 However, other histories indicate that McHale was actually Collingwood's fifth coach; the actual situation is that McHale was the first person to be given the "official title" of Coach.This was in 1914, and became common parlance when he retired as a player at the end of the 1917 season.However, McHale had actually been the captain-coach for two seasons prior to his official appointment (and his total of coaching 714 games takes the 1912 and 1913 seasons into account).