Former Yale/USA Hockey Coach Tim Taylor Passes Away

Former Yale head coach and long-time USA Hockey coach Tim Taylor passed away peacefully on Saturday at the age of 71 after a battle with cancer.

Taylor served as head coach at Yale for 28 seasons from 1976 to 2006. He compiled 342 wins, which is a Yale school record, and led them to the NCAA tournament in 1998. After leaving Yale, he continued to work for USA Hockey with the NTDP and helping with the World Junior tournament. Most recently, he was the director of player personnel for the US World Junior team which won the gold medal this year in Ufa, Russia.

My personal experience with Taylor was pretty limited. I did have the opportunity to hear him give sort of a proto-College Hockey Inc.-type presentation a few years ago, and the one thing that stood out more than anything was his incredible passion for USA Hockey and the US development system. Whether you knew Taylor or not, anyone that has enjoyed the success of USA Hockey at the junior levels over the past number of years owes him a debt of gratitude for the work he did to make that happen.