Ex-NHL Coach admits that he's illiterate!

[ISiddiqui]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ers/index.html

MONTREAL (AP) -- Jacques Demers, who coached the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup in 1993 and was later a general manager in the NHL, admits in a newly released biography that he is illiterate.

"I could read a little bit but I can't write very well," Demers said at a party for the book's launch. "I took to protecting myself. You put a wall around yourself. And when I was given the possibility of talking, I could speak well and I think that really saved me."

In the book Jacques Demers: En Toutes Lettres, which roughly translates to All Spelled Out, Demers said his inability to read and write was the result of an abusive and impoverished childhood.

"All I wanted from my father was to treat me with love," Demers said. "Not to beat me up when I did something wrong. Not to beat up my mom. It really hurt me because he took away my childhood.

"The other thing I wanted to say was that if I could not write or read, it was because I had so much of a problem with anxiety because of the things going on in the family. I couldn't go to sleep at night. I'd go to school and I couldn't learn anything."

The book, which was released Wednesday, was written by Canadian journalist Mario Leclerc.

Demers coached the Quebec Nordiques, St. Louis Blues, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal and the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he was also general manager in the late 1990s.

He was able to hide his illiteracy from all but a few people by asking secretaries and media relations people to write letters for him, claiming his English wasn't good enough.

Even his wife Debbie didn't know until he told her after he put off writing checks to cover household bills for several days.

When he was a general manager, he brought in Cliff Fletcher and Jay Feaster as assistants to handle contracts he couldn't read.

"I never really was a GM," he said. "I hired Cliff Fletcher and Jay Feaster because I knew I couldn't do that."

Since leaving the NHL coaching ranks, Demers has worked as a hockey analyst at the French-language RDS network for the last four years.

For now, he is happy that he has gone public with his illiteracy.

"I have no problem saying what I wanted to say. That's what I needed," he said. "I've been carrying this all my life. I succeeded, and I'm telling people `you're capable of doing something in your life even if you have some big handicaps."'

The funniest part is that he won the Stanley Cup. Imagine how all the other coaches that year feel now!

[Ksyrup]

No, I think this is the funniest part:

"I could read a little bit but I can't write very well," Demers said at a party for the book's launch."

[ISiddiqui]

Well aside for the fact that he didn't actually write the book...

[FrogMan]

Think about it guys, nobody, absolutely nobody knew about this except his wife. Not even his child.

He's a big name TV hockey analyst around these parts and one guy who's been working with him for the last 7 years has said numerous times that he never suspected that he didn't know how to read or write. He explain how, when you get ready to board a plane, well you buy a paper, well Demers would buy the paper like everybody else. He'd then sit in the plane and "read" his paper. Again, think about this. You see a guy with an open paper in front of him, do you ask him to read you a certain paragraph only to verify that he knows how to read???

I'm quite amazed about this...

FM

[Draft Dodger]

the article spoke about contracts, which is one issue.
but all I keep wondering about it stats, and how much of them he was able to read on his own

[Raiders Army]

Maybe he could read Canadian?

[QuikSand]

Funny thing for me - a story about illiteracy that I can't read!

(Blue text on my black background = illegible)

Well, funny to me.

Heh.




I got nothing.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Maybe he could read Canadian?

maybe, but Canadian is really the same as regular English, but with all kinds of extra u's thrown in where they shouldn't be.

[Hurst2112]

Jacques Demers

slkdoi dlkst ssttjh aaldfkfja sakdfafa dasfadoi adkfdsf kdd aadkslfjwwpa aopiwpps.

did you get that email I sent?

[Fidatelo]

I think being a francophone working in an English environment went a long way to help him hide this fact. He could always use the excuse that his English wasn't very good, perhaps someone could help him write this letter? Or read this crazy english document? I also assume that he likely learned how to read numbers in terms of stats. Being illiterate doesn't mean that you can't work numbers or read simple things like statlines.

[General Mike]

I feel bad for him.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by General Mike

I feel bad for him.

I'm impressed with him, really.
to have the success he's had with that liability is a real accomplishment.

and "coming out" so to speak is a courageous and commendable move on his part

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

I think being a francophone working in an English environment went a long way to help him hide this fact. He could always use the excuse that his English wasn't very good, perhaps someone could help him write this letter? Or read this crazy english document? I also assume that he likely learned how to read numbers in terms of stats. Being illiterate doesn't mean that you can't work numbers or read simple things like statlines.

he explicitely said that he used that excuse (francophone in english environment) when he first got to St. Louis and then used the reverse excuse when he got back to Montreal (look, I've been coaching in the States for so many years and my French isn't so good anymore, could you help me out)... Just like DD, I'm very impressed with the man. He is a likeable person, always has been. And to hear how he was beaten by his dad when he was young, thus explaining his positive attitude toward life in just about every interview I've heard him give, well it makes you be just more impressed with him...

Think about the weight that is off his shoulders today, how many little lies he's had to tell not to show this "problem" of his.

I also agree about stats line. This about it, numbers, you can learn to deal with them, and once you connect a player's name with his face, the name becomes like a symbol. I mean "Roy" seen in the back of a jersey (as in Patrick Roy) is the same as on a stats line, that you know how to read or not...

FM