Hall of Fame coach Tierney to retire
Ex-coordinator at Hopkins won NCAA titles at 2 schools
Bill Tierney, the architect of a Princeton men’s lacrosse program that captured six NCAA championships and first Division I coach to win titles at two different schools when he repeated the feat at Denver in 2015, plans to retire after the end of the 2023 season.
The Pioneers announced Thursday that Tierney, a former defensive coordinator at Johns Hopkins, will end his career after his 14th season with the program, 42nd as a college coach and 49th in coaching overall.
“They say, ‘When you know, you know,’ and as my career draws to a close, I’m at peace with this decision,” Tierney said in a statement through the university. “The list of people to thank who have impacted the last 48 years of my life is endless. Most of all, I want to thank my wife Helen, who has stood by my side and followed me to two high schools and four college stops through my career, and has been the rock for me and our children. Our family is all over the country now, and I’m looking forward to having the time to give back to them after all they’ve given for me.”
Tierney, who turned 70 in September, played at Cortland State before serving as head coach at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he guided the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournaments in 1983 and 1984 and was named the Division III Coach of the Year in 1983.
After working as an assistant coach with the Blue Jays from 1985 to 1987, Tierney accepted in 1988 the head coaching position at Princeton, which had never won an Ivy League title or appeared in the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers proceeded to capture six championships in nine years (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2001) and advanced to two more title games, three more Final Fours and 11 Ivy League championships during his 22-season tenure.
In 2009, Tierney stunned the lacrosse world when he stepped down from Princeton to oversee the program at Denver. When the Pioneers defeated Maryland, 10-5, on May 25 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for Tierney’s seventh NCAA championship, he became the first Division I coach outside of the Eastern time zone to earn a national crown.
Tierney currently owns a 429-147 record for a .745 winning percentage. A 2002 US Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee, he became the fastest coach in NCAA Division I history
to reach 400 wins, doing so in 532 games.
Tierney will proceed with his final season with Denver with a 157-54 record. Although the Pioneers have qualified for the NCAA Tournament 10 times and participated in five Final Fours, they have missed two of the last four postseasons and were bounced from the first round in 2021.
“While I know a lot of the focus will be on this being my last season, I’m really excited to get the whistle back around my neck next
week and start the preseason with this great group of student-athletes,” Tierney said.
At a news conference Friday, Tierney said he’s had a succession plan in place to have associate head coach Matt Brown replace him at Denver. Brown was hired as a volunteer assistant in 2007 after a four-year career at Princeton.
“What I know, what I feel, what I hope, what I’m going to bargain for, politicize for is a no-brainer. It’s that Matt should be the*
next head coach at Denver, and I’m very confident that that’s going to happen,” he said.
In 2015, US Lacrosse announced that the playing field at its national headquarters in Sparks would be named William G. Tierney Field.
The venue has served as the training center for the U.S. National Teams Program and exhibition games for teams at the college, high school and youth levels.