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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781770415447 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | ECW Press |
| Publication date: | 10/12/2021 |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
When he was still going strong into his 80s I thought he should retire. His voice was going. The hockey world was no longer a “Rock and Sock ’em, society. It was changing and I’d heard his bosses at Sportnet were waiting to find an excuse to push Grapes aside. They’d dumped a number of high salaried guys and Grapes was in the million-a-year bracket. Then, on Nov. 12, 2019—Remembrance Day—he was gone. Turfed after his “you people” rant on Coach’s Corner, gone for singling out new immigrants for not wearing poppies to honour Canada’s veterans and dead soldiers. Ron MacLean, sitting next to him, didn’t catch the words “You people” or he might have asked Don to re-phrase his rant and say “Everybody” instead of “You people.” While the complaints started pouring in, MacLean nodded and gave his partner a thumbs up. MacLean apologized the following day. Cherry did not. He said he meant every word he said. Cherry was widely criticized but one finger pointer, coach Bill Peters of the Calgary Flames, soon regretted it. He approved of Grapes’ dismissal, and talked about hockey standing for diversity… “I saw Cherry,” Peters said. “Our country is based on inclusion. We have a very diverse country. I know in the hockey community, we talk about hockey is for everybody. And that’s how we are in the country of Canada, too.” Hockey for everybody, Bill? Black players, too? Really? A few days after Cherry was sidelined, so was Peters. And for a better reason. Black player Akim Aliu says Peters used racial slurs while addressing the then 20-year-old rookie winger in the locker room of an AHL club a decade ago. It was Aliu’s turn to select the music for the room and Peters had had an earful. “Coach walked in before a morning skate and said ‘Hey Akim, I’m sick of you playing that n——- s—- music.’” Peters was reacting to Aliu listening to rap music. “He said ‘I’m sick of hearing about n——-s f——— other n——-s in the ass stuff.’” Two of Aliu’s teammates on the AHL Rockford Icedogs, Simon Pepin and Peter MacArthur, corroborated Aliu’s accusations. Aliu said Peters never apologized for the incident, but instead doubled down in the coach’s office with another racial slur. Peters essentially admitted that those allegations were true when he resigned as head coach of the Flames and apologized for “offensive language I used in a professional setting a decade ago.” He said that the racial slurs he used were “made in a moment of frustration and do not reflect my personal values.” Maybe not. But Aliu had every right to out him, to expose his comments.
Table of Contents
Introduction 9
Chapter 1 Now and Then 13
Chapter 2 Skating with Snowbirds 20
Chapter 3 Gone from the Gondola 27
Chapter 4 Why Write about Hockey? 39
Chapter 5 A Kid in Haileybury 51
Chapter 6 Haileybury: A Hundred Years Later 56
Chapter 7 The Pioneer Broadcaster 62
Chapter 8 Happy Days in Whitby 67
Chapter 9 The War Years 72
Chapter 10 A Father's Advice 82
Chapter 11 Small Town, Big Dreams 93
Chapter 12 Living over a Barbershop 98
Chapter 13 To Stratford and Back 107
Chapter 14 Battling Brophy and Beliveau 113
Chapter 15 You? Going to College? 119
Chapter 16 On to Schenectady 133
Chapter 17 Bad Luck, Good Luck 141
Chapter 18 Bring Your Skates 146
Chapter 19 Interviews on CBS 152
Chapter 20 Montreal, Here I Come 158
Chapter 21 Toronto Again 165
Chapter 22 MacLaren 171
Chapter 23 The Hewitts: Calling the Shots 176
Chapter 24 The Leafs of the '60s 186
Chapter 25 All Aboard 195
Chapter 26 Success at Scotiabank 200
Chapter 27 An Amateur among Ex-Pros 209
Chapter 28 The Perils of Publishing 219
Chapter 29 Question Period 226
Chapter 30 Shack and Ballard 232
Chapter 31 My Biggest Hockey Story Never Aired 239
Chapter 32 Dinner in New York 244
Chapter 33 All about Grapes 252
Chapter 34 Bower the Best 261
Chapter 35 Orr on the Line 269
Chapter 36 The Perilous Adventures of Peter Puck 279
Chapter 37 Melianby and Me 283
Chapter 38 The Hockey Museum 292
Chapter 39 Our Speaker Tonight 299
Chapter 40 Conversations Recalled 306
Chapter 41 Cole and Gallivan 316
Chapter 42 Scotty Bowman: Born to Coach 323
Chapter 43 Small World Stories 329
Chapter 44 Country Living 335
Chapter 45 Summing Up 340
Acknowledgements 349