The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation has announced its 2012 Legend of Hockey recipient is former Northeastern coach Fernie Flaman.
Flaman was behind the Huskies’ bench from 1970-1989 and ranks as the longest-tenured and winningest coach in program history, racking up 255 victories in 19 seasons.
Prior to his extensive coaching career, Flaman was well-known to Boston hockey fans as a rugged defenseman. He was signed by the Boston Bruins in 1943 and played three years for the minor-league Boston Olympians before cracking the NHL in 1947.
Flaman played five years for the Bruins before being traded to Toronto, where he won the Stanley Cup in his first season with the Maple Leafs in 1951. After three more years in Toronto, he was back with the Bruins in 1954, playing another seven seasons. Flaman was named the Bruins’ captain in 1955 and wore the ‘C’ for the duration of his career.
Current Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan played under Flaman in the early 1980s.
“Coach Flaman not only showed us how to develop into great players, but he coached us up in life and developed us into men,” said Madigan in a statement. “He is not only a Northeastern legend, but a legend of the game.”
Flaman has been inducted into three Halls of Fame: the Northeastern Hockey Hall of Fame (1989), the Hockey Hall of Fame (1990) and the Massachusetts Hall of Fame (2011).
Flaman will be honored along with this year’s Hobey Baker Award winner at the Hobey Baker Award banquet May 17 in St. Paul, Minn.
