Former NHL coach of the year reflects on a career marred by racism

W5: The Unwanted Visitor, part one TSN's Rick Westhead sits down with former NHL coach of the year to discuss the racism he faced during his career in professional hockey.

TORONTO — Ted Nolan’s love of hockey began with filling pails of water thousands of times to create his own ice rink in the backyard of his home outside Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. At 16, he moved to Kenora, Ont. to play junior hockey. Nolan recalls how he was subjected to racial taunts in his early years of the game.

“It went from loving the game to just trying to survive in the game. They’d bump you and call you names I’d never heard before. They’d call me a prairie n word, and I thought ‘I never heard that before.’ You’d hear ‘oahu’ and ‘get back to the reservation’ and ‘what are you doing here you stinking Indian,’ all those types of things.”

Nolan played professional hockey in the NHL and AHL for a combined eight seasons before retiring in 1986. That’s when he discovered his true calling as a head coach. He led the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds to three consecutive Memorial Cup tournaments, and won the National Junior Championship in 1993. Colleagues and players praised Nolan for his deep understanding of how to motivate his players.

“Teddy was what you call a ‘player’s coach,’ but he understood personalities. He met with them a lot, he really understood his players… he got them to work hard,” says long-time junior hockey executive Sherry Bassin.

Nolan’s success in the OHL eventually led to opportunities in the NHL, including a head coaching job with the Buffalo Sabres for which he won the Jack Adams Award as the league’s coach of the year in 1997.

“When Teddy spoke a pin would drop and you could hear that pin ‘cause guys were mesmerized by his ability to motivate and share stories,” remembers Hall of Famer and former Sabres’ captain Pat LaFontaine.

Despite his successes, Nolan’s time as a NHL head coach was short-lived and he believes his race is the reason. “If I was white, I’d be coaching for sure.”

“The NHL likes to stick to what they know, and who they are, who their buddies are, who’s in the inner circle, who’s going to golf tournaments in the summer, who’s going to the coaching clinics,” says Nolan’s son Jordan, a former NHL player himself. “And just ‘cause you don’t go to all these events, that doesn’t mean you don’t care. It’s just we value going home in the summer more, we value being around our people, going to pow wows.”

Today, much of Nolan’s focus is on his work with the Ted Nolan Foundation – an organization that encourages Indigenous youth to pursue academic growth. He also founded 3 Nolans with Jordan and his other son Brandon, also a former NHLer. The goal of 3 Nolans is to help Indigenous youth with hockey and life skills.

“I’m going to try and share my story with as many people as I possibly can, particularly the First Nations kids. When you leave, it’s not going to be the most accepting places that you’re going to go to, you might cry yourself to sleep, but it teaches you that not everything is going to happen overnight. If you persevere and you fight, things happen.”