Boston College hired Greg Brown, a former All-American for the Eagles, as its next men’s hockey coach, according to an announcement from BC Athletics on Friday. Brown will become the fifth head coach of BC men’s hockey since 1932.
The news arrives shortly after former BC coach Jerry York, the Hockey Hall of Famer who won five NCAA championships and the most games in college history, announced his retirement in April after 50 years of coaching.
In 14 seasons as an assistant on York’s staff from 2004–18, Brown, BC ’90, helped bring three national championships to the Heights in 2008, 2010, and 2012. Brown became the associate head coach at BC following the 2012 NCAA title—BC’s third championship in a five-year span—after eight seasons as an assistant coach.
During his 14-year tenure at BC, Brown helped lead BC to six Hockey East Tournament championships, seven Hockey East regular season championships, 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, and seven trips to the NCAA Frozen Four. On three separate occasions, Brown was selected to be an assistant coach on Team USA’s staff at the IIHF World Junior Championships.
Brown headed to the NHL after 14 years with the Eagles, where he coached the New York Rangers, and his most recent position was with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL, where he spent this season as the head coach.
With the Rangers, Brown served as an assistant coach for three years from 2018–21. In those years, Brown coached former BC hockey forwards Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes. As the head coach of Dubuque, Brown led the Fighting Saints to a second-place finish in the USHL Eastern Conference and an increase of 16 wins from the year prior.
While playing at BC, Brown earned back-to-back Hockey East Player of the Year awards in 1989 and 1990 and was named a First Team All-American and a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, which is given to the top NCAA men’s ice hockey player in the nation, both years. In his three NCAA seasons, Brown recorded 24 goals and 96 assists for 120 points in 119 games.
Brown captained the Eagles as a senior from 1989–90, winning 28 games and reaching the NCAA Semifinal. In Brown’s three seasons on the Heights, BC went 84–33–5, winning Hockey East championships in 1987 and 1990. Brown was selected to the U.S. Olympic Team during his sophomore year for the Calgary Olympics in 1988 and again at the Albertville Olympics in 1992.
Brown was drafted 26th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1986 NHL Draft and played for four seasons in the NHL with Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Winnipeg before transitioning to professional hockey in Europe, where he played for eight more seasons before retiring in 2003.
