Former Athletic Director Broke Records on Ice

On the eve of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) honored the “100 greatest living American gold-medal champions.” William J. Cleary Jr ’56-’58, one-time Harvard student, hockey player, hockey coach, and athletics director, was among them.

The honor was the culmination of a lifetime of honors and successes for the athlete, who took a year off from Harvard to play at his first Winter Olympics in 1956, where he helped the U.S. team net a silver medal. Cleary, who did not return requests for an interview, also attended the 1960 Winter Olympics, leading the U.S. to gold in a surprise upset over the Russian favorites.

Edward “Ted” Donato ’91, the current head coach of Harvard men’s ice hockey, who played on the 1989 NCAA championship team under Cleary, also played in an Olympic hockey team, but said “that would probably be where the comparison ends.”

“He was such a great Olympian,” he says. “I have talked to a number of older gentlemen who still refer to him as the greatest American hockey player ever.”

Cleary came to Harvard as a student in 1952 and quickly started breaking records on the ice. Many of them he still holds to this day, including most goals in a season, longest goal streak, most assists in a game, and most points in a period and a season. And some of the other records that he previously held—such as most goals in a career—have been claimed by his later students.

During his 20-plus years at Bright Hockey Center, these students included the three Hobey Baker Award Winners and fellow-Olympians Scott M. Fusco ’85, Mark E. Fusco ’83, and B. Lane MacDonald ’88, as well as other Olympic contenders such as Donato and many NHL players.

Donato, who Cleary described in 1990 as having “a lot of poise” and making “things happen all over the ice,” in turn characterizes Cleary as “someone who brought excitement and fun to playing hockey at Harvard.”

“He was very successful as a coach,” Donato says. “But more importantly we all enjoyed the experience. He was a guy who instilled a lot of confidence in his teams.”

“The biggest reason for his success was he had a unique way of keeping the game fun and really pushing the players at the same time,” Fusco agrees.

He also praises Cleary’s ability to leave players to themselves to an extent, rather than trying to control or change the way they played.

“He recruited skilled players and let those players play,” Scott Fusco says. “A lot of coaches don’t do that.”

As Harvard Men’s Ice Hockey Coach today, Donato says he looks up to Cleary and his remaining influence on the program.

“Not many would argue that he is the godfather of Harvard hockey,” he says. “Through his career he’s a guy who has never hidden the fact that he has a great affinity for Harvard hockey and Harvard hockey players.”

Cleary, known for being an Olympian purist, was said to have been dismayed by the rise of Olympic “dream teams” feeling instead that the Olympics ought to belong to amateurs. Donato also describes him as a purist in terms of ice hockey.

“He tried to play the game from a pure standpoint, not as an act of thuggery but a show of skill,” he recalls.

“There was a lot of skating, a lot of passing,” Fusco says. “He worked very hard to see his own values upheld.”

More than just a coach, though, Cleary’s former students describe him as a “friend and mentor.”

“If you talk to any of the players from that era he was a big influence on them,” Fusco notes. “You could talk to him about anything, he gave us a good perspective on life.”

Donato agrees, calling Cleary “passionate” and “dedicated,” but also remembering his fun side and “antics.”

“He was definitely a practical joker,” he says. “He was always popping his teeth out or creeping up behind people and sniffing at the back of their legs and barking like a dog. He was great fun on the road.”

In 1990, after his 1989 NCAA success, Cleary took the reins of the Athletics Department when he accepted an offer to be Athletics Director, a post he retained until his retirement in 2001.

Cleary has also received multiple other honors, including being picked as U.S. Hockey Player of the Decade for 1956-1966, named to the NCAA Ice Hockey 50th Anniversary team, and inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

He was offered positions on professional hockey teams at his graduation, but chose instead to continue as an amateur while at the same time running the insurance business he started in 1968 and continued to head throughout his time coaching at Harvard.

He lives in Auburndale, Mass. with Jo, his wife of 44 years. They have three children, Paula, Kate and Bill III, and four grandchildren.

Up until 2004 Cleary continued to skate every Sunday morning at the Harvard rink, when he told the Boston Globe that despite his age he enjoyed being “always on the go.” It is in part this drive that contributed to the “huge impact in every aspect” that Fusco ascribes to him, and makes the words of USOC President LeRoy Walker about the 1996 “Golden Olympians” seem especially relevant to his case, that “they are not only great athletes, but great people.”

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.