ITHACA, N.Y. -- Nevin D. (Ned) Harkness, the first coach to win national championships in two different sports, passed away on Friday morning at the age of 89. Harkness coached both ice hockey and lacrosse at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University and Union College, as well as for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League during a storied career that saw him inducted into numerous Halls of Fame. He engineered the only unbeaten and untied season in college hockey history and was revered for his relationships with players well beyond his coaching days.
Harkness guided the 1970 Cornell hockey team to a perfect 29-0-0 record, the only unbeaten, untied national championship team in NCAA history. His teams won five Ivy League, four Eastern and two NCAA championships (1967, 70), and he earned national Coach of the Year honors in 1968. He also coached lacrosse for the Big Red for three seasons, compiling a 35-1 overall record with two Ivy League titles (1966 and 1968) and a runner-up finish (1967).
In 1963, after spending the previous 22 years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Harkness moved to Cornell, where he took over the men's hockey program. In just his third season, he led the Big Red to a 22-5 record and its first-ever berth in the ECAC tournament. The following year, Cornell went 27-1-1 and claimed its first NCAA championship, defeating Boston University by a 4-1 score in Syracuse, N.Y.
Over the next three seasons, Harkness' last with the Big Red, Cornell put together an astounding 83-4 record, appearing in the NCAA tournament all three years, and culminating with the 29-0-0 squad that captured the NCAA title in 1970 with a 6-4 victory over Clarkson at Lake Placid, N.Y.
In 1965, tragedy struck the Cornell athletic family when two Big Red assistant lacrosse coaches were killed when their plane crashed on their way home from a recruiting trip. Harkness was called upon to assist head lacrosse coach Bob Cullen, and the next year, after Cullen stepped down, Harkness was made the new head coach of Big Red lacrosse at the request of his players. Over his three years directing the lacrosse team, he posted a 35-1 record and won a pair of Ivy League titles that were sandwiched around a runner-up finish.
After he won his second NCAA hockey title with the Big Red, Harkness resigned to become the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League, becoming the first coach to make the jump from college to professional hockey. He coached the Red Wings for the first 38 games of the 1970-71 season before becoming the team's general manager, a post he held through the 1973-74 season.
Harkness began his career in 1941 at the age of 22, coaching lacrosse on an informal basis at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. When the school formally established a team in 1945, he was selected as the program's first head coach. Five years later, in 1950, he became the head coach of the newly re-established ice hockey team at RPI.
While coaching both sports, he began to develop the ice hockey program into a national powerhouse. Just three years after being named coach, he led the Engineers to the NCAA tournament, where they finished third. The following season, he led the squad back to the NCAA tournament, where they claimed victories over Michigan and Minnesota to win the 1954 national championship.
Harkness would coach the Engineers hockey program for 14 seasons, compiling a 176-96-7 record with three NCAA tournament appearances and a national title. He was also responsible for the inaugural RPI Holiday Tournament in 1951, the oldest in-season hockey tournament in the nation. His mark coaching the RPI lacrosse program was equally impressive, as he had a 112-26-2 record and led his teams to the national lacrosse championship in 1952.
After his stint in Detroit, Harkness returned to the collegiate coaching ranks in 1975, becoming the head coach of the new program at Union College. He led Union to a 46-8-3 record before resigning in the middle of the 1977-78 season. He would later serve as the president of the New York Olympic Regional Development Authority at Lake Placid, the site of his most triumphant moment with the undefeated, untied Cornell squad in 1970, and helped to run the facilities at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.
Harkness had an additional connection with the Olympic Games, coaching a team of RPI lacrosse players to an 8-0-1 record at the 1948 games in London, England, including a tie with a British All-Star team at the famed Wembley Stadium in front of 60,000 people.
Harkness was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981, the RPI Athletics Hall of Fame in 1982, the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 1993, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1994, the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Rensselaer Hockey Ring of Honor in 2007. In addition, the Ned Harkness Alumni Room at Cornell's Lynah Rink and RPI's Ned Harkness Field and Track have been named in his honor.
A memorial service is being planned for 11 a.m. on October 11 at the First Presbyterian Church in Glens Falls, N.Y.
Cornell Athletics Reaction to the Passing of Ned Harkness
Cornell athletics lost a dear friend with the passing of Ned Harkness. Ned was a legendary coach and a great man, and he will be sorely missed by the entire Cornell community. I extend my sincere condolences to the Harkness family on this difficult day.
Andy Noel, The Meakem-Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education
Ned was a legend, not just at Cornell but in the hockey world. As a coach, he had a positive impact on a lot of lives. He was a pioneer of the winning hockey tradition here at Cornell. Today is a sad day for Cornell Hockey, for college hockey, and for all those that Ned has touched in his life.
Mike Schafer, The Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey
Coach Harkness was larger than life. I will cherish the time we spent together and will forever be grateful for the guidance he was willing to share. He will always be remembered for his tremendous achievements as a coach or mentor but I will remember him most for the compassion, patience and leadership he provided our current staff and team, long after he hung up his whistle. The Cornell Lacrosse program lost one of the greatest coaches and men of all time, but we will never forget, and will always honor, his legacy.
Jeff Tambroni, The Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse
Ned was very instrumental in getting me to come to Cornell. He gave a lot to the Ithaca community, the sport of hockey and the sport of lacrosse. He was extremely dedicated to his players and I'm sure that he'll be sorely missed by the many lives that he touched.
Richie Moran, head men's lacrosse coach from 1969 to 1997
Anyone who has had the opportunity and good luck to have been associated with him as a figure, as a model, as a man, as a leader and as a coach, to this day, there is no greater motivator out there. Even when I got out of coaching and into the business world, after all these years, there's never been a better motivator. He made such an impact on so many people, and he affected so many lives. I go back to the late 60s when he coached us, and look at what happened when he coached us. He always kept his feet on the ground, kept ours on the ground, and would do anything for you. No matter how many years after you left Cornell, he would still be there for you. He made such an impression and chagned so many lives just by being himself. To this day, I've not met anyone like him as a man, a father figure, as a model and as a coach. I can say specifically after games where we lost or didn't play very well, he'd give us a tongue lashing, but he'd never let us leave that locker room without feeling good about ourselves. That's a God-given talent, and he was able to do it. He never forgot anyone, but we knew he was always there. He impacted our lives to the nth degree, maybe even more than our own parents or more than any professor or boss or anything.
Dick Bertrand, tri-captain of 1969-70 national championship team and Harkness' successor as Cornell head coach
I wouldn't be at Cornell if it wasn't for Ned. As far as a coach, he was the kind that could get the most out of his players. He wasn't a tactician for the most part, but he knew who to kick in the pants when they needed to get going and who to pat on the back. He was very intense, he hated to lose, and I think that's what he tried to impart on his players. There were certain other coaches who respected him and others who totally feared him. He was a good assessor of talent, and he had the knack to convert forwards to defensemen and they became All-Americans. He relied on fundamentals, practices were intense, but he let things free-flow and let the individual talents go from there. He was very influential in a lot of people's lives and directing them into their future life. He loved his players and he is really going to be missed.
Pete Tufford, member of 1966-67 national championship team, All-American in 1969
The thing that impressed me about Ned was his authenticity. I think Ned was at Cornell for a relatively small number of years, but he was a real character in that there was no B.S. attached to him. He was always real, and in the years that have gone by since, there have been lots of pretenders in college athletics, but he was always real. He was also relentless in the pursuit of what he wanted. He was a friend for all those years, and I was just one of the guys, not a captain or anything, but he was always there.
Edward Ambis, member of 1969-70 national championship team
