Don Cherry

Early Life and Family

Don Cherry was born in Kingston, Ontario, to Delmar and Maude Cherry. His paternal grandfather, John T. Cherry, was an original member of the North-West Mounted Police and a Great Lakes ship captain. His maternal grandfather, Richard Palamountain, was a British orphan of Cornish parentage who emigrated to Canada as one of the Home Children and was a veteran of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Cherry's father Del was an amateur athlete and worked as an electrician with the Canadian Steamship Lines. Cherry's younger brother, Dick Cherry, played hockey at various levels, including two seasons in the National Hockey League with the Philadelphia Flyers.

During his first year playing for the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League, Cherry met his future wife, Rosemarie Martini, who was from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and their life together was defined by the transient nature of minor-league hockey, moving 53 times and often living in modest conditions. The couple had two children, Cindy and Tim, and when Tim required a kidney transplant at age 13, his sister Cindy was the donor, with the two siblings later living across the street from each other near their father in Mississauga. Rosemarie Cherry died of liver cancer in 1997, an event that profoundly affected Don, and in her honour, he helped establish Rose Cherry's Home for Kids, later renamed The Darling Home for Kids in Milton, Ontario, with a street in Mississauga, Rose Cherry Place, also named for her. Cherry married his second wife, Luba, in 1999, marking a new chapter in his personal life following the loss of his first wife.

Playing Career

Cherry played junior ice hockey with the Barrie Flyers and the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey Association. He won the Memorial Cup while playing defence in Barrie in 1953. He dropped out of high school, and in 1954 he signed with the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears. Cherry had a long playing career in professional minor hockey, and in 1955 played his only NHL game when the Boston Bruins called him up during the playoffs. According to Cherry, a baseball injury suffered in the off-season kept him from making the NHL, despite his almost 20 years playing in the minor leagues.

Cherry won the Calder Cup championship four times, in 1960 with the Springfield Indians, and in 1965, 1966, and 1968 with the Rochester Americans. He also won the Lester Patrick Cup, the Western Hockey League Championship, with the Vancouver Canucks in 1969. He retired as a player in 1970, but came out of retirement two years later to play 19 final games with the Rochester Americans. This concluded his playing career in the minor leagues.

Coaching Career

After the end of the 1968-69 season, his playing career was essentially over. Cherry struggled for a time as a Cadillac salesman and a construction worker. He worked as a house painter earning two dollars per hour. In the middle of the 1971-72 season, Cherry became the coach of the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans. The following year, the title of General Manager was added. In his third season behind the bench, Cherry was voted the league's Coach of the Year. After his three-year stint in Rochester, he was promoted to the NHL as head coach of the Boston Bruins for the 1974-75 season.

Cherry quickly developed a reputation for being an eccentric, flamboyant coach who strongly encouraged physical play among his players. While the team had been known for Orr and Esposito who were highly skilled scorers, Cherry remade the team with enforcers and grinders which became known as the 'lunch-pail gang' and 'the Big Bad Bruins'. This approach of 'balance over brilliance' rejuvenated the Bruins, and they captured the Adams division title four straight seasons from 1975-76 through 1978-79, with Cherry winning the Jack Adams Award for the 1975 season. In the 1977-78 season, Cherry coached the Bruins team to an NHL record of 11 players with 20 goals or more on a single team.

The Bruins made the Stanley Cup finals twice, both times losing to their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in both 1977 and 1978. In the 1979 semi-final playoff series against the Canadiens, Cherry's Bruins pushed the series to the limit but they were undone by a late penalty in the seventh game. Cherry, who had an uneasy relationship with Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden, was fired by the Bruins afterward. Cherry went on to coach the Colorado Rockies in the 1979-80 season. The Rockies finished with a league-worst 19-48-13 record, also the worst single-season mark of Cherry's coaching career. He was fired six weeks after the season ended.

Internationally, Cherry was an assistant coach for Team Canada at the 1976 Canada Cup and was head coach for Canada's team at the 1981 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 1983 Cherry agreed to become the new head coach of the Saskatoon Blues, Bill Hunter's proposed relocation of the St. Louis Blues to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. However, the NHL's Board of Governors rejected the move. Cherry was involved with the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga IceDogs as part-owner from 1998 to 2002 and as the coach from 2001 to 2002. During Cherry's one season as head coach of the IceDogs, the team managed 11 victories and failed to make the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

Broadcasting Career and Coach's Corner

After the Colorado Rockies failed to qualify for the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs, Cherry was hired as a studio analyst for CBC's playoff coverage that spring, working alongside host Dave Hodge. CBC hired him full-time in 1981 as a colour commentator, but he didn't last long in that role due to his tendency to openly cheer for one of the teams playing. Instead, Coach's Corner was created, a segment that appeared in the first intermission on Hockey Night in Canada, with Dave Hodge. In 1986, Hodge was replaced by Ron MacLean. By the 2018-19 NHL season, Cherry and MacLean had hosted Coach's Corner for 33 seasons.

From 1984 to 2019, Cherry co-hosted Don Cherry's Grapeline with Brian Williams, first on CFRB radio in Toronto and its sister stations, moving in 1994 to The FAN 590 and the Sportsnet Radio network. At its peak, the show was carried on over 100 stations across Canada. For several years he also hosted his half-hour interview show, Don Cherry's Grapevine, which began on Hamilton's CHCH-TV in the 1980s before moving to TSN. He also hosted a syndicated weekly television show called Don Cherry's This Week in Hockey during the 1987-88 NHL season. 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 of Rock'em Sock'em Hockey was released in 2003, with a 'Best Of' released in 2005.

Cherry's commentary was usually peppered with quotables and catchphrases like 'All you kids out there...,' unrestrained affection for his favourite players, and overall political incorrectness. He was known for his signature style which included colourful jackets, shirts, and ties. In 1989, he referred to Finnish-born Winnipeg Jets assistant coach Alpo Suhonen as 'some kind of dog food'. In January 2004, during Coach's Corner, Cherry claimed that players who wore visors were more likely to commit high-sticking infractions and said, 'Most of the guys that wear them are Europeans and French guys'. This triggered an investigation by the federal Official Languages Commissioner and CBC consequently imposed a seven-second delay on Hockey Night in Canada. For the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, NBC decided to feature Cherry in its intermission coverage. In May 2008, ESPN announced that Cherry was joining Barry Melrose as a commentator for the remainder of the 2008 NHL Playoffs and that he would donate his fees to the Humane Society.

Firing from Hockey Night in Canada

On November 9, 2019, during Coach's Corner, Cherry complained that Canadian immigrants benefit from the sacrifices of veterans and do not wear remembrance poppies. He said, 'You people that come here ... you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that ... These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price.' These comments were widely condemned as being racist. The distributor of those poppies in Canada, The Royal Canadian Legion, officially denounced those statements saying, 'Mr. Cherry's personal opinion was hurtful, divisive and in no way condoned by the Legion.'

Later Career and Recognition

After his firing, Cherry launched a podcast version of Grapevine in November 2019, and during his first episode, he stated he was unwilling to accept the conditions Sportsnet had set for a potential return to broadcasting. He continued this podcast until retiring from the medium in June 2025, which marked the end of his regular public commentary after more than 60 years in hockey. In 2026, Don Cherry was among 30 new appointees named to the Order of Ontario, the province's highest honour, which recognized his long career in Canadian sports and media. He has also provided commentary on other hockey matters, such as in 2026 when he gave an update criticizing the size of the Olympic hockey rink in Milan as being too small for the games.

Public Persona and Legacy

Nicknamed Grapes, he is known for his outspoken manner and opinions, and his flamboyant dress. His loud, outspoken nature became notorious, and his shows are described as 'game analysis, cultural commentary and playful parrying with host Ron MacLean.' In 2004, Cherry was voted by viewers as the seventh-greatest Canadian of all time in the CBC miniseries The Greatest Canadian. In 2010, his life was dramatized in a two-part CBC movie, Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story, based on a script written by his son, Timothy Cherry. In 2012, CBC aired a sequel, The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II.

Questions about Don Cherry

How many NHL games did Don Cherry play?

Don Cherry played only one game in the National Hockey League. It was a single playoff game for the Boston Bruins in 1955. His professional playing career spanned nearly 20 years, but it was spent almost entirely in the minor leagues, primarily in the American Hockey League. He was a four-time Calder Cup champion in the AHL and also won a championship in the Western Hockey League.

What teams did Don Cherry coach in the NHL?

Don Cherry coached two teams in the National Hockey League. His first and most successful stint was with the Boston Bruins from 1974 to 1979. He led the Bruins to four consecutive division titles and two Stanley Cup Final appearances. His second NHL coaching job was with the Colorado Rockies for the 1979-80 season, which ended with the league's worst record and his dismissal after just one year.

Why was Don Cherry fired from Hockey Night in Canada?

Don Cherry was fired from Hockey Night in Canada in November 2019 for making controversial statements during his Coach's Corner segment. He specifically complained that Canadian immigrants benefit from veterans' sacrifices but do not wear remembrance poppies, stating, 'You people that come here ... you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy.' These remarks were widely condemned as anti-immigration, xenophobic, and racist by the public and organizations including the Royal Canadian Legion. Sportsnet, the broadcaster, apologized and stated the comments were discriminatory and offensive, and did not represent their values. Following discussions, Sportsnet president Bart Yabsley announced Cherry would immediately step down, effectively firing him from the program he had co-hosted since 1986.

What is Don Cherry's connection to the Order of Ontario?

The available facts cover his career as a player, coach, and broadcaster, his family life, and the controversies leading to his dismissal from Hockey Night in Canada. There is no reference to this provincial honour within the supplied text.

What was Don Cherry's famous dog's name?

Don Cherry's famous dog was a bullterrier named Blue. Cherry often spoke about his dog and credited Blue's feisty personality as the inspiration for the playing style he implemented as head coach of the Boston Bruins. He moulded the Bruins' approach to encourage physical play, much like his dog's temperament. This coaching philosophy helped shape the identity of his teams, which became known for their tough, lunch-pail work ethic. The dog's name is a well-known part of Cherry's personal lore from his coaching days in the NHL during the 1970s.

What happened to Coach's Corner after Don Cherry was fired?

The Coach's Corner segment ended permanently after Don Cherry was fired in November 2019. On the first Hockey Night in Canada broadcast following his dismissal, co-host Ron MacLean addressed the incident and reflected on the events that led to Cherry's departure. MacLean formally announced that the Coach's Corner segment was finished, concluding its 33-season run with the duo. The segment, which aired during the first intermission of Saturday night broadcasts, was a staple of Canadian hockey culture since 1986. It was not continued with a new host or in a new format after Cherry's controversial comments about immigrants and poppy wearing led to his immediate removal from the program.

Sources: Wikipedia and current public reporting, checked by the Garbutt Disposal desk. Last updated 2026-10-23.