Nolan delivers opening address at Hockey Canada’s Beyond the Boards Summit
By Sam Laskaris
TORONTO – Ted Nolan earned his share of accolades in the junior and professional ranks as a player and as a coach.
But racism is one thing that Nolan, a member of Garden River First Nation, could not escape.
Nolan shared several of his life experiences on Nov. 13 when he delivered the opening address at Hockey Canada’s Beyond the Boards Summit.
The event, which was held in downtown Toronto and featured sessions focused on discrimination in the sport, saw several others from the hockey world participate.
“I just want to really share my experiences with you that many of our kids are still experiencing in our First Nation communities right across Canada,” Nolan said. “And I was just one of those lucky ones that made it through. And it wasn’t easy.”
Nolan’s introduction to hockey began in his First Nation on a community outdoor rink.
“It started a love for me,” he said. “I didn’t know about teams and leagues and so forth. So, the one thing I knew about was hockey. I just really wanted to play. But every time I went to the rink, the adults seemed to be taking over. There was no room for kids.”
As a result, Nolan took it upon himself to build his own rink at home. He estimated it involved him carrying what he felt was 1,000 buckets of water.
Nolan did end up joining Sault Ste. Marie’s youth recreational hockey league. He played in that league until his mid-teens when he attended his first junior training camp with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, a squad that competes in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).
Nolan was cut from his first junior camp and was assigned to the Kenora Thistles, a club that competed in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and was a then 18-hour drive from his First Nation.
“I thought I was going to Disney World, to tell you the truth,” he said. “The team wanted me to go and play. And that was the year that hockey switched. It switched from loving the game to trying to survive.”
Nolan recalled encountering racism and fighting prospective teammates throughout Kenora’s training camp. He said he was also fighting against other students at his school, as they didn’t like the way he looked.
“It seemed like I was fighting every day for the first two weeks,” Nolan recalled.
After writing some letters to his family with details of what he was experiencing, two of Nolan’s brothers ventured off to Kenora. Nolan thought they were coming to watch him play, but they were trying to persuade him to return home. He was incessant he didn’t want to quit because he felt he might also quit the next time he encountered a challenging situation.
“I didn’t want to create a habit because I think we’re all creatures of habit,” Nolan said.
So, he stuck around in Kenora. He was named the club’s top rookie and scored 24 goals that season.
The following year, he made the jump to the Greyhounds. Nolan said he continued to face racism throughout the two seasons he played in the OHL. And even when he turned pro and eventually made it to the National Hockey League (NHL), Nolan endured taunts for being a First Nations player.
When he was 26, Nolan’s playing days ended as he had a serious back injury, which saw him rupture three disks in his lower back. But he said he was actually relieved his career was over as he would no longer face the frequent name-calling.
Nolan eventually turned to coaching. He coached in both the junior ranks, including with the Greyhounds, and in the NHL, with three different franchises.
He won the Jack Adams Award following the 1996-97 season for being the NHL’s top coach, when he was with the Buffalo Sabres. But the following season he was out of a job and did not land another coaching gig for almost a decade when the Moncton Wildcats, members of the then Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, hired him as their head coach.
“I was 37 years old,” Nolan said. “And it was the first time in my life that I felt I was wanted.”
Nolan also offered his thoughts on how Hockey Canada representatives can improve the sport.
He’d like to see more of an emphasis on human development instead of skill development.
“We just really want to play this game to be a part of a team, to make some friends, to go in a hotel, to get a pizza, and have those memories that you could talk about for a long time,” he said.