Sam on Sports: Ted Nolan
By Sam Laskaris
GARDEN RIVER FIRST NATION — Ted Nolan has been a role model for Indigenous youth and someone that adults also look up to and respect for a few decades now.
And no doubt the Garden River First Nation member will garner even more acclaim later this fall.
That’s because it was announced this past week that Nolan, a former National Hockey League (NHL) player and coach, has also become an author.
Nolan has teamed up with Toronto-based writer Meg Masters to co-author Life in Two Worlds: A Coach’s Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back.
The book, which is available for pre-order now, is scheduled to be released Oct. 10.
No doubt a few eyebrows will be raised when the book is released. In a quote that is promoting the soon-to-be-released book, Nolan states that if his skin was white, he’d still be coaching.
Nolan, who had NHL head coaching stints with the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders, last worked in the world’s premier hockey circuit during the 2014-15 campaign.
After winning the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best coach during the 1996-97 season with the Sabres, it took Nolan almost a decade to land his next gig in the league with the Islanders.
Can’t wait to pick up Nolan’s book and read the reasoning in his own words about why this happened.
The book description also includes the following:
“This is a story then, of succeeding against the odds, and then having success stripped away. It is partly an angry story, a story of injustice, that makes this memoir a story of learning. It is a fierce look at one man’s journey as he comes to know the wider world—with the courage to reach for the previously unattained, and the humility to recognize what really matters in the end.”
Since his junior and pro playing careers were during the 1970s and ’80s, younger generations might not be too familiar with Nolan’s accomplishments.
Those keen to learn more about him or those that read his book will discover he was able to defy the odds and make it to the NHL, as a player and coach. Nolan, who is now 65, grew up in Garden River, a small First Nation in Northern Ontario, in a house with no running hot water or electricity.
A lot of perseverance and hard work allowed him to move up the hockey ladder. After suiting up for the nearby Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the junior ranks, Nolan’s pro aspirations started to take fold after he was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 1978.
He went on to play eight seasons of pro hockey and appeared in 78 NHL matches, 60 of those with the Red Wings and the rest with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Like countless other former pros, Nolan turned to coaching once his playing days were over. And at times, he was pretty good at that.
We all know about some of the things that went right for Nolan.
Looking forward to the near future to be able to read Nolan’s thoughts about other aspects of his life, the parts when things weren’t quite as good.
That should make for a book that will be hard to put down.