The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation has announced its 2016 Legend of College Hockey recipient is Bill Selman.
Selman is the only man to serve as head coach of four Division I programs and is widely acknowledged as having either built or rebuilt three of the four programs he coached.
Selman’s coaching career began at his alma mater, North Dakota, in 1966 and then moved to Minnesota-Duluth before restarting the St. Louis program in 1970, spending nine seasons behind the Billikens bench. He ended his college career with a two-year stint at Lake Superior State, leaving him with an overall record of 277-217-21.
Accolades were aplenty for Selman, including WCHA Coach of the Year in 1967 and a runner-up finish at the Frozen Four the following season at North Dakota. While guiding the new program at St. Louis, Selman was honored as the CCHA Coach of the Year in 1977.
The Billikens dropped college hockey for financial reasons in 1979, so Selman turned to the pros, coaching the Dayton Gems of the International Hockey League for the 1979-80 season, then serving on the staff of NHL Central Scouting the following year before going to Lake State in 1981.
After his coaching career, Selman was offered a position with Anheuser-Busch, joining their Sports Marketing Group in St. Louis as a senior manager developing programs with the NHL, USA Hockey and Major League Baseball.
Now retired and spending time between his homes in Fort Frances, Ont., and Florida, Selman has been inducted into four sports and athletic Halls of Fame including St. Louis University, the University of North Dakota, the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame and the Fort Frances Sports Hall of Fame.
Selman will be honored along with this year’s Hobey Baker winner at the annual Hobey Baker Award banquet on Thursday, May 26 in St. Paul, Minn.
