The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation announced on February 16, its 2022 Legend of College Hockey recipient as Gino Gasparini from the University of
North Dakota. Gasparini, who coached at his alma mater from 1978-1994, led North Dakota to three national championships in the 1980s (1980, 1982, 1987) along with a runner-up finish in 1979 and a third-place finish in 1984. In WCHA play, Gasparini’s Fighting Sioux squads captured four regular-season titles and four postseason crowns during the decade. The Fort Frances, Ont., native compiled a 16-season record of 392-248-24 (.608) with North Dakota, including a 277-197-21 (.581) mark in the WCHA. His 392 career wins are the most in North Dakota’s storied history and stand as the sixth-most in WCHA history.

Gasparini was named the WCHA Coach of the Year three times (1979, 1982, 1987) and received the American Hockey Coaches Association’s Spencer Penrose Award in 1987. In 1999, the AHCA honored him with the John MacInnes Award. He was inducted into the UND Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

As a player, Gasparini was a four-year letterman with the Fighting Sioux from 1964-68, serving as the team captain as a senior. Gasparini returned to his alma mater in 1969 as an assistant coach under Rube Bjorkman from 1969-78, before taking the reins as the program’s head coach for the 1978-79 season.

His pupils included Hobey Baker winner Tony Hrkac (1987) when he set a still standing NCAA record for most points in a season with 116. Gasparini coached 17 AllAmericans — among them James Patrick, Jon Casey, Scott Sandelin, Ed Belfour and Greg Johnson. Thirty-five of his former players went on to play in the NHL. Future NCAA and NHL head coaches who played under Gasparini include North Dakota’s Brad Berry, Minnesota Duluth’s Scott Sandelin, Edmonton’s former head coach Dave Tippett, and former North Dakota and current Seattle Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol. 

From October 1985 to June 1990, Gasparini served the University of North Dakota as its Director of Athletics. Following his head coaching days, Gino served as the commissioner of the United States Hockey League from 1994-2003 and the USHL president from 2003-09, helping to strengthen the junior hockey leagues’ status as the primary source for developing Division I college hockey players.