Kennedy to Receive Lamoriello Award

Laing Kennedy, a former standout goaltender at Cornell University and the retiring Director of Athletics at Kent State University, is the winner of the 2009 Lou Lamoriello Award, it was announced today by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA). Named in honor of the former Providence College player, coach, and administrator, the Lamoriello Award recognizes a former college hockey player or coach who goes on to a distinguished career in or out of the game of ice hockey. Lamoriello, now the Presient and General Manager of the New Jersey Devils, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on November 9 of this year.

“As he approaches the end of a 27-year run as an athletic director, Laing is certainly a worthy recipient of this award,” said AHCA Executive Director Joe Bertagna. “Having worked with Laing when he was at Cornell, I was able to see his leadership qualities up close. As much as he took from hockey as a player, he has given back so much more to thousands of athletes and those who follow college athletics.”

A native of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, Kennedy earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Cornell in 1963. Kennedy was an All-America goalkeeper and team captain for Cornell’s ice hockey team. He earned All-Ivy League honors for three consecutive years and was named the University’s Outstanding Athlete in 1963.

“To be recognized by your peers in terms of the success of the programs both at Cornell and here at Kent State is a tremendous honor,” said Kennedy. “I’m deeply moved and pleasantly surprised to receive an award from this group that I hold in very high regard as professional associates.”

In August, Kennedy announced that this year, his 16th at Kent State, would be his last. Under Kennedy’s leadership, Kent State teams have won an astounding 87 Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament championships. Individually, Golden Flashes student-athletes have claimed 251 individual MAC titles while earning 84 All-America honors and 29 Academic All-America citations. In the past three years alone, Kent State won or shared 23 MAC championships (regular season & tournament). In 2008-09 the Golden Flashes captured their fourth MAC men’s (Reese) all-sports trophy. On the women’s side KSU finished second in the Jacoby all-sports trophy standings — their 12th consecutive top three
finish.

As a department, Kent State has been the top MAC school in the NCAA Championships performance-based Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings nine of the last 10 years, while claiming six Jacoby Trophies and four Reese Trophies for overall women’s and men’s excellence, respectively, in the MAC. Just last year, the department finished second nationally in the Excellence in Management Cup standings, which measures a department’s athletic success while factoring in fiscal responsibility.

In 2006, Kennedy was honored as the Northeast Region Division I-A Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). It was the second time Kennedy has won the award, also receiving the honor in 2002.

The longest-tenured Athletic Director in the MAC, Kennedy is in his final year on the prestigious NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Kennedy came to Kent State in 1994 following 11 years in a similar position at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. During his tenure, Cornell had nine national championship teams, 36 Ivy League championship teams and 102 All-Americans.

He and his wife, Saundra, reside in Kent and have two daughters, Karyn and Kelly. Karyn and her husband, Sean, have two sons, Andrew and Campbell, and a daughter, Caroline.

The Lamoriello Award will be presented to Kennedy on Saturday, January 30, prior to the home basketball game agasinst Western Michigan. Game time is 2:00 p.m.

Winners of the Lou Lamoriello Award
2004 -- Lou Lamoriello, Providence College
2005 -- Tom “Red” Martin, Boston College
2006 -- John Mayasich, University of Minnesota
2007 -- Dave Metzen, University of Minnesota
2008 -- Tom Coakley, Brown University
2009 -- Laing Kennedy, Cornell University