The Hershey Bears Hockey Team in Hershey, PA has been around for 70 years. They have an excellent history of wins, losses, championships and memories through those years. Many of the good things happening with this team can be accredited to the great leadership of their head coach, Bruce Boudreau and their President/General Manager Doug Yingst.
Bruce was named the Hershey Bears head coach and proved his worth and skill the first year. He put together a team of player that consisted of players that had missed the playoffs the previous season and made them Calder Cup Champions that first year. This was especially poignant to Bruce since it was the first Calder Cup Championship he received as a head coach. Bruce is now in his second year with the Bears and is once again optimistic for the team.
Doug, who is starting his 26th season with this organization, is quite an asset to the Hershey Bears as well. He is about to complete an Eastern Conference Championship for the second consecutive year. Under Doug's leadership, the Bears earned the American Hockey League's best overall point total in addition to the most wins in the history of the franchise. Doug also won the James H. Hendy Award, which is given to the most outstanding American Hockey League executive. He won this honor twice.
The Hershey Bears were originally called the Hershey B'ars, but the name was changed at the start of the 1936 season. The got the name "Bears" from being described as The Bears from Penn's Woods when they played at Madison Square Gardens. The Hershey Bears Hockey Team has been Calder Cup Champions eight times. The Hershey Park Arena, where the Bears play, has hosted many other events and is described as being the perfect arena with not one bad seat in the house.
