Bill Needham

Bill Needham
Born	(1932-01-12) January 12, 1932 Kirkland Lake, ON, CAN
Height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight	175 lb (79 kg; 12 st 7 lb)
Position	Wing
Shot	Left
Played for	IHL Grand Rapids Rockets Toledo Hornets WHL New Westminster Royals AHL Cleveland Barons
Playing career	1952–1972

Bill Needham (born January 12, 1932) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey forward and coach.

Playing career

Needham has played for the following minor league teams during his career: Grand Rapids Rockets, Valleyfield Braves, Glace Bay Miners, New Westminster Royals, North Bay Trappers, Toledo Hornets and Cleveland Barons. He holds the franchise record of most games played for the Cleveland Barons, a total of 981, where he spent 15 seasons of his career. In this span, Needham scored 62 goals and 246 assists.

Coaching career

Needham assumed the role of Coach-Player for the 1971/72 Toledo Hornets, but suited up to play in less than half of their games that year. From 1972-1974 he was the Cleveland Crusaders head coach in the World Hockey Association Goaltender Gerry Cheevers emerged as a star for The Crusaders, after several All-Star years with the NHL Boston Bruins.

WHA coaching record

Team	Year	Regular season						Post season
Team	Year	G	W	L	T	Pts	Division rank	Result
Cleveland Crusaders	1972-73	78	43	32	3	89	2nd in East	Lost in Division Finals
Cleveland Crusaders	1973-74	78	37	32	9	83	3rd in East	Lost in Semifinals
NHL Total		156	80	64	12

External links

Bill Needham's career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database

UMass Minutemen ice hockey

Playing venues	Campus Pond (1908–1939, 1947–1951, 1951–1979) Mullins Center (1993–present)

Head coaches	Elton J. Mansell (1917–1922) Herbert Collins (1922–1923) Howard R. Gordon (1923–1924) Lorin Ball (1924–1939) Thomas Filmore (1947–1949) Walter Fitzgerald (1949–1950) Bill Needham (1950–1951) Mel Masucco (1953–1954) Steve Kosakowski (1954–1967) Jack Canniff (1967–1979) Joe Mallen (1993–2000) Don Cahoon (2000–2012) John Micheletto (2012–2016) Greg Carvel (2016– )

Seasons	2014–15

Conference affiliations	Independent (1908–39, 1947–51, 1953–61, 1993–94) ECAC II (Division II) (1961–1979) Suspended program (1940–47, 1951–52, 1979–93) Hockey East (1994–present)

All-time leaders	Pat Keenan (180 Points) Pat Keenan (105 Goals) Gabe Winer (50 Wins)

NCAA Tournament appearances	2007

University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA

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