Page 15 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 5

Our advertiser’s “Goal” is always to “Assist” their customers.
The Games Are Over, The Memories Live On
The Rings Say It All!
The Rings say it all! (l-r) Front row, 1972 Memorial Cup ring,
Stanley Cup ring, 1981-1982 AHL championship ring , 2001 Stanley Cup ring, Back
Row: 1982-1983 Coach of the year watch, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Hall of Fame ring.
had money coming out their ears, I listened to
them,” says Tessier. “I went to Montreal and
they offered me a three-year contract at a very,
very good salary and supplied us with a house.
They also paid all the expenses for my wife to
go back and forth and for the kids in school.
“The kids had to go to a bilingual school, and
there aren’t too many of them in Quebec, but
there was one in St. Foy and they arranged for
them to get there an back each day as well, so
I signed.”
One thing that baffles Tessier about the
situation was how the team treated his
replacement, who was also one of his best
friends in the league.
“They went after Ron Racette, and they
offered him more money than they offered me,”
says Tessier. “He signed for the same money
that I was hoping to get.”
Tessier stayed in Quebec City one year and led
the Remparts to a Quebec league championship
and a Memorial Cup appearance, but his
family really wanted to go home. Through
the grapevine Tessier learned that the Royals
management wanted to talk with him, and the
conversation eventually led to a job offer, one
that Tessier says he would only accept on one
condition.
“I said I wouldn’t take it if Ron Racette had
Middle row: 1996
Photo by Terry Tinkess
to go,” says Tessier. “I’ve got some integrity.
I said that he was an excellent coach, that he
was a good friend of mine, and I didn’t want to
cost him his job.” As a result, Racette remained
behind the bench while Tessier provided input
from a different perspective.
Tessier finally left Cornwall to coach in
Chicoutimi, then moved on to Kitchener of the
Ontario league, where he had played his junior
hockey. The team went from a tenth-place finish
to a “rebuilding” season with 11-seventeen
year olds and made it to the Memorial Cup
final, where he was defeated, ironically, by the
Cornwall Royals.
Tessier’s next stop was with New Brunswick
in the American League and he won a
championship in his first year. Next stop: The
National Hockey League and the Chicago
Black Hawks.
“When I got to Chicago the first year, they
had finished pretty near last,” says Tessier.
“They only had 64 points and we went from 64
to 104 in the first year.
In his second and third years with the Hawks,
the team suffered through a rash of injuries, and
eventually management decided they needed to
make a change. Fortunately for Tessier, they
had signed him to an extension following his
first year, a season in which he won the Jack
15
Adams trophy as coach of the year.
“They wanted to make a change, and if they
wanted to let me go, they could let me go, but
they would still have to pay me,” says Tessier.
“Charlotte and I went to Florida. We could
watch the games there and have a few cold
ones.”
“I was more disappointed then mad,” adds
Tessier. “I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I
said to myself the first thing I’m going to do is
shut my mouth. They have a right to fire you
and I have to accept that. I sat there for four
days by myself, and then I called Charlotte and
told her we were going to Fort Lauderdale and
that I had a nice place for us. We stayed there a
couple months and then came back. She asked
me what I wanted to do and I told her nothing,
at least not next year. I didn’t want to coach any
more.
Does he have any regrets? Tessier says not.
“I would never change a second of it, never,
never, never. I’m perfectly happy in what I’ve
accomplished.”
Tessier says his greatest memories are of his
first season in the NHL, but he holds a very
special place in his heart for the 1972 Memorial
Cup Cornwall Royals. There isn’t a player or
person involved with the team that Tessier can’t
find a kind word for.
“Every night I coached them, I thought
to myself, ‘This isn’t real,’ says Tessier.
“Somebody is going to beat us or somebody is
going to show us. Every night to me, and I had
never really coached before, just at St. Lawrence
College, I never knew what to expect. Every
night though, you could see that our team was
there, that it was ready. They didn’t care if they
played on the road, or if they played here, they
were that kind of team.
“We had a couple guys that could really fight,
they weren’t (John) Wensink, but they could
really fight. When we got on the road, they
helped us out a bit. These kids had discipline,
it was unbelievable. But if we ran into trouble,
we always had Richard (Richard Brodeur,
who went on to play goal with the Vancouver
Canucks.) He won that Memorial Cup for us.”
“If I had never coached the Royals that year,
I would have never coached any of the places
I went after. That year, and my first year in the
NHL, that is what you dream of. It was a thrill,
it was really a thrill.”