Former Connecticut hockey coach John Chapman died Wednesday at his home in Venice, Fla., at age 76.
Chapman was a 1950 graduate of Dartmouth, where he lettered in football, hockey and lacrosse. The native of Marblehead, Mass., coached tennis and hockey at Rhode Island from 1950-55.
He earned a master’s degree from Columbia in 1956, the same year he assumed head coaching duties in tennis at UConn. Four years later, he began a 21-year tenure as the Huskies’ inaugural head coach in hockey, stepping down in 1981. Chapman, a World War II veteran of the Air Force, also served as assistant coach in football and as an instructor in the School of Physical Education during his career at UConn.
He and his wife Jean resided in Venice and in Wickford, R.I. A memorial service will be held at St. Boniface Church in Siesta Key, Fla., on Saturday, January 5, at 2 p.m. EST. A summer memorial service, at a date to be announced, will also be held in Rhode Island.
