Bill Tierney To Be Honored With Named Head Coach Position For Princeton Men’s Lacrosse
December 20, 2023 | Men's Lacrosse
Bill Tierney’s legacy remains a constant presence for the Princeton men’s lacrosse program. Moving forward, his name will be as well.
Beginning immediately, the leader of the program will be known as “William G. Tierney P01 P02 Head Coach of Men’s Lacrosse.”
“I can’t come up with a way to state strongly enough what it means to me to be the first William G. Tierney Head Coach of Men’s Lacrosse,” says current Tiger head man Matt Madalon. “I am so thankful for Coach T’s friendship and guidance from literally the first day I took this position. What he has meant to me in my development as a head coach and to Princeton Lacrosse, Princeton Athletics and Princeton University with everything he’s done here is extraordinary. Coach T’s success here is reflected more in the people who played for him and the kind of men they have become and the loyalty they have to him, each other, and the current members of the program than it is in any championship they won together.”
Tierney retired at the end of last season after a career that established him as arguably the greatest men’s lacrosse coach of all time. Tierney spent 42 years as a college lacrosse coach, including 22 at Princeton, where he won six NCAA championships and 14 Ivy League championships. He then moved on to coach Denver for 14 seasons, winning a seventh NCAA title to become the only coach ever to win the Division I championship at two different schools.
Tierney is a member of the National Hall of Fame and the IMLCA Hall of Fame.
“I’m humbled and overwhelmed at this incredible honor,” Tierney says. “My years at Princeton were so special for me, my wife Helen and our four children, who grew up there. I’d like to thank all of the donors who made this happen. This is as much a tribute to all of the great young men I had the joy of coaching at Princeton and all of the great assistants I had there, especially David Metzbower, as it is to anything else. As I often have said, I don’t want my tombstone to say how many championships I won. I want my tombstone to say how much I loved my players.”
In addition to his seven championships as a head coach, he also won two more as an assistant coach at Johns Hopkins before taking over the Princeton head coaching job in 1988. Inheriting a program that had never before appeared in the NCAA tournament, Tierney famously told his first recruiting class — the Class of 1992 — that together they would win the national title and then set out to make it happen. He took Princeton to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 1990 and then again in 1991 before making good on his words as the Tigers won the 1992 title, defeating Syracuse 10-9 in two overtimes.
While Princeton’s upstart 1992 team had a mantra that “Dynasties Are Boring,” it nevertheless became one of the greatest dynasties the sport has seen. During a 13-season stretch from 1992-2004, Princeton won six NCAA titles, played in the championship game on Memorial Day two other times and reached a total of 10 Final Fours. Known for his modernization of how defense is played and for his uncanny ability to win one-goal games in May, Tierney had a career record of 439-152 with 30 NCAA Tournament appearances (28 in Division I, two at Division III Rochester Institute of Technology), 23 trips to the Division I quarterfinals and 15 trips to Championship Weekend. His 407 Division I wins rank second in history, and he reached 400 wins 62 games faster than John Danowski, the only other coach with at least 400 wins in Division I.
“Few coaches have ever impacted their sport the way that Bill Tierney has in men’s lacrosse," says Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack ’00. "His legendary innovation and player development, combined with his sheer will, built one of the best dynasties that college lacrosse has ever seen, with six NCAA championships at Princeton and another at Denver. Those who played for him know full well how much they learned from him, as players and ultimately as young men, and they will almost to a man tell you that they wouldn’t be the people they are today had it not been for Coach Tierney. I join with everyone who knows him in saying how thrilled we are to have his name permanently attached to our head coaching position. I also want to express our deep gratitude to Jon Dawson ’66 and Ben Griswold ’62 whose leadership and generosity has made the fitting recognition possible.”
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For information about supporting Princeton Athletics, contact Kellie Staples, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Advancement/SWA at kgale@princeton.edu or 609.258.6696.
