The Story Behind The Hockey Sweater

It is arguable that the greatest book ever written by a Canadian is a children's book. Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater needs no introduction in Canada. But Carrier recently revealed some fascinating insight into the story behind the story.

"I got this invitation from the CBC to write something about the question that everybody was asking in Canada - What does Quebec want?" He started working on the text but it was not coming together.

"And I phoned back on Friday to tell CBC that I could not do it. They said they had a time slot booked for Monday so 'Write whatever you want and it will be OK.' "Suddenly I got an idea ... to write about some experience when I was kid about hockey. No philosophy, not thinking about hockey as a religion, just write the thing as it was. "It was written very quickly. It was translated into English by Sheila Fischman, who did an incredible job.

"By Sunday afternoon, we were sitting in the CBC studio in Montreal recording. Sheila was in front of me and she was my tutor in English. There were some words that were hard for me to pronounce in English like M-O-T-H-S."

Here's the full article.

For those not familiar with The Hockey Sweater, be sure to watch this:

Misremembered Is A Word

Alright. Sports reporters around the world are making fun of Roger Clemens because he suggested Andy Pettitte "misremembered" some facts that somehow proved Clemens was in fact using steroids and therefore lying under oath to United States congress.

While sports casts across North America are full of giggles over Clemens' choice of words, it is worth noting that misremembered is a perfectly correct word!

Don't even get me started on why congress is making major league baseball their business anyways. Isn't there more pressing issues the U.S. government should be worrying about? Like oh I don't know Iraq and Afghanistan, the US economy, the US housing crisis, global warming.....

Enough about Rocket Roger anyways. He's a putz. And he's proving that lately. Sure he can throw a ball really well. I'll give him that.

Let's talk about the only Rocket that matters in sports. Rocket Richard.

I mean, Richard is a hero, even though he really didn't want to be. He transcended his sport unlike almost anyone in sporting history. And the fallout is still being felt today.

Though I am of French Canadian heritage, I grew up an English Canadian kid on British Columbia's wet coast. I don't think that, despite all of my research, I have ever truly understood just how influential, how important, how special Rocket Richard truly was and is.

Until now.

Over at Hockey Book Reviews.com I have reviewed Roch Carrier's book Our Life With The Rocket.

Roch Carrier is a successful novelist and playwright but he is famous (and undoubtedly rich!) for his quintessential children's hockey book The Hockey Sweater. But if you ask me, his most important title has to be Our Life With The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story.

In fact, I go as far as to say that this book is the only important hockey book ever written, and it should be mandatory reading for secondary students and university students studying Canadian and Quebec history.

Read the full book review of Roch Carrier's Our Life With The Rocket.

The Hockey Sweater

Le Chandail de hockey. The Hockey Sweater.

Roch Carrier's most famous story is about a young boy who orders a Montreal Canadiens sweater from the Eaton's catalogue, but receives a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey instead. Brilliantly capturing the cultural tensions between English and French Canada, it is considered to be one of the most important works of Canadian literature ever written.

The book is based on the real experience of Carrier growing up in an isolated part of Quebec in the 1940s. He, like all boys his age, was a big fan of the Montreal Canadiens and their star player, Maurice "The Rocket" Richard.

When Carrier's Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater wears out, his mother orders a new one from Eaton's. Unfortunately, the department store giant sends a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater instead, the Canadiens' bitter arch rivals.

A loyal fan of Les Habitants, Carrier protests having to wear the new sweater. But his mother refuses to let her son wear the old worn out sweater and, apparently unaware of the business's traditional policy they advertised, "Goods satisfactory, or money refunded", insists that if they were to return the sweater it may offend Mr. Eaton, himself a Leafs fan. As a result, young Carrier is forced to wear the Leafs sweater to his hockey game, feeling humiliated before the other players on the ice, each proudly wearing Canadiens sweaters.

Getting your first hockey sweater is one of the truly great Christmas gifts one can receive. I'd love to hear your stories of Christmases past or present about giving or receiving a special hockey jersey.

By the way, the previous pic of a Habs jersey under a Christmas tree is part of Erle Schneidman's Montreal Canadiens Christmas card collection. The Habs have annually issued a Christmas card dating back to 1946, and he has many of them digitized on his website CanadiensMemorabilia.com. Registration is required to view his vast collection of Habs materials, but it is free and totally worth the 30 seconds of your time.

Here's a couple more pics from his collection:




And with that, I think the website will be shutting down for a few days break for Christmas. I wanted to thank everyone for helping to make this website something special. It is you the readers that truly make the site.

Merry Christmas everyone! I'll see you next week.