John Giordano

John Giordano (born c. 1944) is a former ice hockey coach. He was the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines men's ice hockey team from 1980 to 1984.

Early years Giordano attended Notre Dame High School, a Catholic high school located in the Detroit suburb of Harper Woods, Michigan. He graduated in 1961 and later graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit.

Hockey coach at Michigan In 1979, Giordano was hired as an assistant hockey coach at the University of Michigan working under head coach Dan Farrell. Giordano was reunited at Michigan with John Blum, who had joined the Wolverines after graduating from Notre Dame High School. During the 1979-1980 hockey season, Giordano was in charge of the Wolverines' power play. Giordano was credited with molding the unit into "the most potent power play in the country," scoring on 40% of power play opportunities. Todd, who was walk-on from Detroit left the team.

Second, head coach Martin developed health problems, reported in the press to be an emotional disorder, during the exhibition season. Martin coached only two games during the 1980-1981 season, At the end of the 1980-1981 season, he was named collegiate Coach of the Year by The Hockey News, WCHA Coach of the Year by The Denver Post, and WCHA Co-Coach of the Year with John MacInnes by the vote of WCHA coaches.

In Giordano's second year as head coach, the Michigan hockey team moved from the highly competitive Western Collegiate Hockey Association ("WCHA") to the less-competitive Central Collegiate Hockey Association ("CCHA"). With the change in conferences, "the conventional wisdom was that the Wolverines would dominate the new circuit behind their successful young coach." Instead, the Wolverines finished in fourth place in the CCHA during the 1981-1982 season with a record of 18-15-5.; The team continued to move in the wrong direction in Giordano's third and fourth years as head coach, finishing in ninth place in the CCHA both years with records of 14-22-0 and 14-22-1. Athletic director Don Canham later recalled:"I never talk to players about their coaches. I coached myself, and I know enough not to do that. But when all 22 players walked into my office the second time with a signed petition to say this situation is intolerable – well, I just had to let him go. He just never could get along with the players."

In his history of the Michigan hockey program, historian John U. Bacon noted: "In reporting the decision, the Michigan Daily described Giordano as being 'very unpopular with the players, parents, fans and alumni' – which didn't leave many in his corner."

Giordano was replaced as the head coach of the Michigan men's ice hockey team by Red Berenson, who retired from the position in 2017 after 33 seasons.

Head coaching record College

†Michigan played jointly in the Big Ten and WCHA from 1959 to 1981 ‡Giordano became coach 2 games into the season when Wilf Martin resigned