COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – An incredible 20-year career behind the Irish bench came to a close for former Catalino Family Head Hockey Coach Jeff Jackson nearly two months ago, but his impact on the sport as a whole will never be forgotten. A staple in the hockey community for over five decades, Jackson has helped develop some of the top talent in the sport and was named the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Achievement Award by USA Hockey, as announced Tuesday.
A two-time Spencer Penrose Award winner during his career at Notre Dame, presented annually to the top Division I men’s ice hockey coach, Jackson was also named CCHA Coach of the Year twice with the Irish to add to his 1990-91 honor while the head coach at Lake Superior State.
Prior to Jackson’s arrival on campus in 2005, the Irish had managed just one NCAA Tournament appearance in program history (2004). Since then, the Irish have become synonymous with success on the ice and have made two national championship game appearances, four trips to the Frozen Four, and landed 12 NCAA Tournament berths. At Notre Dame Jackson has coached nine All-Americans, four Academic All-Americans, three Hobey Baker Finalists, two Mike Richter Finalists, two Senior CLASS award winners and five finalists, two Hockey Humanitarian Finalists and the Hockey Commissioners’ Association Rookie of the Year in 2010-11. On the conference level, he has seen two Player of the Year Award recipients, four Goaltenders of the Year and numerous all-conference selections. He was also a key contributor to bringing Compton Family Ice Arena to life, served as an advocate for student-athletes for his entire career, and closed out his career in the top-10 of winningest collegiate men’s ice hockey coaches.
Throughout his career, Jackson has been a pioneer in the world of amateur hockey. He began his coaching career in St. Clair, Michigan, where he served as head coach of the St. Clair Falcons of the North American Hockey League, a junior league focused on developing players for the collegiate and professional levels. He spent two years in St. Clair before moving to the state’s Upper Peninsula as an assistant coach at Lake Superior State University under then-head coach Frank Anzalone. Jackson spent four seasons as an assistant coach for the Lakers before being elevated to head coach for the 1990-91 season. In six seasons behind the bench in Sault Ste. Marie, Jackson’s teams won two NCAA titles in 1992 and 1994 while advancing to the finals in 1993, two CCHA regular season championships and four CCHA Mason Cup trophies as conference tournament champions.
After 10 years with the Lakers between assistant and head coach roles, and three national titles in that span, Jackson left college hockey to start a youth development program for USA Hockey. In 1996 Jackson was named the national coach and senior director of the junior national team and went on to found the U.S. National Team Development Program. In his first year putting the program in place, he served as the head coach for the United States Junior National Team that captured a silver medal at the 1997 World Junior Championships. The following year he served as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Jackson served as the director and coach of the NTDP for four seasons before entering the professional hockey realm.
In 2000 he left the U.S. program and took over as head coach of the Guelph Storm in the Ontario Hockey League where he quickly turned the program around with a pair of winning records. In just over two full seasons with the Storm, Jackson posted an 87-67-24-4 record before accepting the role of assistant coach of the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League prior to returning to the collegiate ranks as the head coach at Notre Dame in 2005.
Upon his retirement as head coach at the University of Notre Dame, Jackson was the program’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 419-289-74. He, along with the other winners of USA Hockey’s 2025 awards class will be recognized during the President’s Award Dinner in early June at the Denver Marriott Tech Center as part of USA Hockey’s annual meeting.