Sport(s) Ice hockey 1986–1987 New Hampshire 1969–1971 Bowdoin Name Bob Kullen | 1971–1973 Braintree Hawks Positions Defenseman 1973–1974 Manchester Monarchs | |
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1977–1986 New Hampshire (assistant) Died November 2, 1990, Durham, New Hampshire, United States | ||
Robert A. "Bob" Kullen (1949 – November 2, 1990) was an American ice hockey coach and player. He was the head coach of the University of New Hampshire for a short time in the late 1980s before a rare heart condition that necessitated a heart transplant forced him to step away from his position and ultimately cost him his life a month later. In addition to coaching New Hampshire's ice hockey team, he also coached the New Hampshire golf team and soccer team.
Career
Bob Kullen starred as a defenseman for Bowdoin College until graduating in the spring of 1971. He continued playing in a short minor league career, appearing for the Braintree Hawks in two seasons then for the Manchester Monarchs in the only year the Can-Am Hockey League was in operation before calling it quits after 1974. He turned to coaching afterwards, finding his way onto the staff of Charlie Holt at New Hampshire starting in 1977–78 and remaining as an assistant there until Holt's retirement in 1985–86.
Kullen was chosen as Holt's successor and began rebuilding the team that had won only 5 games the year before. After a season of modest gains it was discovered that Kullen suffered from a rare form of heart disease and had to have an immediate heart transplant that caused him to miss the entire 1987–88 season. Another long-time UNH assistant, Dave O'Connor filled in for Kullen, but the team was predictably flat in his absence. Kullen returned behind the bench the following year and continued the work he had started, getting the team to 12 wins in 1988–89 and then followed it up with a 17–17–5 mark, their first .500 season since leaving ECAC Hockey after 1983–84. While he was expecting to continue coaching for the foreseeable future, Kullen began rejecting the transplanted heart in the fall of 1990 and was forced to turn over the team to Dick Umile to recover but he died about a month later on November 2.
In his memory, Hockey East renamed their Coach of the Year Award in his honor and fittingly the first recipient of the 'Bob Kullen Coach of the Year Award' was the man who replaced him at New Hampshire. in 1991 Bob Kullen became the first player to have his uniform number retired by Bowdoin College in the history of the athletic department.