Wendall Francis Forbes was an American college coach for the

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 ...

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 ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and

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 ...

teams at

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

. He was the head coach men's ice hockey team for 22 years and was the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

coach of the year in 1975.

Career

Forbes graduated from Melrose High School in 1945 and joined the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

for the tail end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He left the service in 1946 and entered

Bridgton Academy Bridgton Academy is an all-male college preparatory school, college preparatory in Bridgton, Maine. Founded in 1808, the school sits at the northern tip of Long Lake in North Bridgton, Maine. The school has been NEASC accredited since 1934, making ...

before matriculating to

. After graduating in 1951, Forbes played in the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

organization for six years before ending his playing career and turned to coaching. He first worked at

Northfield High School Northfield High School (NHS) is a comprehensive, public high school in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. The school was built in 1966, with additions in 1993 and 1997. The school hosts grades 9-12. As of 2020 there are 1,235 students and 14 ...

but quickly transitioned to the college ranks. At

Norwich University 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 ...

he was a baseball coach, assistant football coach and the head coach for the freshman hockey team. He returned to Middlebury in 1962 and worked in several positions over the next 25 years. In 1964 Duke Nelson stepped down as the coach of the ice hockey team and allowed Forbes to take over. 'Wendy' took over the program just as it was transitions from

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...

into the second-tier ECAC 2. His team won the inaugural conference crown with a record of 11–2 and was able to lead the team to winning records most years. After a particularly poor year in 1974, Forbes got his team to rebound and won the first playoff game in team history. For the stark turnaround, Forbes received the

Edward Jeremiah Award The Edward Jeremiah Award is awarded yearly to the top coach in Division III men's ice hockey by the American Hockey Coaches Association. The finalists for each year's award comprise the conference Coach of the Year winners from each Division III ...

. After a slight lull in 1976, Middlebury became one of the top teams in ECAC 2 for the remainder of the decade. In 1979 the Panthers equaled the program high of 19 wins and captured the Western league championship with a 4–2 win over Norwich. Middlebury would have received an invitation to the NCAA Tournament, which was only in its second edition, however, Middlebury's primary conference was the

NESCAC The New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective liberal arts institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. Th ...

and league bylaws prohibited member schools from participating in national tournaments at the time. After another strong season in 1980, Forbes' team declined sharply and remained near the bottom of the league standings for the next several seasons. As the Panthers began to recover in the mid-80s, Forbes led the program through a second transition as virtually all of the Division II level was dropped down to D-III. He also help shepherd the team through a strange season when ECAC 2 formally split into two regional conferences (East and West). Forbes stepped down as the team's head coach in 1986 and retired. He was inducted into the Melrose High Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, the same year that he was able to see his successor,

Bill Beaney Bill Beaney Jr. (born July 21, 1951) is a retired college men's ice hockey coach. He has coached hockey teams in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, and was the head coach at Middlebury from 1986 until 2015. He led the Middlebury hockey team to ei ...

, lead the Panthers to their first

National Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

. He died in 1997 at the age of 70 and was survived by his two daughters, Cathy and Donna, as well as four grandchildren.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Find a Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Wendall 1927 births 1997 deaths American ice hockey coaches College golf coaches in the United States Ice hockey coaches from Massachusetts Middlebury Panthers men's ice hockey coaches Middlebury Panthers football coaches Middlebury Panthers baseball coaches Military personnel from Massachusetts People from Melrose, Massachusetts United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy sailors