Inducted in 1998
Category: Builder
As the coach of the Saint Mary's intercollegiate hockey team for 13 years, Bob Boucher compiled an astounding record of 231 wins, 33 losses and four ties and led the Huskies to the National Championship game in four consecutive seasons from 1970 to 1973.
Boucher came from an illustrious hockey family with connections to numerous NHL teams. A star junior player with the Memorial Cup in 1957 and with the Toronto Saint Michaels, an eye injury precluded a promising NHL career. Nevertheless, he went on to play senior and semi-professional hockey in Europe and Canada before being lured to Saint Mary's by Athletic Director, Bob Hayes.
He revived hockey at Saint Mary's which had been without a team for many years. He also started the Saint Mary's Hockey Camp of Champions, a summer program for minor hockey players. He left Saint Mary's in 1982 to be an assistant coach to his former teammate, Pat Quinn, of the Philadelphia Flyers. Hired on specifically to improve the Flyers' power play which had been the worst in the League the previous year, in one season, under Boucher's able leadership, the Flyers' power play became the top in the League. He subsequently coached junior and senior teams in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
Bob Boucher's no-nonsense coaching style helped foster a winning tradition at Saint Mary's. A former player noted that Boucher was "known as a strategist and a motivator who always got the most out of his players, game in and game out". His expertise in recognizing good minor hockey talent was continuously called upon by professional coaches.