the oldest private and senior military college in the United States and offers bachelor's and master's degrees on-campus ...
. In his three seasons at Norwich Cahoon led the Cadets to the postseason each year while continuing the University's strong hockey tradition. After 1981–82 Cahoon headed across the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
to become the head coach and direction of hockey operations for the
Vienna Capitals
Vienna Capitals are an Austrian professional ice hockey club that participate in the Erste Bank Hockey League. Founded in 2001, the Capitals play their home games in Vienna, Austria, at Albert Schultz Eishalle. In the 2004–05 season, the Capit ...
.
Cahoon's European stint only lasted one season, however, and he was back as an assistant coach in college, this time for
Massachusetts-Lowell as they made the transition from D-II into the
Division I ranks. Though not unexpected Massachusetts-Lowell grew progressively worse while Cahoon was there and he left the university after his third season. After a year off, Cahoon returned to BU for the second time, spending a year as an assistant for Jack Parker before accepting a job as a pro scout for the
Minnesota North Stars
The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...
of the
NHL
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 ...
. Cahoon's second foray into professional hockey lasted only slightly longer than his first and he rejoined the Terriers two years after he left for the second time. During his third trip behind the bench for BU, Cahoon also served as the head coach for
Team USA
The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions.
Olympic teams
Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...
at the
1991 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
The 1991 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (''1991 WJHC'') was the 15th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship and was held in various communities in Saskatchewan, Canada. Canada won its second consecutive gold medal, and fifth o ...
, leading the Americans to a respectable 4th-place finish.
After 1991 Cahoon left Boston University for good when he received his first Division-I head coaching job, replacing
Jim Higgins at Princeton.
The Tigers were one of the founding members of
ECAC Hockey
ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...
and in the thirty years prior to Cahoon's arrival they had a winning season only once, in
1967–68. That trend continued for the early part of Cahoon's tenure but he was able to get the Tigers head's above water with a plus-.500 campaign in
1994–95. After a lull the following year, Cahoon pushed Princeton to three consecutive winning seasons, including a conference tournament title in
1997–98 and its first 20-win season the following year. Despite the success, Cahoon left the Tigers after the
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
season to take on the same role with
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, a team that had recently brought back its ice hockey program but had yet to see much success.
Similar to how he had improved Princeton, Cahoon took a couple of years to right the ship in
Amherst, posting two 8-win seasons before leading the Minutemen to a 19-win campaign in year three, their first winning record since joining
Hockey East
The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.
Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...
in 1994. Cahoon continued to enjoy moderate success with UMass for the next several seasons, hovering around .500, and brought the Minutemen to their first NCAA berth and win in
2007 behind the stellar goaltending of
Jonathan Quick
Jonathan Douglas Quick (born January 21, 1986) is an American professional ice hockey goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). Quick was selected in the third round, 72nd overall, by Los Angeles at the 2005 NHL ...
, but the results started to turn bad in the second decade of the 21st century and Cahoon agreed to resign from his post after the
2011–12 season.
Cahoon ended with a 346–398–78 record as a head coach.
Head coaching record
College
Awards and honors
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cahoon, Don
1949 births
Living people
American ice hockey coaches
Ice hockey coaches from Massachusetts
Minnesota North Stars scouts
Norwich Cadets men's ice hockey coaches
Sportspeople from Lynn, Massachusetts
Princeton Tigers men's ice hockey coaches
UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey coaches
UMass Minutemen ice hockey coaches
NCAA men's ice hockey national champions
Ice hockey players from Massachusetts