Gillespie, who played for the national hockey team at the Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964 Olympics, was described by a Hockey New Zealand spokesperson as "a true NZ sporting icon", stuff.co.nz reports.

"A double hockey Olympian and an Olympic gold medal-winning coach with our men's hockey side at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, he will forever be a part of our rich hockey history and will not be forgotten.

"We know he will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and the hockey community - we pass on our condolences to all who had the pleasure of knowing him."

Barry Maister - a forward in the 1976 team who later became the New Zealand Olympic Committee's secretary general - said there was "widespread respect from all the team" for Gillespie.

He said Gillespie, from Christchurch, and manager Tony Palmer, from Auckland, created "a very harmonious team"’ by blending players from Canterbury and Auckland, arch rivals at provincial level.

Gillespie was a "very calm, measured coach" who prepared his team meticulously and whose team talks were crammed with intricate detail about the opposition and tactics.

"If that sounds a little boring, it wasn’t boring at all," Maister said.

"Ross had a lot of fun and had a very dry sense of humour.

"He could be very self-deprecating.

"But everything he did was planned accordingly and delivered in a very meticulous way.

"You knew where you stood with him."

Gillespie helped New Zealand reach the quarter-finals at the Rome 1960 Olympics, but later said that he cried after losing the 12th place play-off to Rhodesia in Tokyo in 1964.

Gillespie was head coach at the Munich 1972 Olympics, where New Zealand finished ninth.

He was disappointed at the Munich result, feeling the Kiwis should have made the semi-final, but resolved that "if we kept the core of that group together and get a better build-up, we could do it next time around".

That ambition was achieved when New Zealand beat Australia 1-0 in the Montreal final to win New Zealand's first and only Olympic hockey gold medal after finishing seventh at the 1975 World Cup, where they lost 5-0 to the Australians.

Maister told stuff.co.nz that Gillespie wasn’t a loud, demonstrative coach, "except at half-time" in Montreal when he felt the Kiwis hadn’t played to their potential in the first half.

"He said, 'If you can play as badly as that and still old them out, you can actually win this.'"

Gillespie was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to hockey in the 1977 New Year's honours list and was a popular after-dinner speaker.