Bill Gilligan


Bill Gilligan is an American professional ice hockey coach. He is also a former professional ice hockey winger who played in 128 World Hockey Association regular season games with the Cincinnati Stingers between 1977 and 1979 before moving to Europe.

Playing career

In addition to the WHA Stingers, Bill Gilligan played for Brown University, Hampton Gulls, Vienna EV and Klagenfurt AC in Austria and EHC Chur in Switzerland. He was also a member of Team USA in the 1978 and 1983 Ice Hockey World Championship tournaments.

Coaching career

He first became coach in 1984 in Klagenfurt, Austria, where he won 4 Championships in a row right away. From season 1988/89 to season 1991/1992 Gilligan was head coach of Swiss ice hockey team SC Bern. He won 3 NLA Championships and was one time runners up in 4 years. He later was head coach of the Swiss U-20 national ice hockey team and together with John Sletvoll also of the Swiss national team. From 1994 - 1998, Gilligan was Sports Director of SC Bern and then returned to the US to work as assistant coach for the hockey team of University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Massachusetts Minutemen and as a scout for NHL team Los Angeles Kings.
For season 2005/06 he came back to Switzerland as head coach for NLA team Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. He is also the team's head coach for 2006/07 season.
In 2008 was named as Head Coach from Graz 99ers, in the 2009/2010 season Graz won the playoff qualification for the first time. Gilligan additionally coached the Austrian national team in 2008-2011. In 2014, Gilligan was named Associate Coach of Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Awards and honors

Playing

Coaching