John Harrington (ice hockey)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Olympic medal record | |||
| Men's Ice Hockey | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1980 Lake Placid | Team | |
John "Bah" Harrington (born May 24, 1957 in Virginia, Minnesota) was an American ice hockey forward and is currently a collegiate ice hockey coach.
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[edit] Playing career
John Harrington was a stand-out high school hockey athlete for Virginia High School in Minnesota's hockey-rich Iron Range under head coach Mike Sertich.
After Harrington's senior season at Virginia, Mike Sertich was hired as an assistant coach at Minnesota-Duluth. With Sertich's backing, Harrington tried out for the Bulldog hockey team and won a walk-on spot on UMD's roster. He lettered for four seasons at Minnesota-Duluth from 1975-79.
Following his collegiate playing career, Harrington was invited to try out for the 1979-80 US National team coached by the Minnesota Golden Gophers' Herb Brooks. Harrington made every cut and was placed on the Olympic roster for the 1980 Lake Placid games. The team went on to defeat the highly favored Soviet Union 4-3 in the first game of the Medal Round in an event named the “Miracle on Ice.” The team defeated Finland 4-2 two days later to capture the Gold Medal for the US. Harrington is credited with an assist on Mike Eruzione's go-ahead game-winning goal against the USSR.
Undrafted by the NHL, Harrington had a try-out with the Rochester Americans of the AHL following the Olympics, but didn't make the Amerks final roster. He played the 1980-81 season for Lugano in the Swiss league before returning to the US to play with the US National team from 1981-83. Between brief stints in the Central Hockey League, Harrington rejoined the Olympic hockey team for the 1984 Winter Olympics.
[edit] Coaching career
Following 1984, Harrington retired from playing and rejoined his college roots as an assistant coach under former Montreal Canadiens star Ralph Backstrom at the University of Denver. The highlight of Harrington's time at Denver was 1985-86 when Denver won a school record 34 games and advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four. In 1990 Harrington returned to Minnesota as an assistant coach for St. Cloud State University.
Since the 1993-94 season, Harrington has been the head hockey coach at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Harrington turned around a listless program at Saint John's. By his fourth season he had guided SJU to a school-record 26-6-1 mark, the school's first conference championship since 1950, the school's first conference playoff championship, the school's first NCAA tournament berth and an NCAA third place victory. In 13 seasons at Saint John's he has a career record of 219-116-27 (.642). He has won five MIAC titles, four MIAC playoff championships and has advanced to the NCAA tournament five times. Harrington is the school leader in career wins and career winning percentage.
In addition to his coaching duties, Harrington is the assistant athletic director at Saint John's.
[edit] In The Movies
As part of the 1980 Olympic team, Harrington has been portrayed in movies twice with the most recent being Disney's 2004 release Miracle. Harrington is portrayed by Nate Miller, who played hockey at the University of Minnesota from 1997-2000. The movie is famous for a scene where the fictional Harrington fails to score on a breakaway against the USSR—a breakaway that never occurred for the real Harrington.
Prior to Miracle, Harrington was portrayed by Bill Schriner in the 1981 made-for-tv movie Miracle on Ice.
[edit] Personal
John is married and has three children. He is the father of Chris Harrington, team captain and four-year letter winner on the Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey team from 2002-06 and currently a defenseman with the Toronto Maple Leafs' AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies.
[edit] "Bah"
Among family, friends and those who knew him in his high school and college playing days, John is known almost exclusively as "Bah" Harrington. He earned the nickname from his older brother who was barely a year old when John was born. The brother couldn't phonate the word baby and instead referred to his new sibling as "bah." The name stuck.
