Don Roberts Don Roberts is a former college men ' s ice hockey coach . From 1964 to 1997 , he was the head hockey coach at Gustavus Adolphus College in St . Peter , Minnesota . At the time of his retirement in 1996 , he was the winningest hockey coach in NCAA Division III history . He received the John MacInnes Award from the American Hockey Coaches Association in 1993 and the Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award in 2009 . As of 2010 , he ranks 15th all - time among college men ' s ice hockey coaches with 532 wins . Early years . Roberts grew up in Appleton , Minnesota , where he was a star basketball player . He enrolled at Gustavus Adolphus College in the early 1950s and played four years at halfback and fullback on the school ' s varsity football team under Coach Lloyd Hollingsworth . He played on three Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship football teams and was selected as an All - MIAC fullback in 1955 . He also played basketball and baseball , but not hockey , while he was a student at Gustavus . After college , Roberts served for three - and - a - half years in the United States Marine Corps , reaching the rank of captain . While stationed at Camp Pendleton in California , Roberts began coaching baseball and football . Roberts later recalled , " There is no greater place to learn about leadership than in the Corps . " In 1959 , Roberts was offered a position as a teacher and coach at Gustavus . He returned to Gustavus in the fall of 1959 and became the school ' s wrestling coach . After the 1960 football season , Lloyd Hollingsworth resigned , and Roberts was appointed as the new head football coach . He stepped down as the school ' s wrestling coach in 1962 to focus on the football program . He was the head football coach at Gustavus for five seasons from 1961 to 1965 . Gustavus hockey coach . In 1964 , several schools in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference ( " MIAC " ) decided to add hockey to the conference ' s sports programs . Though he had never played or coached hockey before in his life , Roberts was appointed as the school ' s hockey coach . He later recalled , " I didn ' t have a winter sport , so I was the new hockey coach . The story was that I couldn ' t skate . Actually , I had skated occasionally on the Pomme de Terre River growing up in Appleton . We played some shinny hockey , using a pop can as a puck . " He also recalled the teasing he received about his unsteadiness on ice skates : " On skates , I was a 30 - year - old mite . I would stumble a lot . I started coaching in boots . The players would laugh at me . I was a good handball player . If someone laughed too hard , he had to play me in handball . " In an effort to learn the basics of the sport , Roberts bought a book by Dartmouth College coach Eddie Jeremiah . Thirty years later , he said of Jeremiah ' s book , " It ' s still the best teaching manual ever about hockey . " In Roberts ' first year as a hockey coach , the 1965 team finished with a record of 1 - 14 . However , Roberts compiled a 16 - 2 record and won an MIAC championship in 1966 . From 1966 to 1978 , Roberts ' hockey teams compiled a record of 235 - 64 - 1 and won 12 of 13 MIAC conference championships . Roberts also served as the chairman and president of the American Hockey Coaches Association and was a member of the NCAA Rules and Hockey Advisory Committees for many years . Career record and honors . In 33 years as the head coach at Gustavus , Roberts compiled a record of 532 wins , 290 losses and 25 ties . At the time of his retirement in 1996 , he ranked first in career wins in NCAA Division III history . As of 2010 , he ranks 16th all - time among college men ' s ice hockey coaches with 532 wins . Roberts has been the recipient of many awards for his accomplishments and contributions to college hockey . His awards include the following :