Walt Kyle (born June 11, 1956) is an American ice hockey coach. He is the former head coach of the Northern Michigan Wildcats, a position he held from June 2002 to March 2017.[1]
Career
Kyle started his college career with Boston College, spending two seasons with the program before leaving after the Eagles lost the 1978 title game. He spent a year in the USHL while transferring to Northern Michigan and once he got back into the college ranks he found himself a runner-up for a second time in 1980.
In 2002 Rick Comley, the only coach the program at Northern Michigan ever had, left the university.[3] A few months later Walt Kyle returned to Marquette, Michigan to become the second head coach for the team.[4] Kyle's early results with the Wildcats were good, winning 20+ games in each of his first four seasons, but over the course of his 15-year tenure the club slowly declined both in the standings and in relevance. Kyle was never able to win either a conference or tournament title in his time behind the bench and only made one NCAA tournament appearance in 2010.
Towards the end of his time with Northern Michigan Kyle got into trouble off the ice. He was put on administrative leave in January 2015[5] and just over two years later he was arrested on fraud charges.[6] While prosecutors ultimately dismissed the charges[7] the rumors surrounding the charge contributed to his firing at the end of the 2017 season.[8]
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
Conference regular season champion
Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
Division regular season champion
Division regular season and conference tournament champion
Conference tournament champion