After 23 years at the helm, Dartmouth College head coach Bob Gaudet announced his retirement earlier this week. Prior to joining the Big Green, Gaudet was also the head coach at Brown University.
The program’s all-time leader in both wins (331) and games coached (752), Gaudet has been the face of the Big Green men’s hockey program for 23 years, taking over at his alma mater prior to the start of the 1997-98 season.
“It has been an honor and privilege to serve in the Dartmouth Men’s Hockey program as a student-athlete, assistant coach, parent, head coach and a proud alumnus,” Gaudet said. “I’ve been so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to interact with so many talented coaches, staff members, faculty, administrators, alumni and especially players over the better part of the last four decades. As a team, we always talk about leaving the jersey in a better place once you exit Thompson Arena, and I hope that I have successfully accomplished that mission.”
This past season, Gaudet coached in his 1,000th career game as Dartmouth defeated Princeton, 4-3, on the road in overtime on Jan. 3. In doing so, he became just the seventh coach in NCAA hockey history to reach 1,000 games within one conference and the first in the long and storied ranks of ECAC Hockey to reach the milestone.
Gaudet was honored as the ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year in 2005-06 — just the second Dartmouth coach to earn the award — as he guided the Big Green to a share of the league’s regular-season crown and the postseason tournament’s No. 1 seed for the first time ever. For his efforts that year, Gaudet was also named a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award, presented to the National Coach of the Year.
A former Dartmouth goaltender, Gaudet led his team to a pair of Frozen Four appearances in 1979 and 1980 in Detroit and Providence. Following his playing career at Dartmouth, he signed a pro contract with the Winnipeg Jets and played in their minor league system before returning to Hanover to start his coaching career as an assistant under former head coaches George Crowe and Brian Mason.
“Bobby was a passionate teacher and coach who always put the welfare of his student-athletes first,” Athletics Director Harry Sheehy said. “He was a wonderful ambassador and terrific department member who truly saw the big picture and understood the role of athletics at Dartmouth. As a son of Dartmouth, his passion for Dartmouth Hockey was exceeded only by his love for the college. He leaves behind a powerful legacy forged through 23 years of impacting Dartmouth students. On a personal level, I will miss my interaction with Bobby greatly. I wish Bobby and his wife Lynne the very best as they enter the next chapter of their lives.”
