Don Cherry (hockey)
Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934, nickname Grapes) is a well-known Ice hockey coach, commentator, and author in both the United States and Canada. A native of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Cherry had a long playing career in the American Hockey League and played one game for the NHL's Boston Bruins in 1955.
Coaching career
In the middle of the 1971-1972 season, Cherry became the coach of the AHL's Rochester Americans. After a successful three-year stint in Rochester, he was promoted to the NHL as head coach of the Boston Bruins. He quickly developed a reputation for being an eccentric, flamboyant coach who strongly encouraged physical play among his players. It has been alleged he modeled the Bruins' playing style after that of his dog, Blue, a fiesty bull terrier. This approach worked as the Bruins were one of the NHL's best teams during the latter half of the 1970s. Despite that success, however, the Bruins failed to win a Stanley Cup under his leadership, losing in the finals to their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in both 1977 and 1978. Cherry won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 1976.Cherry, who had an uneasy relationship with Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden, was fired by the Bruins after a critical coaching mistake during a 1979 playoff series against the Canadians. Up by a goal with less than two minutes left in the seventh game, the Bruins were penalized for having too many men on the ice. The Canadiens scored the tying goal on the subsequent Power play and ultimately won the game in overtime. Montreal went on to defeat the New York Rangers for their fourth straight Cup title.
Cherry went on to coach the Colorado Rockies the following season, but was unceremoniously dumped after one year after feuding with the Rockies general manager.
Cherry is the part-owner and the former coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga IceDogs. The IceDogs' first three seasons were difficult ones with the team winning a total of 16 games. Cherry took over coaching duties in the fourth season. During Cherry's one season as head coach of the Mississauga IceDogs, the team managed 11 victories (only a slight improvement) and failed to make the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
Broadcasting
Following his stint with the Rockies, Cherry became a commentator for Hockey Night in Canada on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Since the mid-1980s he has regularly appeared on "Coach's Corner," an intermission segment on Hockey Night In Canada, with Ron MacLean. For several years he also hosted his own half-hour interview show, "Don Cherry's Grapeline".Cherry has become well known for his unique clothing preferences. Cherry, following an example set by his father Del, one of Kingston's best-ever athletes, always wears double-breasted suits with flamboyant patterns and colors. He is also known for unusually tall (3 1/2 inch) shirt collars and crazy ties, tied in a unique backwards single Windsor knot.
Cherry has never held back his dislike of the European style of hockey, blaming them for bringing diving and visors into the league, while taking the jobs of "good-old Canadian boys."
Cherry's commentary is usually peppered with catch phrases like "All you kids out there...," unrestrained affection for his favorite players (including "Dougie," Kingston native Doug Gilmour, who Cherry kissed on-air in a famous TV gag), and overall political incorrectness. Another trademark is his Bull Terrier Blue, originally a gift from the Bruins players.
Cherry is generally regarded as being an outspoken conservative on many issues, making him often at odds with the overall tone of CBC programming, which is generally characterized as Liberal-leaning. In 2003 Cherry made controversial comments on his CBC segment in support of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. On an American radio program (The Jim Rome Show) the following week, he lashed out at CBC management for being anti-American.
In January, 2004 Cherry once again was at the centre of a controversy, this time over comments he made about use of visors by NHL players. His statement that the majority of people that wear them were "European or French guys" triggered an investigation by the federal Official Languages Commissioner, and protests by French-Canadians. CBC consequently imposed a seven-second delay on Hockey Night In Canada. He was somewhat vindicated when a study was published that showed the majority of visor users in the NHL were indeed French-Canadians and Europeans.
Cherry returned to the news in May 2004 amid rumours that CBC would terminate his contract for Hockey Night In Canada. However, he re-signed with the network in July.
Branching out from his Hockey Night In Canada duties, Cherry began to release a series of videos called Don Cherry's Rock'em Sock'em Hockey in 1989. The 15th anniversary video was released in 2003.
In October, 2004, the CBC program The Greatest Canadian revealed that its 'top ten' viewer-selected great Canadians included Cherry. He joined such greats as John A. Macdonald, Frederick Banting and Terry Fox. Cherry himself remarked that he was inclined to vote for Macdonald. Don Cherry finished seventh in the final tally.
Cherry has returned to the "Coach's Corner" for the 2005-2006 NHL season - without the seven-second delay.