Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five seasons after concluding a successful playing career in the American Hockey League, leading the team to four division titles and two appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals.
From 1986 to 2019, Cherry co-hosted Coach's Corner—a segment aired during CBC's Saturday-night NHL broadcast Hockey Night in Canada, with Ron MacLean. Nicknamed Grapes, he is known for his outspoken manner and opinions, and his flamboyant dress. By the 2018–19 NHL season, Cherry and MacLean had hosted Coach's Corner for 33 seasons. From 1984 to 2019, Cherry hosted Grapevine, a short-form radio segment with fellow sportscaster Brian Williams. He created and starred in the direct-to-video series Don Cherry's Rock'Em Sock'em Hockey from 1989 to 2018.
In 2004, Cherry was voted by viewers as the seventh-greatest Canadian of all-time in the CBC miniseries The Greatest Canadian. In March 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 March 2012, CBC aired a sequel, The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II.
Cherry has expressed controversial political views for which he has faced criticism, including remarks he made regarding Canada's lack of support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and denying climate change. In November 2019, Cherry was fired by Sportsnet from Hockey Night in Canada for making racist comments about Canadian immigrants during his show.
Early life and family
Cherry was born in Kingston, Ontario, to Delmar (Del) and Maude Cherry. His paternal grandfather, Sub/Cst. John T. (Jack) Cherry, was an original member of the North-West Mounted Police (now Royal Canadian 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. The name Palamountain is a corruption of the Cornish language "pol-mun-tyr" meaning "pool by the mineral land". Palamountain was also 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. On the March 15, 2008 edition of Coach's Corner, Cherry wore the green and gold colours of County Kerry, Ireland. In his segment following the game, he claimed ancestry from that region. Cherry's younger brother, Dick Cherry played hockey at various levels, including two seasons in the National Hockey League with the Philadelphia Flyers.
In his first year with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, he met his future wife Rosemarie (Rose) Cherry née Madelyn Martini (born 1935 in Hershey, Pennsylvania). Rose was hugely influential in Don's life—because of Don's minor-league hockey lifestyle, they moved 53 times; they rarely had decent housing or furnishings, and Don was often away playing during major events, such as the birth of their daughter and first child, Cindy Cherry. Six years after Cindy's birth, Rose gave birth to son Tim Cherry. When Tim needed a kidney transplant at age 13, Cindy donated one of hers. As of 2006, the two lived across the street from each other, around the corner from their father, in Mississauga.
Rose died of liver cancer on June 1, 1997 and in honour of her perseverance, Don created Rose Cherry's Home for Kids. Her name has motivated Cherry to always wear a rose on his lapel. Cherry contributed in developing Rose Cherry's Home for Kids which has since been renamed to The Darling Home for Kids, in Milton, Ontario. The Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, is located on "Rose Cherry Place", a street named for his late wife.
In 1999, Don married his second wife, Luba.
Playing career
Cherry played junior hockey with the Barrie Flyers and the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey Association. Cherry 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 (AHL) Hershey Bears.