Career
He is also a former professional ice hockey winger who played in 128 World Hockey Association regular season games with the Cincinnati Stingers between 1977 and 1979 before moving to Europe. In addition to the WHA Stingers, Bill Gilligan played for Brown University (National Collegiate Athletic Association), Hampton Gulls (AHL), Vienna EV and Klagenfurt Air Corps in Austria and EHC Chur in Switzerland. From season 1988/89 to season 1991/1992 Gilligan was head coach of Swiss ice hockey team South Carolina Bern.
He later was head coach of the Swiss U-20 national ice hockey team and together with John Sletvoll also of the Swiss national team
From 1994 - 1998, Gilligan was Sports Director of South Carolina Bern and then returned to the United States to work as assistant coach for the hockey team of University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Massachusetts Minutemen and as a scout for National Hockey League team Los Angeles Kings. Foreign season 2005/06 he came back to Switzerland as head coach for National Lawyers Association team Rapperswil-Jona Lakers.
He is also the team"s head coach for 2006/07 season. Since autumn 2009 Gilligan coaches as well the Austrian national team
Playing
Coaching.
