Ned Harkness Nevin D . " Ned " Harkness ( b . September 19 , 1921 , Ottawa , Ontario ) was one of the pioneers not only of collegiate hockey but of the game of hockey in general in the United States . During his illustrious coaching career , Harkness won three NCAA championships and firmly established programs at Rensselaer , Cornell , and Union . Early Years . Harkness grew up in Ontario , but before coming of age , his family moved to the Glens Falls region north of Albany , NY . He graduated from the Worcester Academy in 1939 . In 1941 , Harkness became a volunteer coach for a group of students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy who were interested in forming a lacrosse club . Through that year and the next , the team practiced and scrimmaged with Harkness leading the way , eventually playing games against four varsity programs . World War II led to the disbanding of the team , but when the school formally established a varsity lacrosse program in 1945 , Harkness was asked to become its first coach . Within a year of its establishment , Ned Harkness had Rensselaer ranked among the best lacrosse teams in the country . In 1948 , he took the team to the Olympic Games in London , England , where the team would tie the British All - Star team before 60 , 000 at Wembley Stadium while amassing an 8 - 0 - 1 record in nine games played in England . Reviving RPI Hockey . Following World War II , RPI President Livingston Houston began looking for a way to re - establish hockey at the Institute , and Harkness was willing to lend his assistance . After the construction of the RPI Field House was completed in late 1949 , the team began play under Harkness in January 1950 . After leading the team to a 4 - 6 - 0 record in its first year , Harkness helped form the Tri - State League , which would become the first attempt at league organization of college hockey in the east . Later that year , Harkness devised the RPI Holiday Tournament , which has taken place every year since 1951 , making it the oldest in - season tournament in the nation . Harkness coached both hockey and lacrosse at Rensselaer throughout most of the 1950s and continued coaching hockey into the 1960s . In 1952 , while continuing to establish a serious hockey program , he coached the lacrosse team to an undefeated record and the national lacrosse championship , which predated the NCAA . That same year , Harkness led the hockey team to its first Tri - State title with a 15 - 3 overall record , though the title was later revoked when the team was found to be using an ineligble player . The team continued to improve rapidly on the ice under Harkness ' guidance . In 1953 , the team won its first official Tri - State championship and was invited to the NCAA Tournament for the first time , winning third place . The next season , Harkness guided RPI to an 18 - 5 overall record , a second straight Tri - State title , and a second straight trip to Colorado Springs for the NCAA Tournament . Though heavy underdogs , Harkness and his team upset traditional powerhouses Michigan and Minnesota to win the 1954 NCAA Championship . Though the team limped to a 9 - 11 - 2 record in the following year , Harkness would finish out the 1950s at Rensselaer with five straight winning seasons , taking the team back to the NCAA Tournament after the sixth in a row in 1961 . He would leave the lacrosse team in 1958 to focus on RPI hockey after leading the team to a record of 112 - 26 - 2 in 14 years , and left RPI hockey in 1963 after three NCAA appearances , two Tri - State titles , one NCAA championship , and a record of 176 - 96 - 7 record in 14 years . Moving to Ithaca . In 1963 , Harkness moved to Cornell University , where he replaced Paul Patten as the head coach of the hockey team . In his first year at Cornell , Harkness helped the team to a 12 - 10 - 1 record in the fledgling ECAC league . His sophomore effort saw the school amassing a team record 19 wins , an effort which paled in comparison to his next five years , which saw his stature rise to legendary status along with that of his star recruit . In 1966 , Harkness bested the previous year ' s total by winning 22 games while losing only 5 times . The following season , Ken Dryden came to Ithaca to play in net , and the team began reaping dividends immediately . 1967 saw an astounding 27 - 1 - 1 season for Cornell , which included a trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history , topped off by Harkness ' second NCAA championship as the Big Red defeated North Dakota and Boston University for the title . The domination continued for the remainder of Harkness ' time at Cornell . The next season , Cornell again went to the NCAA Tournament , again with 27 victories , but would lose to North Dakota in the semifinals before defeating Boston College for third place . Harkness again won 27 times in the 1968 - 69 campaign , the only regular season loss coming at the hands of his old team at Rensselaer in a game which later proved to save hockey at his old school a second time . Cornell would defeat Michigan Tech in the NCAA Tournament before dropping the championship game to Denver . Seemingly with little opportunity to improve upon the team ' s success , Harkness and his Cornell team achieved something no team had ever done and has never done since - run the table for a perfect record , undefeated and untied . Cornell capped a 29 - 0 - 0 season in 1970 with victories over Wisconsin and Clarkson in the NCAA Tournament , bringing Harkness his third and final NCAA championship , Cornell ' s second title in four years . Ironically , Harkness and his team accomplished this astounding task without Dryden , who is most often associated with the dominance of Cornell during the late 1960s . Amidst his success at Lynah Rink , Harkness returned to coaching lacrosse , coaching the Cornell lacrosse team to the 1966 and 1968 Ivy League titles , and reaching an astounding 35 - 1 record during his three years at the helm . A popular story credits Harkness with introducing the color red - perhaps a familiar color from his days at Rensselaer - to Cornell ' s hockey and lacrosse teams , which later spread throughout the school ' s athletic squads leading to the nickname " Big Red . " Following the 1970 NCAA championship , Harkness left Cornell on top to take on a brand new challenge - coaching in the National Hockey League . The NHL . Ned Harkness became the first college coach to become an NHL coach when the Detroit Red Wings took notice of his dominating teams at Cornell . At the time , the team was mired in a gradual downturn that Harkness had been brought in to rectify . It became obvious rather quickly that Harkness was in over his head . Over the course of 38 games , the Red Wings produced a dismal 12 - 22 - 4 record , and cars around Detroit began sporting bumper stickers which read " Darkness with Harkness . " Harkness was kicked upstairs to the general manager ' s position with the hope that he would flourish better making team management decisions rather than the on - ice supervision . He would hold that position for the rest of the 1970 - 71 season and for the next three seasons before leaving Detroit in 1974 . Union College . After his departure from the NHL , Harkness set his sights on college hockey once again . He returned to New York ' s Capital District , where he had lived in Glens Falls and coached the RPI Engineers . Union College had fielded a hockey team in the early 20th Century but had been unable to bounce back from the loss of the program during World War II . Harkness went to Union and helped create a new program from the ground up . Achilles Center was built , and Harkness was made rink manager and the team ' s coach . The school began play in NCAA Division III and with Harkness behind the bench , the team was instantly successful . The Skating Dutchmen finished with a 20 - 4 - 1 record in the 1975 - 76 season , their first since the 1940s , with a roster full of freshmen . Harkness followed up this initial success with a 22 - 3 - 1 season , and the young program was well on its way to becoming a Division III powerhouse . The 1977 - 78 season started off well for the Skating Dutchmen , as Harkness guided the team to a 4 - 1 - 1 record in their first 6 games . However , in late December , Harkness abruptly quit the team , and news began to leak that he had been having disputes with Union administration for quite some time . Upon hearing of their coach ' s decision to leave , the entire varsity roster of the Skating Dutchmen refused to play the remainder of the season in a show of solidarity with their coach . With a team made up of Junior Varsity and intramural players coached by an inexperienced coach , the Skating Dutchmen would lose their next game 19 - 1 and go on to lose every game remaining on their schedule .