Dick Umile

Career

Dick Umile began attending New Hampshire in the fall of '68, sitting out his freshman year (as per NCAA rules) and started playing for the Wildcats' as a Forward under legendary UNH coach Charlie Holt. Umile's playing career ended once he graduated in 1972 but he returned to the sport as the head coach for the Watertown Red Raiders in 1975 and rebuilt that unsuccessful team into a state champion within ten years. Umile was lured back into the college ranks by the newly appointed head coach at Providence, former UNH teammate Mike McShane, but only two years in, Umile resigned.

A year later, Umile ran into Bob Kullen who was recovering from a recent heart transplant and was enticed to return to his alma mater as an assistant coach. Two seasons later, Kullen's health took a sudden turn for the worst and Umile was thrust into the head coaching position just prior to the 1990–91 season. The season soon became dedicated to Kullen when the former coach died on November 2 and the team responded by giving New Hampshire its first winning season in seven years. After the season, Umile was awarded with Hockey East's Coach of the Year Award, newly renamed in Bob Kullen Honor.

The Wildcats advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade. Four years later New Hampshire would win its first Hockey East Regular Season title, and its first conference title in 23 years, behind a then-record 28-win season. Two years later the Wildcats would post their first 30-win season and march all the way to the 1999 NCAA Championship Game before being defeated by conference rival Maine 3-2 in overtime. New Hampshire would continue to perform strongly under Umile and made it back to the title tilt four years later but were downed by Minnesota 5-1 in 2003.

Over the course of his 24 years at the helm, Umile has coached the Wildcats to 22 winning seasons, with twenty of them having at least 20 wins. He hold the school record for most statistical categories including Frozen Four appearances (4), NCAA Tournament appearances (18), consecutive tournament appearances (10), and Conference Regular Season Titles (7), and is the only coach in school history to provide conference tournament titles (2002 and 2003). For his efforts Umile has received the Bob Kullen Coach of the Year Award a record six times as well as the Spencer Penrose Award in 1999 and was named to both the Italian-American Hall of Fame (2007) and the New Hampshire Legends of Hockey (2009). He has announced his intention to retire after the 2017-18 season.

College Head Coaching record

† Maine was required to forfeit 13 games after the conclusion of the season and subsequently dropped from 1st place to 3rd, though they are still considered league champions for the year