The theme of Saturday’s induction at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame is “A Celebration of American Hockey.” Roger Godin, the hall of fame’s former executive director, says that just doesn’t fit.
Godin is angry that former college coach Ned Harkness will be among the three inductees for the ceremonies in Eveleth, Minn., about 50 miles north of Duluth.
Godin believes Harkness should not have been admitted because he achieved nearly all of his success with Canadian players.
“I regard this as an injustice,” Godin said Thursday from his home in Baltimore. “We did not create the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame to honor people for winning championships with Canadian players.”
Harkness founded the hockey program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., in 1950. He won the national championship in 1954, and later won titles in 1967 and 1970 at Cornell. He also coached the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.
The 1970 team finished 29-0, considered the finest season in Division I hockey history.
Godin, who left the hall in 1987 and is now curator at the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum, says Harkness does not even come close to the induction standard for coaches, requiring that Americans constitute “at least 50 percent of the on-ice personnel during 75 percent of the seasons coached.”
A member of the hall’s selection committee in 1971-90, Godin helped reject Harkness when he first was presented for induction in the mid-1980s.
There are at least eight college coaches among the hall’s 87 members, not including Harkness. Canadians played significant roles for each of them, but Godin says the key difference is that some also relied heavily on Americans.
