Bill O'Flaherty

Bill O'Flaherty
Biographical details
Born	Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
Playing career
1967–1970	Clarkson
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1971–1979	Clarkson (assistant)
1979–1985	Clarkson
1984–1997	Clarkson (Athletic Director)
1997–2006	Los Angeles Kings (Dir. of Player Personnel)
2006–2007	Pittsburgh Penguins (Scout)
2007–2010	Florida Panthers (Dir. of Pro Scouting)
Head coaching record
Overall	134-59-12 (.683)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
	1981 ECAC Hockey West Region Champion; 1981 ECAC Hockey Champion; 1982 ECAC Hockey West Region Champion; 1982 ECAC Hockey Champion
Awards
	1981 Spencer Penrose Award

Last updated February 16, 2023

Bill O'Flaherty is a Canadian ice hockey player, coach and executive. He was the head coach of Clarkson for six years before moving on to become the school's Athletic director, compiling one of the highest winning percentages in the history of college hockey.^[1]

Career

Bill O'Flaherty began attending Clarkson in 1967, playing under legendary coach Len Ceglarski for two full seasons and graduating in 1971 with a bachelor's in Humanities.^{[ citation needed ]} O'Flaherty immediately moved to coaching afterwards, taking a position at Clarkson first under Ceglarski, then Jerry York after the former left to become the head coach at Boston College in 1972.^[2] O'Flaherty remained as an assistant until York himself left to take over at Bowling Green ^[3] and O'Flaherty was chosen as his successor.

O'Flaherty had immediate and consistent success with the Golden Knights, winning 21 games in his first season (1979–80) and continuing that trend for his entire tenure. In his second and third seasons O'Flaherty got Clarkson 26-wins which provided the team with their only 2 back-to-back ECAC Hockey regular season titles in school history and getting them to their first NCAA tournament in over a decade.^[4] In six seasons behind the bench O'Flaherty provided five 20-win seasons, 6 winning records, 3 NCAA tournament berths, and 2 conference regular season titles. O'Flaherty was awarded the Spencer Penrose Award in 1981 for prompting Clarkson to a superb season, the fourth consecutive coach at Clarkson to earn the honour.^[5]

O'Flaherty moved into the front office, assuming the sole duties as Clarkson's Athletic Director in 1986 and remaining at that post until 1997 when he jumped to the NHL to serve as Director of Player Personnel for the Los Angeles Kings. O'Flaherty joined the staff of the Pittsburgh Penguins as professional scout for one season (2006–07) before becoming the Director of Pro Scouting for the Florida Panthers, remaining there until 2010.^[6]

Personal life

Bill is the son of former NHLer John "Peanuts" O'Flaherty who spent most of his career in the minor leagues for the Pittsburgh Hornets.^[7] Bill's brother Gerry O'Flaherty was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1970 and spent parts of 8 seasons in the NHL as a player, eventually winning 3 Stanley Cups as a scout.^[8]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Clarkson Golden Knights (ECAC Hockey)(1979–1985)
1979–80	Clarkson	21-12-1	14-7-0	5th	ECAC Consolation Game (Loss)
1980–81	Clarkson	26-7-4	17-2-1	1st	NCAA Quarterfinals
1981–82	Clarkson	26-8-1	15-4-1	1st	NCAA Quarterfinals
1982–83	Clarkson	19-11-1	13-6-1	5th	ECAC Quarterfinals
1983–84	Clarkson	21-11-2	14-6-0	4th	NCAA Quarterfinals
1984–85	Clarkson	21-10-3	15-6-0	3rd	ECAC Consolation Game (Loss)
Clarkson:		134-59-12	88-31-3
Total:		134-59-12
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

^[9]

Related Research Articles

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References

↑ "NCAA Career Coaching Records — Win Pct". Inside College Hockey. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "Len Ceglarski Year-By-Year Coaching Record". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "Jerry York Year-By-Year Coaching Record". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "Clarkson Men's Hockey Team History". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "NCAA Division 1 Awards". College Hockey Historical Archive. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "Panthers hire Bill O'Flaherty as Director of Pro Scouting". Florida Panthers. 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "John "Peanuts" O'Flaherty". Hockey DB. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "Gerry O'Flaherty". Hockey Draft Central. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
↑ "2013-14 Clarkson Media Guide". ISSUU.com. Retrieved 2014-07-11.

External links

Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com , or The Internet Hockey Database

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Rick Comley	Spencer Penrose Award 1980–81	Succeeded by Fernie Flaman

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "NCAA Career Coaching Records — Win Pct". Inside College Hockey. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[2] "Len Ceglarski Year-By-Year Coaching Record". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[3] "Jerry York Year-By-Year Coaching Record". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[4] "Clarkson Men's Hockey Team History". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[5] "NCAA Division 1 Awards". College Hockey Historical Archive. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[6] "Panthers hire Bill O'Flaherty as Director of Pro Scouting". Florida Panthers. 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[7] "John "Peanuts" O'Flaherty". Hockey DB. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[8] "Gerry O'Flaherty". Hockey Draft Central. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

[media-9] "2013-14 Clarkson Media Guide". ISSUU.com. Retrieved 2014-07-11.

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v t e Clarkson Golden Knights men's ice hockey
Playing venues	Ives Park (1920–1923, 1925–1938) Clarkson Rink (1923–1925) Walker Arena (1938–1991) Cheel Arena (1991–Present)
Head coaches	Gordon Croskery (1923–1929) Jack Roos (1929–1948) Bill Harrison (1948–1958) Len Ceglarski (1958–1972) Jerry York (1972–1979) Bill O'Flaherty (1979–1985) Cap Raeder (1985–1988) Mark Morris (1988–2002) Fred Parker (2002–2003) George Roll (2003–2011) Casey Jones (2011–Present)
Seasons	1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23
Conference affiliations	Tri-State League 1950–1972 ECAC Hockey (1961–Present)
Rivalries	Rensselaer St. Lawrence
Culture & lore	North Country Thanksgiving Festival
All-time leaders	Statistical leaders Dave Taylor (251 Points) Kevin Zappia (103 Goals) Dan Murphy (85 Wins)
Frozen Four appearances	1957 1958 1962 1963 1966 1970 1991
NCAA Tournament appearances	1957 1958 1962 1963 1966 1970 1981 1982 1984 1990 1991 1992 1993 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2007 2008 2018
Conference Tournament titles	1966 1991 1993 1999 2007
Clarkson University Potsdam, NY