ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Len Coughlan, one of the stalwart players on some of the great St. Bon’s hockey teams which owned the Boyle Trophy during a 16-year stretch in the 1940s and 50s, died Monday night, Jan. 14.
He was 82.
A member of the Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador Hall of Fame, Coughlan won five straight Boyle Trophies with the BlueGolds, from 1955-59 until St. Pat’s ended the string with their famous Boyle Trophy win on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day in 1960.
Together with Hughie Fardy, Coughlan was one-half of a brilliant defensive duo on those St. Bon’s teams, which featured a Hall of Famer in goal, Merv Green, and a group of Hall of Famers and all-stars up front, including Bill and Ted Gillies, Jack Reardigan and Bob Redmond.
Perhaps Coughlan’s best season came in 1954-55, when he captained both the St. Bon’s juniors and St. John’s Capitals juniors, winning the St. John’s Junior Hockey League’s MVP, the city’s junior championship and the provincial junior championship (Veitch Memorial Trophy).
To top it off, that was the year he also broke into the St. Bon’s senior ranks, winning the St. John’s Senior Hockey League’s rookie of the year award and his first Boyle Trophy.
That was the season in which he once enjoyed an eight-point game (six goals, two assists) in junior.
Coughlan and Fardy — ironically enough two defencemen — shared the St. John’s senior league’s scoring championship in 1957, and in ’58, Coughlan was named the league’s top rearguard.
Former Guards coach Howie Meeker once said it was Coughlan and Fardy, “who usually killed us.”
Funeral service will take 9:30 Friday morning at St. Pius X Church in St. John’s.
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