John Mariucci
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Mariucci (May 8, 1916 - March 23, 1987) was an American hockey player, administrator and coach. Mariucci was born in Eveleth, Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota where he played both for the hockey and football teams. He was named an All-American in hockey in 1940.
Mariucci played for the Chicago Black Hawks for 5 seasons. He followed that up with playing in both the American Hockey League and the United States Hockey League.
After his professional playing career ended, Mariucci became the head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team. He was noted for not attempting to sign Canadian players for his hockey teams, but instead relying on home-grown talent from Minnesota. This helped to grow youth and high school hockey programs in the state of Minnesota. He was coach at the university from the 1952-53 season until the 1965-66 season, except for the 1955-56 season in which he was the head coach of the US Olympic team that won a silver medal .
In 1967, he was named the assistant to general manager for the Minnesota North Stars. He held that position until his death in 1987.
The University of Minnesota honored him by first renaming the hockey arena in Williams Arena after him and later when a new hockey arena was opened in 1993, the school transferred his name to that one as well, Mariucci Arena. Mariucci is a member of both the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and NHL's Hockey Hall of Fame.
