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Donald Stewart Cherry is a Canadian ice hockey commentator and sports journalist. He was a professional hockey player and head coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). After a long playing career in the American Hockey League, Cherry played one game for the Boston Bruins and later coached the team for five seasons, winning four division titles and making two Stanley Cup Final appearances. He is most famous for his work on Coach's Corner, which he hosted until Sportsnet fired him in November 2019.

<h2>Background and Age</h2>

Donald "Don" Stewart Cherry was born on February 5, 1934, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. His parents are Delmar and Maude Cherry. Cherry's father was an amateur athlete and worked as an electrician with the Canadian Steamship Lines. On his father's side, his grandfather was named John T. Cherry and was an original member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a Great Lakes ship captain.

On his mother's side, Cherry's grandfather was named Richard Palamountain, a British orphan of Cornish parentage who immigrated to Canada. Richard Palamountain went on to become a veteran of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Cherry also had a younger brother named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cherry">Dick Cherry</a>, who played hockey in the National Hockey League with the Philadelphia Flyers.

<h2>Marriage, Wife, and Kids</h2>

During his first year with the AHL Hershey Bears, Don met his future wife, Rose. She played an exciting and supportive part in Cherry's life. As a result of Cherry's small-time hockey lifestyle, they had to move frequently. Cherry was often away playing while significant family events, like the birth of their little girl and first child Cindy, occurred in his absence.

Six years after Cindy's birth, the couple had a son, Timothy. When Tim was 13, he had massive kidney damage and needed a transplant; his sister Cindy became his donor.

When his wife Rose died of liver cancer in June 1997, Cherry started the Ontario-based Rose Cherry's Home for Kids, now called The Darling Home for Kids, to commemorate her tireless support. In her honor, Cherry also puts a rose on his collar. In 1999, Cherry married his second wife, Luba.

<h2>Career and Net Worth</h2>

Don Cherry played junior-level hockey with the Barrie Flyers and the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey Association. In 1953, when he was a <a href="/biography/don-cherry">defenseman</a> with the Barrie Flyers, his team won the Memorial Cup. In 1954, Cherry dropped out of secondary school and played with the American Hockey League's (AHL) Hershey Bears. He had a long career playing minor hockey and played in the NHL with the Boston Bruins in the 1955 playoffs.

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A baseball injury in the off-season prevented him from making it to the more significant leagues, even though he had spent almost 20 years playing in the more minor leagues. He retired in 1970 but came out of retirement after two years to play 19 games with the Rochester Americans. Cherry won the Calder Cup title in the American Hockey League four times, with the Springfield Indians in 1960 and then with Rochester in 1965, 1966, and 1968. He also won the Lester Patrick Cup, the Western Hockey League championship, with the Vancouver Canucks in 1969.

Cherry became a syndicated radio commentator for the Sportsnet Radio Network and inventor of the Rock'em Sock'em Hockey feature segment. Cherry was voted the 7th most prominent Canadian on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's TV special "The Greatest Canadian."

Cherry's life was documented in a two-episode Canadian Broadcasting Corporation made-for-TV film, Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story. His son, Tim, wrote the script for the film. In March 2012, the CBC aired The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II.

<h2>Controversy</h2>

On "Coach's Corner," Cherry is well-known for making remarks that stir up controversy or debate. The day after Donald Trump was elected president of the USA in November 2016, Cherry went on Twitter and told the "left wing" American entertainers and media figures who had threatened to move to Canada if Trump won to stay in the U.S. He said that he did not believe women belonged in the men's dressing room in another instance.

From his playing days to the present, Cherry has always held hockey in high regard and once said that Canada was hockey and that hockey was Canada because of how popular the sport is in Canada. As a diehard hockey fan, Cherry also mentioned that one could not be a part of the NHL and not love fighting. Cherry once admitted that he saw no point in being neutral, hence his many controversial remarks no matter the topic.

Cherry has faced a negative backlash for his controversial remarks. He called his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_MacLean">co-host</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_MacLean">Ron Maclean</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_MacLean">barbarian</a> and a savage for enjoying a seal burger. The comments stirred a massive uproar on social media, and he was called a racist and an ignorant old dog. Among the outraged individuals was Leona Aglukkaq, the Environment Minister. Some fans felt Cherry should be fired from Coach's Corner.

On Twitter, Cherry was called out by the public to apologize for his statements. He addressed the issue by stating that it was not his intention to hurt peoples' feelings with his comment. According to Cherry's remarks after the incident, he seemed apologetic and made his plea to the people hoping to be understood.

On November 9, 2019, Cherry used Coach's Corner to criticize immigrants for not wearing Remembrance Day poppies, and Sportsnet fired him two days later. He refused to apologize and went on to host the Grapevine podcast with his son Tim.

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