Bill Gilligan

Bill Gilligan (born August 5, 1954) 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 (NCAA), Hampton Gulls (AHL), 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 Austria national team in 2008-2011. In 2014, Gilligan was named Associate Coach of Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular seasonPlayoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM1974–75 Brown University ECAC 25 20 22 42 12 — — — — — 1975–76 Brown University ECAC 30 25 54 79 10 — — — — — 1976–77 Brown University ECAC 26 23 36 59 39 — — — — — 1977–78 Hampton Gulls AHL 18 10 11 21 18 — — — — — 1977–78 Cincinnati Stingers WHA 54 10 14 24 59 — — — — — 1978–79 Cincinnati Stingers WHA 74 17 26 43 54 3 1 0 1 01979–80 Vienna Austria 40 67 64 131 63 — — — — — 1980–81 Austria Intl 34 45 44 89 37 — — — — — 1981–82 Vienna Austria –– 30 23 53 0 — — — — — WHA totals 128 27 40 67 113 3 1 0 1 0

Awards and honors

Playing Award Year All-ECAC Hockey Second Team 1975–76 AHCA East All-American 1975–76

Coaching 1985 - Austrian Champion with Klagenfurt AC 1986 - Austrian Champion with Klagenfurt AC 1987 - Austrian Champion with Klagenfurt AC 1988 - Austrian Champion with Klagenfurt AC 1989 - NLA Champion with SC Bern 1991 - NLA Champion with SC Bern 1992 - NLA Champion with SC Bern