Garry Kearns

Garry Kearns
Biographical details
Born	1935; Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Playing career
1955–1958	Rensselaer
Position(s)	Forward
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1964–1969	Rensselaer
Head coaching record
Overall	44–63–4 (.414)

Garry Kearns is a Canadian retired ice hockey head coach and player who was in charge of the program at Rensselaer for five seasons.^[1]

Career

Kearns joined the Rensselaer program a year after it won its first national title in 1954. After sitting out his freshman year (a standard practice at the time), Kearns joined the varsity squad for the 1955–56 season and led the engineers in goals (26), assists (32) and points (58), finishing in a tie for second in NCAA scoring.^[2] despite his superlative campaign the Engineers finished third out of four teams in the Tri-State League and were left out of the NCAA tournament. The following year Kearns scoring prowess declined but the Engineers managed to win their conference title. Unfortunately they were once again passed over as second-place Clarkson had a superior record (18-2 compared to RPI's 14-6-1). For his senior season Kearns was named as team captain and responded with a resurgent 56 points in 21 games. Despite this the Engineers were left out of the tournament yet again after finishing second to the powerhouse Golden Knights in their conference.

After graduating Kearns pursued a short professional career with Milwaukee of the United States Central Hockey League then turned to coaching high school hockey.^[3] In 1964 Kearns returned to Troy, New York to become the head coach for his alma mater. Kearns became the fourth head coach in the span of three years and was entering as the program was in its nadir.^[4] After three years with virtually no recruits and no athletic scholarships available the ice hockey program was in jeopardy of becoming an afterthought. The team struggled to a 10-10-2 record in his first season but once the last recruited senior class graduated the Engineers slipped to dead-last in the ECAC the next year, finishing 3-19 and being outscored 42 to 161. Kearns' team again finished last in 1966–67 season but almost tripled their win total (8) when his first batch of recruits began hitting the ice. By his fourth year with the program Kearns had gotten the Engineers back to .500 with an 11–11 record and followed that up with a 12-8-1 mark. In 1969 Rensselaer made their first appearance in the ECAC tournament since 1964 and provided the first of only two losses to the dominant Cornell team headed by Kearns' former coach Ned Harkness.

With program no longer in dire straits, Kearns left to start a career as an architect. He was inducted into the Peterborough & District Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 and the RPI hockey ring of honor the following year.

College Head Coaching record

Source:^[5]

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Rensselaer Engineers (ECAC Hockey) (1964–1969)
1964–65	Rensselaer	10–10–2	5–8–2	10th
1965–66	Rensselaer	3–19–0	0–13–0	15th
1966–67	Rensselaer	8–15–1	1–14–0	t–15th
1967–68	Rensselaer	11–11–0	8–9–0	11th
1968–69	Rensselaer	12–8–1	8–5–1	7th	ECAC Quarterfnals
Rensselaer:		44–63–4	22–49–3
Total:		44–63–4
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

Awards and honors

Award	Year
AHCA First Team All-American	1955–56	^[6]

References

^ "Garry Kearns". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
^ "1955-56 NCAA Division I Statistics". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
^ "Garry Kearns". Peterborough & District Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
^ "Fans share fond memories of RPI great Garry Kearns". Troy Record. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
^ "Rensselaer Men's Hockey Year-by-Year". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
^ "1955-1956 All-American Team". The American Hockey Coaches Association. Retrieved 2017-06-21.

External links

Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or The Internet Hockey Database

[1] "Garry Kearns". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 2018-07-17.

[2] "1955-56 NCAA Division I Statistics". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 2018-07-17.

[3] "Garry Kearns". Peterborough & District Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2018-07-17.

[4] "Fans share fond memories of RPI great Garry Kearns". Troy Record. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2018-07-17.

[5] "Rensselaer Men's Hockey Year-by-Year". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2018-07-17.

[AHCA-6] "1955-1956 All-American Team". The American Hockey Coaches Association. Retrieved 2017-06-21.

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v t e RPI Engineers men's ice hockey
Formerly the RPI Bachelors
Playing venues	Houston Field House (1949–present)
Head coaches	Leroy Clark (1917–1923) W. J. Cook (1924–1925) Marvin Callan (1925–1931, 1936–1937) Ned Harkness (1949–1963) Rube Bjorkman (1963–1964) Garry Kearns (1964–1969) Leon Abbott (1969–1972) Jim Salfi (1972–1979) Mike Addesa (1979–1989) Buddy Powers (1989–1994) Dan Fridgen (1994–2006) Seth Appert (2006–2017) Dave Smith (2017– )
Seasons	1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1936–37 1937–38 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Conference affiliations	Tri-State League (1950–1972) ECAC Hockey (1961–present)
Rivalries	Union Dutchmen Clarkson Golden Knights
Culture & lore	Rensselaer Holiday Tournament
All-time leaders	Statistical leaders Frank Chiarelli (265 Points) Frank Chiarelli (155 Goals) Neil Little (58 Wins)
National championships	1954 1985
Frozen Four appearances	1953 1954 1961 1964 1985
NCAA Tournament appearances	1953 1954 1961 1964 1984 1985 1994 1995 2011
Conference Tournament titles	ECAC: 1984 1985 1995
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY