College Hockey:
Hrkac out as head coach at Concordia (Wis.)

USCHO Staff Report • Feb. 23, 2012

Concordia (Wis.) announced Thursday that head coach Tony Hrkac, the program’s only coach since starting the program in 2007, will not return next season.

“I have a great deal of respect for Tony Hrkac and the time he invested in accepting the incredibly difficult task of starting our men’s hockey program,” Concordia director of athletics Dr. Rob Barnhill said in a statement. “It has been decided that it is time to move our men’s hockey program in a new direction to achieve our competitive goals. I want to thank Tony and his staff for the program that they have built and wish him and his family the very best moving forward.”

Hrkac recently completed his fifth season at CUW with a 10-109-10 overall record.

A national search for a permanent head coach will begin immediately.

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GodsSquadForever
Wow that is a terrible record!
- Wilyweavile
  true story, but that’s what happens when you are getting a program started. Even still it probably is time for new blood…
Suture
The Hrk may suck as a coach……but oh man….has to be one of the best college hockey players of all time. I have never seen one player dominate at the college level like Hrk. Those of us fortunate enough to be there for the’86-’87 NC team will always see Hrk as a winner. Wow, brings back some incredible memories….The Hrkac CIrcus….lol…:)
AZ Hockey
While I am not from North Dakota, I have to admit that the UND team in 1987 lead by the Hrkac Circus was by far the best team I had ever watched (even though my team has won more championships)!
- MPLS Sioux
  pesky wolverines hehe
- guest
  The team WAS the Hrkac Circus, it just happened to follow the lead of Tony Hrkac. I grew up in Northern MN as a Gopher fan but some of the best high schoolers from Marvin and Christian country went to UND so I didn’t know whether to hate the Sioux or cheer for them. One of our coaches drove us to my first college game in Grand Forks.
  All I can say is that while I still cheer on the Gophers, if anyone says that there was a better team in college hockey than the 1987 UND team, they just are not credible under any definition of the word “better”. The Hrkac Circus was pure entertainment.
  - Scpa0305
    While I am biased as I was very young in ’87 so I never witnessed this team first hand (although I heard much about them from my family), I would have to say that team with Stafford, Zajac, Toews, Oshie, and others may have been more jacked up….didn’t win it all though.
Big Al
I don’t know the stats, has any Hobey Baker winner had a better statistical season than the Circus Master did in 1987?
- Circus
  never.. Most pts ever in a season
Winterhawk26
Congrats to the Concordia Administration for finally admitting it is time for a change. Hrkac was a great player but great players dont always translate into great coaches. It takes a special set of hockey knowledge, interpersonal skills and ability to recruit to make a team at the D3 level. With only a few wins before this season, Hrkac should have known to step aside rather than drag another group of players down the sink with him. Best wishes to Tony Hrkac in his future and heres wishing Concordia the best to find a coach that will lead this infant program to success!
Suture
God’s Squad, the teams you mentioned from not that long ago were very good. However, for us old SOB’s we have the advantage of witnessing a team that had to play very bad to lose. As I look back I think the sheer entertainment of this team was also part of the story….not just the winning. Hrk was the ring leader no doubt….but there was plenty of talent on that team. Lest I forget, George Pelawa would have been a freshman on that team had he not died in a horrific car accident that summer. Wow, that would have been icing on the cake. As other’s have written on here, I have not seen a better college team since that time. The ’81-’82 Badgers (and the Sioux that year as well actually) team was laden with NHL talent. Anyway, good memories and I am sure everyone has their pick of “best team”. ~
- guest
  Memory Lane, Suture. George was an absolute animal… when he was in high school he was 25 lbs heavier than anyone on the Sioux squad and he would have been the fastest person on an extremely fast squad.
Dexterjibs
That UND squad was very good and George Pelawa would have made tehm awesome. But i would put up the Gopher team that had Neal Broten, Aaron Broten, Butsy Erickson and Steve Ulseth. Aaron and Ulseth were both 100 point scorers and Neal was the best freshman ever to play college hockey.

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