For his efforts in leading Denver to back-to-back NCAA Division I titles,
George Gwozdecky has been chosen winner of the 2005 Spencer Penrose Award as Division I Men’s Coach of the Year.
The Pioneers went 32-9-2, finishing with a 4-1 win over North Dakota in the NCAA championship game. It is the second such honor for Gwozdecky, USCHO.com’s 2004-05 Coach of the Year, who also won the award in 1993 while at Miami.
A 1978 graduate of Wisconsin, Gwozdecky began his coaching career at Wisconsin-River Falls and his Division I coaching career at Michigan State as an assistant to Ron Mason. His 19-year head coaching record is 405-284-54.
Gwozdecky is the only person in NCAA history to win an NCAA championship as a player (Wisconsin in 1977), assistant coach (Michigan State in 1986), and as a head coach (Denver in 2004 and 2005.) He won his 400th career game during this year’s WCHA “Final Five” tournament.
As a player, Gwozdecky earned four varsity letters at Wisconsin and was inducted into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame in 1994. Following graduation from Wisconsin, he earned a master of education degree from UWRiver
Falls.
The runners-up for this year’s AHCA Men’s Division I Coach of the Year award were Dave Hakstol, North Dakota; Scott Owens, Colorado College; and Mike Schafer, Cornell.
Other finalists for this year’s award were Mike Kemp, Nebraska-Omaha. Don Lucia, Minnesota; Jack Parker, Boston University; Rand Pecknold, Quinnipiac; and Tom Serratore, Bemidji State.
The Spencer Penrose Award is named in memory of the Colorado Springs benefactor who built the Broadmoor Hotel Complex, site of the first 10 NCAA championship hockey tournaments. It will be presented at the AHCA Coach of the Year Banquet in Naples, Florida, on Saturday evening, April 23.
