Before Don Cherry would coach the Boston Bruins from 1975 to 1979 and lead his team to two
Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Before Don Cherry would become a Canadian Icon with his popular series Rock’Em Sock’Em,
Hockey Hockey Night in Canada & Coach's Corner.
Before Don Cherry would be fired from Sports Centre after making some rather racist comments.
A lot of you kids south of the border might only be hearing about Don Cherry as of recent
but this dude has been entertaining the great white norther for over 50 years.
He’s been on Coaches Corner since 1986 and on CBC since 1980 and many,many people tune
in, after the first period, just to watch him.
The ratings for the broadcast actually go up when he comes on then drop when he’s
done.
In 2004 he was voted the 7th greatest Canadian ever!!!
He's one of the most entertaining commentators in sports history and has had a career that's
branched off into acting as well as building up a franchise in his name.
He's also the inspiration behind me buying a bunch of these flashy suits.
What's going on guys?
It's your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Don Cherry before his
recent headline making dismisal here for you on Before They Were Famous.
I'd be interested to hear what you guys have to say about what he said and him losing his
job in the comments down below.
Also a few other American TV legends I could make videos on, like Alex Trebek or Bob Barker
– for that to happen you gotta place your requests.
Now let's get into this video.
Don Stewart Cherry was born on February 5th, 1934 in Kingston Ontario to Maude and Delmar
Cherry.
For our younger viewers I need to put this into perspective.
1934 was the year he first Three Stooges short film was released, a man I can't even name
became the head of Germany, Alcatraz welcomed its first civilian prisoners and New York’s
Apollo Theatre opened.
Long, long time ago...
A true Canadian kid, he grew up in hockey arenas and playing pond hockey and by 20 he
was playing junior hockey for the Barrie Flyers and
Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League.
His hockey career would take him all over Ontario and even south of the border playing
in minor hockey leagues for the Springfield Indians, -, Kitchener-Waterloo Beavers, Sudbury
Wolves, Spokane Comets and Tulsa Oilers all these different teams resulted in him and
his family moving a total of 53 times.
He wasn't even making a fortune, earning just $3 to $4K per season.
His longest stint was in the American Hockey League playing for the Pennsylvania Hershey
Bears for over sixteen seasons.
It was due to a Baseball injury he received in the offseason that Don cites as reason
he never had a career in the NHL.
With that said, he did play one game for the Boston Bruins against the Montreal Canadians
in the Stanley Cup finals of 1955.
Eventually he decided to retire as a professional player after playing nineteen games with the
Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League but finding work as a retired Hockey
player turned out to be pretty difficult.
He was a Cadillac car salesman and worked in construction.
He even tried his hand at painting earning as little as 2 Canadian dollars an hour.
With things looking bleak, he returned to the ice in 1971 playing again for the Rochester
Americans for 19 games before finally hanging up his skates for good.
He transitioned into the role of Coach for Rochester in the middle of the 71 – 72 season
and won coach of the year.
In his third season he was named American Hockey Leagues Coach Of The Year, he also
became the General Manager.
The following year, In 1974 Cherry was shifted to the big leagues as coach of the Boston
Bruins.
He quickly became notorious for encouraging his players to engage in physical play on
the ice and taught them a few tricks by using his bull terrier Blue as an example of how
to be aggressive.
The Bruins as they continued to be one of the NHL's best teams during the latter half
of the 1970s, capturing the division title four straight seasons from 1975–76 through
1978–79.
In the 1977–78 season.
In 1976 he won the award for Coach of the year.
They made it to the Stanley Cup finals twice losing to the Montreal Canadians in 77 and
78 and likely the reason Don's never been a fan of the french team.
The next year he took on the role of coach for the Colorado Rockies and all seemed to
be going well but again he would butt heads with both players and upper management.
With his Coaching career in the NHL coming to a close Don Cherry decided to make something
of his fame in his native Canada.
He founded themed restaurants called Don Cherry's Grapevine and
although he has since sold the company there exist a dozen locations across Canada.
In 1998, along with three other investors, DonCherry set up the Mississauga Icedogs in
the Ontario Hockey League and took over as coach for a short period of time.
He also had a guest role on the TV series Goosebumps epidosde “Don't Go To Sleep”
in the role of Coach.
He also appeared with Trailer Park Boys in the video for The Darkest One by The Tragically
Hip where he was seen delivering fried chicken.
He was also hired in 1981 by the CBC as a sports commentator but they learned pretty
early on that he was a hard man to direct as he would openly cheer for the teams he
favoured including the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
To justify his opinions Coach's Corner was created to appear during the first segment
of Hockey Night In Canada alongside co-host Dave Hodge.
The ratings started to spike during Don's broadcasts and the country had a new star
in the world of sports.
In 1986, Ron McLean was introduced as
his co-host.
His career in Broadcasting spanned nearly 40 years and he branched off with his own
popular series of videos titled Rock'Em Sock'Em.
There were of course just as much love for the Canadian icon as there were detractors.
With his colourful suits only getting more and more elaborate over the years he became
impossible to ignore but there were numerous controversies over the years.
In the 2002-2003 season on his Coach's Corner segment, he spoke out in support of Canada
joining the Iraq War.
In the 2003-2004 season, he made some derogatory comments about the number of French and European
players who wear visors.
As a result the CBC put his Coach's Corner segment
on 7 second delay.