Inducted in 2013
National Hockey League Executive

Induction Video

A person could search in vain the 1959 Ramkin, Fordham Prep's yearbook, for evidence that John T. Halligan ever attended an ice hockey game, let alone played in one. And yet, the New Jersey native lived and breathed hockey from the time he graduated from Fordham University straight through to the end of his days. One could even say he was married to hockey, and on several levels, that would be absolutely true.

John was the son of Edward, a salesman, and Helen Sheehan Halligan, a schoolteacher.

Entering the Prep in September of 1955, John would make a long trip to Rose Hill every day from his family home in Bergenfield, New Jersey — a difficult commute, but in every way worth by Halligan's estimation.  During his Hughes Hall years, John was a member of Knights of the Blessed Sacrament, served on the Athletic Council alongside classmate and fellow Hall of Honor inductee Michael Conway, and participated in intramural sports. He was also, unsurprisingly, a member of the Publicity Staff, a group of students who worked to get the word out about various school functions, and to promote attendance at Prep social and athletic events.

Sure he may not have played hockey at the Prep, but as the stories go, he was madly in love with the sport from the time his older brother Edward took him to his first game at the old Madison Square Garden.

Graduating the Prep as a member of the Class of 1959, John would stay on at Fordham to earn his degree from the University.

Halligan joined the public relations department of the New York Rangers hockey organization in 1963, right out of college. There were only six teams in the league at that time — the Bruins, Blackhawks, Rangers, Maple Leafs, Canadiens and Red Wings. The Rangers were the least distinguished, to put it charitably. John was part of a crew given the task of filling the old Garden not just on Sunday, but also during mid-week games, in the hopes of bringing an invigorating spirit to the organization that would have a positive effect the team’s on-ice performance. He is credited with boosting attendance so much, that within a few years, most home games were sellouts. According to some in the hockey world, if John and other team officials not worked so hard to improve the Rangers’ standing in New York, the Devils and the Islanders might never have formed, and New York might never have become home to the NHL Headquarters.

Through all those years, Halligan never confined his involvement in the sport to the four walls of some some hidden public relations office. He became widely valued as a mentor and friend to players on the Rangers and later, throughout the National Hockey League.

John worked for the Rangers from 1963 until 1983, and then from 1986 to 1990, acting as director of public relations, business manager and vice president of communications. The media guide he developed for the Rangers became the industry standard, and in the course of preserving team archives, he became a leading historian of the Rangers, eventually writing several books about the team. The best known of these is probably The New York Rangers in the Images of Sports series. Others include New York Rangers: Seventy-Five Years (for which hockey great Wayne Gretzky wrote the foreword), 100 Ranger Greats: Superstars, Unsung Heroes and Colorful Characters, co-authored with Russ Cohen, and Game of My Life: The New York Rangers, co-authored with John Kreiser.

John eventually moved from the Rangers organization to the offices of the National Hockey League, where he spent 20 years as director of communications and special projects. He was also director of communications for NHL anniversaries, the division that developed the NHL’s 75th anniversary celebrations in 1991 and the Stanley Cup centennial commemoration in 1993.

In 2007, Halligan was awarded the prestigious Lester Patrick Award in recognition of his contributions to the sport of hockey. Other awards included Civic Honors from the Public Relations Society of America and awards from The City of New York Professional Hockey Writers Association and the Metropolitan New York Hockey Writers Association. For 17 years, he served on the US Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee.

Throughout it all, John would share his love affair with the ice with his wife, Janet. John had actually met Janet Fischetti in the Rangers’ publicity office, where they worked together for many, many years. As much a hockey lover as John, she too had been introduced to the game by a brother. They were married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1968. To this day, Janet Halligan remains a venerable figure in the history of the hockey world, and is considered by many to have been a trailblazer for women working on the business end of professional sports. For many years, the Halligans helped organize the Canadian Society of New York’s annual Hockey Dinner. Many people in the sport considered it the official end of the hockey season, after the Cup finals and the NHL draft.

John Halligan passed away in 2010.

In a tribute to John that ran in The New York Times after his death, hockey columnist Stu Hackel wrote the following:

Halligan had a huge group of friends both in New York and around North America. He shepherded countless aspiring sports professionals with the same engaging, congenial and cheerful demeanor he displayed to the most cynical journalist and most senior hockey executive. He had a great gift for making newcomers feel welcome, making outsiders feel wanted, making connections between strangers.