Malcolm K. Gordon was an ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 coach

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

 at St. Paul's School from 1888 to 1917.

In 1882, Gordon arrived at St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire

Concord, New Hampshire

The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

.

Hockey had been earlier introduced at St. Paul's from Canada, but Gordon is regarded as the individual who helped formalize the game by putting down on paper what is regarded as the first set of rules in the United States. This occurred in 1885; in 1888 he was made hockey coach. Play at St. Paul's was strictly intramural, but in 1896 Gordon took the first St. Paul's team to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 to play at the old St. Nicholas Rink

St. Nicholas Rink

The St. Nicholas Rink, also called the St. Nicholas Arena, was an indoor ice rink, and later a boxing arena in New York, New York, from 1896 until 1962. The rink was the second ice rink utilizing mechanically frozen ice for its surface in North America, , enabling a longer season for skating sports...

. In that first game the St. Paul's alumni defeated Gordon's team 3-1.

His coaching career extended until 1917, during which time he developed numerous players, including Hobey Baker

Hobey Baker

Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. Regarded as the first American star in ice hockey, he was also an accomplished football player. Born into a prominent family from Philadelphia, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910...

, for the Eastern colleges. It was such former players who provided the financial backing for the St. Nicholas Rink. Gordon was head of the history department at St. Paul's and in addition to hockey, also coached football and cricket as well.

After World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

service he was in the real estate business until 1927, when he founded the Malcolm K. Gordon School at Garrison, New York. He served as headmaster until his retirement in 1952, but continued to teach at the school almost to the time of his death at age 96.