Date of Birth: 1954
Place of Birth: St. John’s, NL
Inducted: 2021 (Builder Category)
Randy Browne was a goaltender for his hometown St. John’s Caps, but it was his work off the ice that has him among the list of Hockey Hall of Fame inductees.
When his playing career was curtailed by a career-ending knee injury in 1975, rather than step away from the game, Randy stepped behind the bench; taking over as head coach of the St. John’s Jr. Shamrocks organization in 1976.
During his 11 years leading the Jr. Shamrocks, Randy led the team to four St. John’s Junior Hockey League championships, including three in his first four years as coach. Over a two-season stretch between 1982 and 1985, when the Jr. Shamrocks won back-to-back league titles, the club posted a stellar record of 58 wins, compared to just 10 losses and four ties.
Randy’s efforts were not overlooked by the league, as he was twice named Coach of the Year.
Randy became head coach of the Bay Arena Jr. Rovers in Bay Roberts during the 1988-89 season; around the same time he was hired as the technical director for the Bay Arena Minor Hockey Association. Over the 12 seasons he oversaw that organization, he helped advance Bay Arena Minor from Division C to Division A.
In fact, in just his season year in Bay Roberts, Bay Arena Minor teams picked up a total of eight medals at provincial Easter tournaments; a feat the organization repeated again three years later.
Before retiring from hockey in 2007 after 30 years of coaching, Randy also served as Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador’s Technical Director, was a certified Level IV coach who oversaw clinics all throughout the province and was an associate coach with the Conception Bay North CeeBees when that organization won its first Herder Memorial Trophy as provincial senior hockey champions for the first time in 40 years during the 2005-06 season.
