Don Cherry (born February 5, 1934, nickname Grapes) is a well-known ice hockey coach and commentator in both America and Canada. A native of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Cherry had a lackluster playing career in the American Hockey League, playing one game for the NHL's Boston Bruins in 1955.

In the aftermath of nearly being fired from the CBC network, thousands nominated him as The Greatest Canadian, sending him into the Top 10 list on the Canadian show of the same name.

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 to coach the Bruins. He quickly developed a reputation for being an eccentric, flamboyant coach who pressured his players to get physical. It has been alleged he modeled the Bruins' playing style after that of his dog, Blue. The approach worked as the Bruins were one of the NHL's best teams during the latter half of the 1970s, although they did not win a Stanley Cup under his leadership. Cherry won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 1976.

Cherry was fired by the Bruins after a critical coaching mistake during a 1979 playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens. Up by a goal with less than two minutes left in the seventh game, he let too many men on the ice while making a line change. The Canadiens scored the tying goal on the subsequent powerplay and won in overtime.

Cherry went on to coach the Colorado Rockies the following season, but was unceremoniously dumped after one year.

Cherry was formerly the part-owner and coach of the Mississauga IceDogs, in the junior Ontario Hockey League. At first, he demanded that only North Americans could play on the team.

Broadcasting

He then turned his eyes to broadcasting, landing a job as a commentator on Hockey Night In Canada on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Since the mid-1980s he has regularly appeared in a segment in the first intermission titled "Coach's Corner", with his sidekick, Ron MacLean. For several years he also had his own half-hour interview show, "Don Cherry's Grapevine".

He has become well known for his unique clothing choices (pinstripe or plaid suits, unusually tall collars and brightly-coloured ties), his dislike of the European style of hockey, catchphrases like "You kids out there..." and overall political incorrectness.

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 U.S. war on Iraq. On an American radio program the following week, he lashed out at CBC management for being too 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 "Europeans and French guys" triggered an investigation by the federal Official Languages Commissioner, and protests by French-Canadians. CBC consequently imposed a seven second delay on the live program 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 may terminate his contract for HNIC. However, he re-signed with the network in July.

Branching out from his Hockey Night In Canada duties, in 1989 Cherry began to release a series of videos called Don Cherry's Rock'em Sock'em Hockey. 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 in seventh.

External links

• CBC Sports - In Depth: Don Cherry (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/doncherry)
• Coach's Corner on Iraq war riles viewers, CBC - from the CBC's website (http://www.cbc.ca/pcgi-bin/templates/sportsView.cgi?/news/2003/03/24/Sports/cherry030324)
• Canuck slams Hockey Night in Canada and Don Cherry (http://www.gregdooley.com/archive%202003/0227DonCherry.html)
• Public opinion of Don Cherry (http://www.pollara.ca/new/LIBRARY/surveys/NHL.html)

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