Hall of Fame honour for Tom Coolen’s championship winning university team

He coached for a decade at Acadia University, where he built two national championship teams and led the Acadia Axemen to a first ever national title in 1993. Now that team is to be inducted into the Nova Scotia Hall of Fame. Coolen is unable to attend the ceremony as he has two games across this weekend as Flyers host Manchester Storm and then travel to Cardiff Devils. He will be represented by his wife and son.

The national triumph was a huge moment in the university’s sporting history - and his roster included another name familiar to UK hockey fans in the shape of Malcolm Cameron, former Glasgow Clan coach.

In a recent interview with the Fife Free Press, Coolen recalled making the move from assistant to head coach: “Expectations were not super high but mine were, and we built a great team. We became a top level team, and there was a real sense of pride at becoming national champions. We were a good team at a school people wanted to go to - winning those championships generated a lot of publicity for the college.”

Coolen left Acadia in 1995 to become an assistant coach with the Saint John Flames, Calgary’s AHL farm team before going on to be part of the coaching team with the Latvian national team at the 2014 Winter Olympics coach, assistant coach with Buffalo Sabres in the NHL and then across the globe, landing in Fife for the 2023-24 season.

The event in Nova Scotia will also see the induction of Stanley Cup winner Joe DiPenta who iced with the Mighty Ducks, as well as Canadian international footballer, Suzanne Gerrior.