Bill Riley '46, a two-time All-American hockey player for Dartmouth in the 1940s and a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, died Tuesday at age 77.
Riley led Dartmouth to three straight Ivy League championships from 1946-49 after returning from a three-year stint in the military. His last two teams made the final game of the NCAA Championships before losing to Michigan in 1948 and Boston College in 1949.
After playing hockey at Dartmouth in 1942 -- a season in which he scored 26 goals and assisted on 34 others in only 14 games on an Ivy title-winning team -- Riley was called away from Hanover to fight in World War II.
Upon his return, Riley once again starred for Dartmouth, compiling 92 goals and 76 assists for 168 points over his final three seasons.
In three of his four seasons, Riley led Dartmouth in scoring. In 1946-47, he finished third.
Riley scored five goals in a game versus Northeastern and Princeton, four goals against Boston College and three goals on 10 other occasions.
Riley was joined on several teams by his brothers, Jack '44 and Joe '49. The trio constitutes perhaps the best American-born hockey playing generation of a family ever.
The Rileys grew up in Medford, Mass.
Jack went on to win a gold medal as coach of the 1960 U.S. Hockey Team and coached at Army for nearly three decades.
After his college career concluded, Bill Riley refereed college hockey games for more than 30 years, distinguishing himself as one of the best in the profession.
He was the third Dartmouth graduate elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977.
