All World Hockey by T Michael Travers: Shania Twain & Don Cherry

Shania Twain & Don Cherry

A name-from-the-past came to me yesterday, Garry Newman. He would likely only be familiar to you if you were in the entertainment business. He was the president of Warner Music.

One night at home, in 1995, he called me. I'd never met him and I can't sing or play an instrument so I was puzzled by the call.

Actually, I thought it was a prank.

And, how did he get my home number?

He said he'd heard about the sports celebrity portrait series I'd created to raise money for Special Olympics and wondered if I would be interested in doing a portrait of one of his upcoming

entertainment stars...a country music artist who'd taken over the category

-- selling more albums than anyone, ever.

She came from very humble beginnings. Only a few months earlier, she'd been performing at Toronto shopping malls. She was the "opening act" for The Young and the Restless

soap-actor meet & greets. Her name was Eilleen Edwards and she was a Canuck.

I'm more a MoTown fan so her name didn't mean anything to me.

But, my new friend, Garry, assured me that she was going to be very big.

I took his word for it and spent some time thinking about a portrait background setting for her that we could use to cause a little buzz and get people to buy her picture.

In 1995, and maybe even today, what better prop could I get than have her sit beside the colourful, controversial hockey-guru, Donald S. Cherry.

Special Olympic Vice President, Frank Selke Jr. got me his number and I called to see if he would be available to sit for a portrait to raise money for the charity.

"Where do you want to do the photo?"

I said, "the only place that makes sense ... your Hockey Night in Canada TV studio set at Maple Leaf Gardens. But instead of you sitting beside Ron McLean I want to pose you with an up-and-coming country music star."

I admitted to him I'd never heard of her and expected he hadn't either.

He seemed ok with the concept. "What's her name?"

"Her stage name is Shania Twain."

He got way-excited. He claimed to be her biggest fan.

"When? What time? What should I wear?"

Imagine being asked by Don Cherry about appropriate habadashery?

We decided on the summertime day, date and time and although the Gardens was closed, the staff prepared the HNIC TV set for our arrival. I was especially interested in having that oversized Hockey Night logo in the background.

As mentioned, Don was a big fan ... he showed up an hour early for the shoot!

I was helping to organize the lighting when he took me by the elbow and walked me into a corner. "I have some posters of Shania. Could you ask her to sign them for me?" He seemed genuinely shy and didn't want to appear to be a groupie. "No, ask her yourself.

Following the shoot, she'll be sitting on your knee while you sign Bruins hockey pucks for her siblings."

"What?"

"Are you sure?"

"Really?"

Shania arrived a few minutes later with her publicist and a little guy. After the introductions that didn't include him, we moved to the set and started the process. I asked the publicist about the little guy. He was in her shadow, out of the way but never took his eyes off her. The publicist said, "he's actually her body-guard, a former Green Beret or Navy Seal."

She was on the verge of super-stardom but she was very polite, reserved and clearly knew that our little meeting wasn't about her - she was happy to be with us to help someone else. She was so Canadian ... and, oh-so-good-looking.

As it turned out, Shania is a huge hockey fan and loved Don.

A few weeks later, the 16 x 20 portrait was ready for signatures. I had them sign 50 copies.

Over the years the beautifully framed portrait of The Queen of Country and The Coach has been sold at Canadian Special Olympic events across the country at an average cost of $800 each.

As Garry promised, Shania's popularity has zoomed since the '90s and she continues to be a force in music and one of Canada's most famous, most successful exports.

Don is Don.

I ran into him at a function not too long ago and reminded him of our time with Shania and their portrait. I told him that while he'd been sleeping he'd made $40,000 for the charity.

"That's beauty eh?"

ps ... I met Don at his home so he could sign his copies of the portrait. "Want a pop?", he said as we settled at the kitchen table. Rose was there and without invitation, Don's canine side-kick "Blue" jumped up on the chair facing me. He stared me down. He looked angry. Clearly, he was annoyed that I was invading his time with Don. Cherry quickly recognized his demeanour and moved him to the gated room next to the kitchen. I felt like I'd dodged a bullet -- that was one mean looking dog.

Once I caught my breath, I'd planned a bunch of hockey questions I was dying to ask but he beat me to it. Don't know what prompted him to talk about Lafleur but he told me when he had defenceman, Mike Milbury, he used to administer a terrible beating on Lafleur every time they faced each other. Milbury would hack him, elbow him, spear him and butt-end him every chance he got. Cherry said some of the stuff even made him wince. But he thought Lafleur was a warrior and saluted his toughness ... Don said after being assaulted by Milbury, "Lafleur never complained or looked at the ref for a penalty."

Don also thought today's NHL goal scorers could learn a lesson from #10 about scoring celebrations. "Lafleur would score, tap his passing-partner on the pads and go line-up ... he didn't try to show-up anyone ... he'd scored before and he was going to do it again ... no big deal."