James M. Cross (January 29, 1933 – May 2, 2020) was an American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and coach who led the

Vermont Catamounts The Vermont Catamounts are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs of the University of Vermont, based in Burlington, Vermont, United States. The school sponsors 18 athletic programs (8 men's, 10 women's), most of which compete in the Natio ...

of the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

for nineteen seasons.

Playing career

Cross graduated from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

in 1960, having played ice hockey for the

Terriers Terrier () is a type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many breeds or landraces of the terrier type, which are typically small, wiry, game, and fearless. There are five different groups of terrier, wi ...

for two seasons. In his senior year, he helped the team record a third-place finish at the 1960 NCAA men's ice hockey tournament. While at BU, Cross played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the Dennis Clippers of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 forme ...

Coaching career

After graduating from BU, Cross became the director of physical education at Lyman C. Hunt School, a position he held for four years before accepting the head coaching position at nearby

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

. Cross joined the program in only its third year of existence and took a few years to get the team going in the right direction. In 1970 Cross won his first

ECAC 2 ECAC 2 was an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's College Division. The league was created as a way to fairly divide the upper- and lower-class programs that had been members of ECAC Hockey. In 1984 the conference was sp ...

tournament title but did not participate in the national tournament because the Division II championship did not start until 1978. After two more good seasons Cross's teams won back-to-back ECAC II titles, and went undefeated in conference play in 1973, earning Cross 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 ...

that year. In 1974 Vermont promoted its program to Division I and was immediately accepted into

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 ...

. The Catamounts exceeded general expectation by finishing the season with a 24–12 record and in third place in the conference. The team also finished third in the ECAC tournament. After this promising start, Vermont declined to middling records for four years before winning an ECAC West divisional title in 1980. The 1979–80 season was Cross's last winning season, and over his final four years Vermont finished no higher than 12th in the conference. In 1984 Cross resigned, saying, "I want to step aside before I get to the burnout stage." Cross remained with the

until his retirement in 1994 and two years later was inducted into the University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame. He was honored in 2001 with the

American Hockey Coaches Association The American Hockey Coaches Association was formed in 1947 in Boston. The founding members coached college ice hockey but membership has grown to include coaches at every level of the sport from youth hockey to professional ice hockey, althou ...

's John MacInnes Award, which "recognizes those people who have shown a great concern for amateur hockey and youth programs." In 2019, Cross received the prestigious

Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award The Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award is an annual award presented by the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Committee to honor "one of the all-time great contributors to the game of College ice hockey, college hockey." In 1981, the Hobey Baker ...

, and in 2020, he was inducted into the

Vermont Sports Hall of Fame The Vermont Sports Hall of Fame is an athletics hall of fame in the U.S. state of Vermont. Above all, induction "is for accomplishments in sports and recreation that generate a great source of pride to the state." Launched as a project in 2011, ...

Later life and death

In his later years, Cross lived in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...

, and died there of complications from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

on May 2, 2020, at age 87, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia (U.S. state) The COVID-19 pandemic was first detected in the U.S. state of Georgia on March 2, 2020. The state's first death came ten days later on March 12. , there were 868,163 confirmed cases, 60,403 hospitalizations, and 17,214 deaths. All of Geo ...

College head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Jim 1933 births 2020 deaths American men's ice hockey centers Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey players Cape Cod Baseball League players (pre-modern era) Vermont Catamounts baseball coaches Vermont Catamounts men's ice hockey coaches Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox players Sportspeople from Weymouth, Massachusetts Ice hockey people from Norfolk County, Massachusetts Ice hockey coaches from Massachusetts Ice hockey players from Massachusetts Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American sportsmen