Doug Ross, who coached the UAH Chargers hockey team to two national club championships and two NCAA Division II national titles, died Tuesday at the age of 70.
Ross was the head coach of the Chargers for 25 years, taking over an successful club program in 1982 and retiring with UAH’s first Division I tournament appearance in 2007. UAH won 450 games under his stewardship, including 376 games in 22 varsity seasons.
After taking over the UAH club team from its founder Joe Ritch, Ross and the Chargers continued success with national championships in 1983 and 1984.
Ross’s teams won the 1996 and 1998 NCAA Division II national championships, winning the titles at the Von Braun Center against rival Bemidji State. The Chargers made the Division II championship four times in five years from 1994-1998 before transitioning into Division I.
UAH won the 2001 and 2003 College Hockey America regular-season titles, and the 2007 CHA tournament, earning UAH’s first berth in the Division I tournament. Ross’s final game behind the bench was a 3-2 double-overtime loss to No. 1 seed Notre Dame in the 2007 NCAA Midwest Regional.
Ross was inducted into the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Last year, Ross was inducted into the inaugural class of the UAH Athletics Hall of Fame.
Ross was born in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1951. In college, Ross played right wing at Bowling Green from 1973-75, scoring 65 goals and 64 assists in 74 games. He was first-team all-CCHA in 1974-75 with a 34-goal campaign.
Ross played for Team USA at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, helping the Americans to a fifth-place finish.
Ross began his coaching career that same year when he took over the Ohio University club team for a season. He became head coach at Kent State in 1979, leading the club team into NCAA Division I in 1980-81. Overall, Ross won 505 games as a college hockey head coach.
Doug’s son Jared played at UAH from 2001-05 and became the Chargers’ top scorer in their modern Division I era. Jared was the first Charger in the NHL, playing 22 games with the Philadelphia Flyers over the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.