And the third consecutive Riley to hold the head coach position since the 1950-51 academic year.

It’s one of the most impressive, underrecognized dynasties in college sports: A member of the Riley family has coached Army Black Knights hockey for the past 75 seasons.

First was the late patriarch Jack Riley, a legend of the sport, who became Army’s head coach on a one-year handshake and wound up staying 36 seasons.

Jack was a hockey titan who starred at Dartmouth, served as a Navy pilot, made the 1948 U.S. Olympic team, and later coached the U.S. Olympic Team to gold at the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley—the original “Miracle on Ice,” as the old hockey heads know.

“A fiery guy, and I mean that in the best sense possible,” said friend Bill Cleary, a member of that 1960 Olympic team who went on to coach Harvard.

Jack Riley is welcomed back to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., after the 1960 Olympics. Photo: Associated Press

Jack was succeeded in 1986 by his son Rob, who coached 18 more seasons at West Point. Rob Riley was then followed by brother Brian, who stepped up from assistant to head coach for the 2004-05 campaign.

Now the Riley head coaching era is ending. At the season’s finish, Brian Riley is retiring. His successor is Zach McKelvie, a former Black Knights player and current associate head coach who will be the first non-Riley in three quarters of a century to helm the program.

Or maybe not.

“I did tell him, we’re going to have to change your name to ‘Zach McKelvie Riley,’” Brian Riley told me.

He was kidding. I think.

For Brian, Army hockey has been a life’s calling. West Point is where he grew up, along with siblings Rob, Jay, Mark and Mary Beth, hockey players all.

He has endless memories of a hockey childhood, skating the frigid Smith Rink until his Dad’s team practiced. Back then, facilities were spartan, but there was a sizable home ice advantage—Smith Rink was enormous, stretching an exhausting 233 feet, Brian said. (NHL rinks are 200 feet long.)

Visiting teams got tired just looking at it.

“It went on forever,” Brian said.

Jack Riley’s success also loomed large. When Brian had buddies over, he’d go up to father’s and his mother Maureen’s room, fish around a T-shirt drawer, and grab Dad’s 1960 gold medal to show off.

“Every time I did that, I’d [think], ‘Why does Dad stay at West Point?’” Brian recalled. “He could be coaching in the NHL. He could be coaching any big time hockey school—but he’s staying at West Point.”

“As a kid, you don’t understand,” he continued. “Now that I’ve sat in his chair: I understand.”

Brian called coaching at the U.S. Military Academy the “most rewarding and humbling” job in sports.

“What makes our players special is what they’re willing to do for their country,” Riley said. “They want to be part of something bigger than themselves.”

Rob Riley, who served as head coach from 1986 until 2004, echoed his brother’s admiration of the cadets.

“It’s such a challenging grind—the academic piece, and you throw in the military piece,” Rob said. “It’s amazing what they do in 24 hours…you can’t understand until you see it.”

Rob Riley was Army’s head coach from 1986 to 2004. Photo: Beverly Schaefer

Current Black Knights captain Michael Sacco, a senior set to graduate as an infantry officer—on Wednesday he learned he will be heading off to Fort Carson in Colorado—said he and his teammates consider hockey practice “the best part of our day.”

“You go through physical curriculum, academic curriculum, military curriculum,” he said. “For me, I’m always waiting for 3 p.m. I can get on the bus, go up to the rink, see 26 of my best friends, and play the sport I love.”

I asked Sacco how he’d describe the Army hockey style under Brian Riley.

“Toughness,” he said.

McKelvie, the coach in waiting, described it as “rugged.”

“We want a team that is able to wear teams down through physicality and competitiveness,” he said.

No one, I’m told, was more competitive than Jack Riley, who remained that way long into retirement, Brian said.

“He’d come up to me at a game and say, “Brian, guess how many cars passed me on the way from Cape Cod to West Point?” he said, imitating his father, who died in 2016 at age 95. “‘Not one!’”

“There’s a passion inside the entire family, and it grows exponentially when they’re in the rink,” said Pierre McGuire, the longtime NHL executive and analyst and Riley family friend.

“Continuity is hard,” McGuire continued. “How unusual is it to see a family legacy extend for three quarters of a century? I can’t think of anything like it.”

Army held an appreciation night for Brian and his family at West Point on Feb 22. It was punctuated by a 3-2 overtime win over American International College.

Army coach Jack Riley celebrates during a game in 1985. Photo: Anthony Neste/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images

This has been a stirring send-off season. The Black Knights went unbeaten in the season series with archrival Air Force. There’s more action left—an upcoming American Hockey Association quarterfinal starting March 7 against Niagara, with an automatic NCAA tournament bid to the conference winner.

There will be a Riley on staff next season, too. As has been the case for the past couple of years, one of the Black Knights assistants will be Brian’s son, a former college hockey star and developing coach himself.

His name is Jack Riley.

You can’t keep a good hockey family away from the ice.