Dennis "Red" Gendron (November 27, 1957 – April 9, 2021) was an ice hockey coach, most recently for the University of Maine men's ice hockey team. Gendron previously served as head coach for the

Albany River Rats The Albany River Rats were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Albany, New York at the Times Union Center. History Before the formation of the franchise Without a viable indoor arena with a ...

and

Indiana Ice The Indiana Ice was a Tier I junior ice hockey team and member club of the United States Hockey League (USHL) that was formed in 2004 when the Danville Wings were purchased and moved from their location in Danville, Illinois, to Indianapolis, I ...

and held multiple positions for the

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional sports, professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, and

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 ...

Coaching career

High school

Gendron's first coaching position was as assistant coach to Albie Brodeur for two seasons from 1979-1981 at his alma mater, Berlin High School. In 1981 he accepted his first head coaching position at Bellows Free Academy, in St. Albans, Vermont. During his nine years at BFA, Gendron led the Bobwhites to four state championships (1982, 1983, 1987, 1988) and was twice named Vermont coach of the year. While at BFA he coached future

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 ...

All-Star

John LeClair John Clark LeClair (born July 5, 1969) is an American former professional ice hockey player who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, and Pittsburgh Penguins. With the Flyers, LeCl ...

, coached

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, and taught history.

University of Maine (1990–93)

Gendron's entered the collegiate coaching ranks in 1990 as an assistant coach for

Shawn Walsh William Shawn Walsh (June 21, 1955 – September 26, 2001) was the head ice hockey coach for the University of Maine Black Bears. Career Walsh was a third-string goalie for Bowling Green State University. As a sophomore, he decided to concentrate ...

at the

men's hockey team. In his third season as an assistant at Maine, Gendron helped guide the Black Bears to the 1993 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship and an overall record of 42–1–2. During his two seasons as assistant coach at Maine Gendron coached two

Hobey Baker Award The Hobey Baker Award is an annual award given to the top National Collegiate Athletic Association men's ice hockey player. It has been awarded 41 times. It is named for Hall of Famer Hobey Baker, who played college hockey at Princeton University ...

winners, Scott Pellerin 1991–92 and Paul Kariya 1992–93.

New Jersey Devils/Albany River Rats

In the summer of 1993 the

hired Gendron to serve as a technological specialist for the 1993–94 season. The following season, 1994–95, Gendron was promoted to assistant coach serving under head coach

Jacques Lemaire Jacques Gerard Lemaire (born September 7, 1945) is a Canadian former ice hockey forward and head coach who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984. He spent his entire twelve-year National Hockey League (NHL) playing career with the Mon ...

and alongside fellow assistant coach

Larry Robinson Larry Clark Robinson (born June 2, 1951) is a Canadian former ice hockey coach, executive and player. His coaching career includes head coaching positions with the New Jersey Devils (which he held on two occasions), as well as the Los Angeles Ki ...

. That season the Devils would go on to defeat the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

to capture the team's first

Stanley Cup championship The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey (also known as the Stanley Cup Final among various media, french: Finale de la Coupe Stanley) is the National Hockey League's (NHL) championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, North Americ ...

. For the 1996–97 season, Gendron was named assistant coach of the

AHL affiliate

, a position he remained in until the 1999–00 season. During the 2000–01 and 2001–02 season Gendron served as a scout for the Devils. Gendron became head coach of the Albany River Rats for the 2002–03 season. He was replaced during the 2003–04 AHL season by

Robbie Ftorek Robert Brian Ftorek (born January 2, 1952) is an American professional ice hockey coach and former player. He was enshrined as member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991. Playing career Ftorek played in the 1962, 1963 and 1964 Queb ...

. During Gendron's tenure as a member of the New Jersey Devils organization the team won three Stanley Cup Championships

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; 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 ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and finished runner-up in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. His name was engraved on the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

in 1995 and 2000.

Indiana Ice

On June 17, 2004, the USHL's

named Gendron head coach.

University of Massachusetts

In July 2005 Gendron was hired by Don "Toot" Cahoon to serve as assistant coach for the

men's hockey team, a position he held for six seasons. While at UMass, he helped the Minutemen reach the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament where they eventually lost in the regional final to the

. That postseason appearance represented the first NCAA Division 1 tournament appearance for the Minutemen since the program rejoined Division 1 for the 1993–94 season.

Yale University

In 2011, Gendron was named associate head coach at

, a position he would remain in for two seasons. In his second season as an associate head coach of the Bulldogs, Gendron helped guide the team to the first national championship in school history in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

University of Maine (2013–2021)

On May 17, 2013, Gendron was named the fifth head coach in the history of the University of Maine men's hockey.

International

Gendron served as an assistant coach for 1993, 2001, and 2002 World Junior Championships for Team USA and also has worked several U.S. Select 16 and 17 teams.

Author

Gendron's book ''Coaching Hockey Successfully'', published in 2002, is used by

USA Hockey USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the Sport governing body, governing body for organized ice ...

as the advanced-level manual for its coaching education program.

Personal life

Gendron grew up in

Berlin, New Hampshire Berlin ( ) is a city along the Androscoggin River in Coös County in northern New Hampshire, United States. It is the northernmost city in New Hampshire. The population was 9,425 at the 2020 census, down from 10,051 at the 2010 census. It ...

, graduated from Berlin High School in 1975, and played on the state championship hockey team his senior year. Gendron attended

New England College New England College (NEC) is a private liberal arts college in Henniker, New Hampshire. As of Fall 2020 New England College's enrollment was 4,327 students (1,776 undergraduate and 2,551 graduate). The college is regionally accredited by the Ne ...

Henniker, New Hampshire Henniker is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, the reported total population of the town was 6,185, although the figure, 27.9% greater than the 2010 population, has been questioned by local officials. ...

where he studied History and Secondary Education, played on the baseball team, and played defenseman and served as a three-year captain for the hockey team. He and his wife, Janet, had two daughters, Katelyn and Allison. Gendron was fluent in both French and English, and spoke some Russian. Gendron died after a medical event while golfing on April 9, 2021.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Official Biography, Maine Black Bears
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gendron, Red 1957 births 2021 deaths Albany River Rats coaches High school ice hockey coaches in the United States Maine Black Bears men's ice hockey coaches New Jersey Devils coaches New Jersey Devils scouts Sportspeople from Boston Stanley Cup champions UMass Minutemen ice hockey coaches Yale Bulldogs men's ice hockey coaches