Leon Abbott
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Career
Abbott began his coaching career after graduating from McGill in 1964.[2] He coached briefly for a small college in Alberta before moving to take an assistant coaching position at St. Lawrence.[3] In 1969 Abbott was offered the top job at Rensselaer, taking over from Garry Kearns, and after a poor first season, returned the Engineers to winning ways with 16- and 17-win seasons, making the ECAC tournament in consecutive seasons.[4]
Abbott received his big break in 1972 when Jack Kelley stepped away from Boston University to pursue a professional coaching career and Abbott was given the job to replace him.[5] The Terriers were coming off back-to-back National Championships[6] and didn't take much of a step backwards with their new bench boss, finishing the season at a 22-6-1 mark, but after the season the NCAA ruled that because Boston University has used ineligible players in some of their games the school would have to forfeit 11 wins.[7] While that decision meant little in and of itself as the Terriers had already finished their season, the team and Abbott himself were placed under heightened scrutiny by the NCAA. Early in the following season, two players (Peter Marzo and Bill Buckton) were ruled to be professional athletes by having accepted money to play amateur hockey, a violation of NCAA regulations.[1] While federal court judge Joseph L. Tauro later reinstated the players, the damage had been done. After a 4-2 start, Abbott was fired by BU and replaced by his assistant, Jack Parker.
After the season Abbott returned to his undergraduate alma mater, Alberta, and assumed head coaching duties until he was offered a third NCAA job, this time by St. Lawrence.[3] The Saints had been slipping in the standings and were looking for someone to return them to their earlier glory but bringing Abbott back to Canton didn't work out as expected. In three seasons Abbott posted a record of 28-59-2, finishing well out of the conference playoffs each year. Thing began to look up at the beginning of his fourth campaign as the Saints won their first three contests, but everything went south after as they dropped eight straight contests. The final straw was a 12-3 trouncing by Clarkson on December 1 after which Abbott stepped down as head coach.[8]
College Head Coaching record
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RPI Engineers (ECAC Hockey) (1969-70–1971-72) | |||||||||
| 1969-70 | Rensselaer | 8-15-1 | 3-13-1 | 15th | |||||
| 1970-71 | Rensselaer | 16-7-2 | 7-5-2 | 8th | ECAC Quarterfinals | ||||
| 1971-72 | Rensselaer | 17-9-1 | 9-7-1 | 7th | ECAC Quarterfinals | ||||
| Rensselaer: | 41-31-4 | 19-25-4 | |||||||
| Boston University Terriers (ECAC Hockey) (1972-73–1973-74) | |||||||||
| 1972-73 | Boston University | 11-17-1^ | 9-8-1^ | 8th | ECAC Quarterfinals | ||||
| 1973-74 | Boston University | 4-2-0† | 3-1-0† | ||||||
| Boston University: | 15-19-1 | 12-9-1 | |||||||
| St. Lawrence Saints (ECAC Hockey) (1976-77–1979-80) | |||||||||
| 1976–77 | St. Lawrence | 8-20-0 | 3-17-0 | 16th | |||||
| 1977-77 | St. Lawrence | 12-18-0 | 8-14-0 | 13th | |||||
| 1978-79 | St. Lawrence | 8-21-2 | 5-18-1 | 15th | |||||
| 1979-80 | St. Lawrence | 3-8-0‡ | 0-4-0‡ | ||||||
| St. Lawrence: | 31-67-2 | 16-53-1 | |||||||
| Total: | 87-117-7 | ||||||||
|
National champion Postseason invitational champion |
|||||||||
^Boston University was required to forfeit 11 games after the conclusion of the season
†Abbott was removed as coach mid-season
‡Abbott stepped down from his position mid-season
References
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