Jeffrey Sauer (March 10, 1943 – February 2, 2017) was an American ice hockey player and coach. Sauer was the head coach at the University of Wisconsin from 1982 to 2002 and Colorado College from 1971 to 1982. While at Wisconsin, he led the Badgers to two NCAA men's ice hockey championships. He was the special assistant to the commissioner of the WCHA prior to his death.
 Sauer in 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Biographical details | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | March 10, 1943 Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||
| Died | February 2, 2017 (aged 73) Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||
| Playing career | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1962–1965 | Colorado College | |||||||||||||||||
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1965–1966 | Colorado College (assistant) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1966–1971 | Wisconsin (assistant) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1971–1982 | Colorado College | |||||||||||||||||
| 1982–2002 | Wisconsin | |||||||||||||||||
| 1985 | US National Team (assistant) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1992 | US National Team (assistant) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2010 | US Paralympic Sled Hockey Team | |||||||||||||||||
| 2011–2012 | US National Sled Hockey Team | |||||||||||||||||
| 2014 | US Paralympic Sled Hockey Team | |||||||||||||||||
| Head coaching record | ||||||||||||||||||
| Overall | 655-534-57 | |||||||||||||||||
| Accomplishments and honors | ||||||||||||||||||
| Championships | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2x NCAA national champion (1983, 1990) 2x WCHA regular season champion (1990, 2000) 6x WCHA tournament champion (1978, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1998) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Awards | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1972 WCHA Coach of the Year 1975 WCHA Coach of the Year 2003 John "Snooks" Kelley Founders Award 2004 Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame 2011 Lester Patrick Award 2013 Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame 2013 Hobey Baker Legend of College Hockey Award | ||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Career
editPlaying
editJeff Sauer accepted an athletic scholarship from Colorado College and began attending the school in 1961.[1] After sitting out the Tigers' disastrous 0-23 season in 1961-62 Sauer became part of the rebuild under first Tony Frasca and then Bob Johnson. Despite his efforts, Sauer couldn't help Colorado College reach the WCHA playoffs in any of his three seasons before graduating in 1965.[2]
Coaching
editAfter graduating Sauer signed on as an assistant under Johnson at CC and then followed his former coach to Wisconsin, staying with the program until just after the Badgers joined the WCHA before he received his shot behind the bench at his alma mater.[3] Sauer took over for a rather moribund program that had seen only two winning seasons in their past 13 campaigns[4] and slowly brought the team back to respectability. It took Sauer 4 years to build a winning team, finishing 1974-75 3rd place in the conference, but his biggest achievement came three years later when the 5th-place Tigers upset a 33-win Denver team to capture a share of the WCHA tournament, the only conference tournament title in team history. (as of 2014) All told, however, Sauer didn't have much more success than his predecessors as he could only provide Colorado College with 2 winning seasons in 11 years as head coach.
When his former boss Johnson left Wisconsin after 1981–82 to pursue an NHL coaching career, Sauer returned to Madison to replace him and immediately found the success that had eluded him at Colorado College when the Badgers won the national title in 1983.[5] Throughout the 1980s Wisconsin remained one of the top programs in the country, routinely winning 20 games a year and in 1990 Sauer proved that not only could he coach a national champion, but he could build one as well when he captured his second NCAA title.[6] In Sauer's 20 seasons with Wisconsin he provided 2 conference regular season titles, 5 conference tournament titles, 4 30-win seasons and 11 NCAA tournament berths in addition to winning two national titles. He retired as head coach after the 2001–02 season, turning the program over to Badger alumnus Mike Eaves. He retired as the winningest coach in Wisconsin history. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Badgers Hall of Fame in September 2016.
Administration
editAfter stepping down Sauer agreed to serve as the assistant commissioner for the WCHA for several years and in 2010 he returned as head coach for the US sled hockey team at the 2010 Winter Paralympics. He helped the Americans to their second gold medal in the event and four years later returned for a repeat performance in Sochi.[7] He died on February 2, 2017, from pancreatic cancer.[8]
Head coaching record
edit| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado College Tigers (WCHA) (1972–1982) | |||||||||
| 1971-72 | Colorado College | 13-19-0 | 11-17-0 | 9th | |||||
| 1972-73 | Colorado College | 10-24-0 | 5-23-0 | 9th | |||||
| 1973-74 | Colorado College | 13-17-2 | 10-16-2 | 9th | |||||
| 1974-75 | Colorado College | 23-16-0 | 21-11-0 | 3rd | WCHA first round | ||||
| 1975-76 | Colorado College | 15-22-1 | 15-16-1 | 6th | WCHA first round | ||||
| 1976-77 | Colorado College | 13-25-2 | 11-20-1 | 8th | WCHA first round | ||||
| 1977-78 | Colorado College | 18-22-1 | 13-19-0 | 5th | NCAA quarterfinals | ||||
| 1978-79 | Colorado College | 12-24-2 | 11-19-2 | 8th | WCHA first round | ||||
| 1979-80 | Colorado College | 21-17-1 | 13-16-1 | 3rd | WCHA second round | ||||
| 1980-81 | Colorado College | 17-19-0 | 12-16-0 | 7th | WCHA second round | ||||
| 1981-82 | Colorado College | 11-23-2 | 16-18-2 | 6th | WCHA first round | ||||
| Colorado College: | 166-228-11 | 138-191-9 | |||||||
| Wisconsin Badgers (WCHA) (1982–2002) | |||||||||
| 1982-83 | Wisconsin | 33-10-4 | 15-9-2 | 3rd | NCAA national champion | ||||
| 1983-84 | Wisconsin | 21-17-1 | 11-14-1 | 4th | WCHA semifinals | ||||
| 1984-85 | Wisconsin | 25-17-0 | 20-14-0 | 3rd | WCHA semifinals | ||||
| 1985-86 | Wisconsin | 27-15-0 | 23-11-0 | 3rd | WCHA semifinals | ||||
| 1986-87 | Wisconsin | 23-18-1 | 17-17-1 | 4th | WCHA semifinals | ||||
| 1987-88 | Wisconsin | 30-13-2 | 22-12-1 | 2nd | NCAA East Regional semifinals | ||||
| 1988-89 | Wisconsin | 25-16-5 | 17-13-5 | t-3rd | NCAA quarterfinals | ||||
| 1989-90 | Wisconsin | 36-9-1 | 19-8-1 | 1st | NCAA national champion | ||||
| 1990-91 | Wisconsin | 26-15-3 | 19-11-2 | 3rd | NCAA first round | ||||
| 1991-92 | Wisconsin | 27-14-2 | 19-11-2 | 2nd | NCAA runner-up† | ||||
| 1992-93 | Wisconsin | 24-15-3 | 18-11-3 | t-2nd | NCAA West Regional semifinals | ||||
| 1993-94 | Wisconsin | 26-15-1 | 19-12-1 | 3rd | NCAA East Regional semifinals | ||||
| 1994-95 | Wisconsin | 24-15-4 | 17-11-4 | t-2nd | NCAA West Regional semifinals | ||||
| 1995-96 | Wisconsin | 17-20-3 | 14-15-3 | 6th | WCHA third-place game (loss) | ||||
| 1996-97 | Wisconsin | 15-21-2 | 15-15-2 | 7th | WCHA first round | ||||
| 1997-98 | Wisconsin | 26-14-1 | 17-10-1 | 2nd | NCAA East Regional Quarterfinals | ||||
| 1998-99 | Wisconsin | 15-19-4 | 13-12-4 | 4th | WCHA first round | ||||
| 1999-00 | Wisconsin | 31-9-1 | 23-5-0 | 1st | NCAA West Regional semifinals | ||||
| 2000-01 | Wisconsin | 22-15-4 | 14-10-4 | 5th | NCAA West Regional semifinals | ||||
| 2001-02 | Wisconsin | 16-19-4 | 12-13-3 | 5th | WCHA Quarterfinal | ||||
| Wisconsin: | 489-306-46 | 344-234-40 | |||||||
| Total: | 655-534-57 | ||||||||
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National champion
Postseason invitational champion
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† Wisconsin's participation in the 1992 Tournament was later vacated by the NCAA Committee on Infractions References:[9][10]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Peak Profile: Jeff Sauer '65". Colorado College. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
- ^ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
- ^ "Jeff Sauer - 2013 Legend of College Hockey". HobeyBaker.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
- ^ "Colorado College Men's Hockey Team History". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
- ^ "Jeff Sauer Year-by-Year Coaching Record". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
- ^ "NCAA Division 1 Tournament". College Hockey Historical Archive. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
- ^ "Jeff Sauer". USA Hockey. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
- ^ Milewski, Todd D. "Badgers men's hockey: Former Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer dies at 73". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ "2013-14 Colorado College Media Guide" (PDF). Colorado College Tigers. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
- ^ "2013-14 Wisconsin Badgers Media Guide" (PDF). Wisconsin Badgers. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-06-17. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
External links
edit- Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or The Internet Hockey Database
- Wisconsin bio