University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Kyle McDonough 1989 - Hockey
Before this Catamount's 1999 UVM Hall of Fame induction, he was a three time ECAC All-Star and a first-team All-American in 1989. Kyle McDonough - along with classmate and UVM Hall of Famer Ian Boyce - led the Catamounts to the program's first NCAA tournament appearance in 1988 and the team's only ECAC Division I title game appearance in 1989.
A native of Manchester, N.H. who prepped at Lawrence Academy, McDonough led the team in goals and points in three of his four seasons and was twice elected the team's MVP by his teammates. He graduated fourth in career scoring at UVM with 163 points in 131 games and his 87 goals were third all-time. McDonough and Boyce were the key members of Coach Mike Gilligan's fist recruiting class in 1985-86.
In his freshman year, he scored a team-high 13 goals and tied with Jeff Capello for the team lead in points with 26 as the Cats went 17-13-1 overall and 11-10-0 in the ECAC. He was named the MVP of the Auld Lang Syne Classic and came up big with his first career hat trick in the Cats' playoff clinching win over Colgate on March 1. Following the season, McDonough was the only Vermont player to participate in the US Olympic Sports Festival.
The speedy center led the team in goals with 28 and scoring with 42 points as a sophomore en route to earning honorable mention All-ECAC honors and his first selection as the team's MVP. Among his 28 goals, the most scored by a Catamount in a 15-year span, he scored four on the power play, four shorthanded and tallied six game-winners, five in ECAC games.
In 1987-88 McDonough scored only 19 goals but his 42 points led the team as the Cats earned home ice for an ECAC quarterfinal for the first time since 1980 and made their first trip to the semifinals at the Boston Garden since 1975. After the season he was named to the ECAC All-Star squad as a second-team selection.
As a senior, McDonough led the team with 27 goals and 28 assists for 55 points (fourth in the conference) as the Cats made it to the ECAC semifinals for the second straight year. UVM defeated eventual national champion Harvard to earn the team's only appearance to the ECAC championship game. He was honored following the season as a first-team ECAC All-Star. In late March he also skated for the U.S. National Team that compete for the Pravda Cup in St. Petersburg, Russia (formerly Leningrad, Soviet Union).
After UVM, McDonough has enjoyed a successful professional playing career in Europe, starring in Denmark, Norway, Great Britain and Sweden for over 10 years. In his seven-plus years of playing in Norway, McDonough led the league in scoring, has been voted MVP four times.
