Don Cherry Belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame
Before I begin this post, I want to remind you that my opinions are always good. If you disagree it’s more of a reflection of your own flaws. Also, I want to go on record that this is 100% the hill that I want to die on. I love Don Cherry.
Mr. Cherry was the face of Hockey Night in Canada from 1982 until 2019. His segment “Coach’s Corner” ran during the first intermission for 38 years. One might argue that he must have been doing something right to be able to hold that job for that long. But no, the gargoyles of hockey Twitter would have you believe that he is a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot who deserves the death penalty. I am not kidding, any time he’s trending you’ll see these ghouls tweet some iteration of “Don Cherry is trending, hoped he was dead” and they’ll get hundreds of likes.
These people are so edgy. Three cheers for the ugly edgy people (hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray). Thankfully, Twitter is not a real place. If you’re like me and spend a lot of time around rinks, hockey players and parents, you know that Cherry is considered an icon and someone most hockey fans love. Whether they are willing to admit it or not is another discussion entirely.
Talking about cancel culture is for losers. I am not doing that. I am here to bring you the facts. The fact is Don Cherry was on TV every Saturday night and then every playoff game broadcast on CBC for 38 years not because of toxic masculinity, not because hockey culture is toxic, and not because of any other toxic toxicities I’m forgetting. He was on TV for 38 years because he was both super entertaining and smart. The problem is that he overstayed his welcome. If you tried putting my Bubbie and Zadie on TV when they were in their 80s, I would have killed myself. That’s because (HOT TAKE INCOMING) 80-year-olds should not be giving their opinions on TV! They’re old! Their brains don’t work!
The TV coverage right now on SportsNet is borderline unwatchable. Apart from Elliotte Friedman, Kevin Bieksa, and my best friend David Amber, the panel stinks. Don Cherry was great at having outside the box takes. Best of all he was not afraid to call out players or the league for being spineless. The thing that drives me bonkers about the coverage is that nobody states the obvious. If a ref is garbage, or George Parros gets every suspension wrong, there is zero accountability. But with Don Cherry there actually was someone who would call the league out on their nonsense.
This example is from 2014 so Mr. Cherry was already not as elegant of a speaker as he was in his prime, but this is a great segment calling out the biggest rat of all time Matt Cooke.
This segment starts off entertaining showing players smooching their hockey sticks and then he calls out Matt Cooke and the department of player safety for getting a suspension wrong. He is not as articulate as I would have liked, but he makes a solid argument and no one on TV today would dare call out the league in this manner.
Did he have bad takes too? Oh, hell yeah! Lots of them. I love bad takes. I don’t have any myself, but I think they’re super entertaining. Also, he was on TV for 38 years. How the heck was he supposed to avoid bad takes. Here he is bashing one of the best trades in Maple Leaf history, Wendel Clark for Mats Sundin.
What made him so great was the passion. He was not afraid to say what he thought, and he wore his heart on his sleeve. His firing in 2019 can only be described as “fake news”. I’m mildly exaggerating, but Don Cherry must have said “you people” 2 trillion times during his broadcasting career. He was in his 80’s and as I mentioned earlier, no longer able to articulate his points. His main points of focus were always about player safety, shot blocking, and how to play the game the right way.
Another thing a lot of people might not know about Don Cherry is that he lived and breathed hockey his entire life. When he wasn’t hosting Coach’s Corner, he was a complete and total rink rat. Six nights a week you could find him at different rinks in the city watching GTHL games and scouting the future of Canadian hockey.
There are many people currently in the Hall of Fame that are deeply flawed. Gary Bettman got in despite locking out the players twice. Ken Holland is in despite trading literal assets for Duncan Keith. Cliff Fletcher is in despite mixing up Jeff Finger and Kurt Sauer then signing him to a long-term multi-million-dollar contract. Harold Ballard is in despite being widely regarded as the most despised owner in the history of professional sports.
Don Cherry should be in the Hall of Fame despite having a couple bad segments in an otherwise legendary career. He dedicated his entire life to the game, was a hero to many, and was even ranked 7th on “The Greatest Canadian” list in 2004. Currently, there is an unjust dark cloud over his illustrious career, and he deserves a proper send off.
I love being right.
Well said. Grapes is a legend.
One last point, CBC was a profit making machine when Hockey was aired on there every Saturday nite. Their stats went through the roof, it was so amazing, that even the dreaded French Canadians would change their channels for the first 5 minutes of the 1st intermission, just to see what Grapes has to say.
Ever since he was fired, CBC has lost their great Hockey Nite in Canada, lost their theme music, lost their 1st intermission golden status and their overall broadcast numbers have hit rock bottom.
CBC alone has gone to the way side because they got rid of Don.
People just don’t get it.