Harry Neale will receive the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award

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WIT AND WISDOM PAVED NEALE'S WAY TO THE HALL OF FAME

 

It was Alexander Graham Bell who not only invented the telephone, but famously said, “When one door closes, another door opens.” Harry Neale was an NHL head coach who once quipped, “I’d rather be coach for the year, not coach of the year.” When Neale suddenly found himself out of work in December of 1985, he took a phone call that would change his life.

 

Neale had been a head coach with the WHA’s New England Whalers and Minnesota Fighting Saints, before making the jump to the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks from 1978-82. He was then hired by the Detroit Red Wings prior to the 1985-86 season. The Wings got off to an 8-23-4 start that season, and Neale was sent packing just after Christmas. Two days after being let go, Neale received a call from Don Wallace of CBC Sports asking if he’d be interested in doing some broadcast work for the network. Neale was about to unknowingly open a door that would lead him to the Hockey Hall of Fame almost 28 years later.