Congratulations to Bob Nicholson

I met Bob Nicholson in the summer of 2007.  Even before knowing him I understood his presence and power.  I have always been fascinated with leaders and with hockey and no one has combined the two like Bob.

I was a student at the Vierumaki Sports Institute in Finland, studying ice hockey coaching.  I had returned to Finland that summer to take part in the IIHF Development Camp.  I had just had the best year of my entire life and I finally felt like I had some direction in my life.  It was no coincidence that that summer I would meet one of the most influential people I will ever know.  I became fast friends with a lot of my classmates at Vierumaki and I felt like I fit in with the Finns more than I did in my own hometown.  The closest of these friends, who will remain one of my best friends until the day I die, was Petteri Hietanen.  Yes, this is a story about Bob and how proud I am to work in an office about 20 steps from his for another couple of months, but it would never have been possible without Petteri Hietanen. 

Petteri was a couple years younger than I was but equally as ambitious and he had a way with people (especially those of the opposite sex) that most people believe only exists in fictious characters.  Petteri is one of the most passionate hockey people you could ever expect to meet.  It turns out that Petteri's father happened to be Heikki Hietanen, and at that time Heikki was the executive director of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 

The Hietanen's treated me like a son and made Finland a home for me.  I would visit them in their home town of Hameenlinna (or H-town as Pete called it) often.  Petteri and I would pile into a small car with some of his friends, our classmate Josh Andrews (Canoe Cove, PEI) and our Spanish exchange student sidekick Miguel and go to concerts, hockey games, night clubs and other events all over Finland.  Often we would find ourselves waking up in the Hietanen home (later on Bob would share similar stories with me about the Hietanen family).

Upon my return to Finland in the summer of 2007, after 2 months back in Canada for summer break, Heikki and Petteri greeted me at Vierumaki.  Heikki, as important and powerful of a man as he was, always made me feel like he had nothing but time for me and he fed my ambition at every turn.  Earlier that spring, Heikki recruited me to manage the Scout Lounge as Finland hosted the IIHF U18 World Championships in Tampere (another moment that changed the course of my future).  Heikki had another life changing and future altering plan in mind for me on this day in sunny Vierumaki.  FIHA and Hockey Canada were going to be having meetings in the days leading up to the IIHF Development camp and Heikki needed someone to greet the Hockey Canada staff at the airport in Helsinki and to shuttle them the hour and a half back to the Finnish sports paradise in the middle of the forest. 

I have so much respect for all of the Hietanen family that they could ask me to pick up a grizzly bear and shuttle it somewhere in a smart car and I wouldn't hesitate.  So, I was given the keys to a 12 passenger van and sent on my way.

Driving in Europe is an interesting experience...Most vehicles I had ever driven were automatics....this van was not.  I had some minor experience driving stick and felt fairly confident doing so but this van had what seemed to be several more gears than I had ever experienced.  I managed to make it to the E75 South and eventually to the bus parking lot at Helsinki Vantaa Airport.  I waited at the international arrivals gate and was eventually met by a small army of men I would soon come to know much better.  There were 7 staff and a couple of family members, if memory serves me correctly.  This was my first meeting with Johnny Misley, Paul Delparte, Scott Smith and Bob Nicholson.

We piled into the van and headed for Vierumaki.  I think the first time my driving came into question was the third or fourth time I tried to reverse out of our parking spot....I stalled the van several times before getting onto the highway.  At this point the van was pretty quiet...

We eventually got moving and once we were on the highway and I managed to squeak out that it would be about an hour and a half before we got to Vierumaki everyone started to relax a bit.  Scott Smith sat up front with me and chatted with me for most of the way with the rest of the boys interjecting from time to time.  They were surprised to have a Canadian greet them and (sort of) know where he was going.  They asked me a ton of questions and were very curious about what I had learned and what my experience had been like up to this point.

We arrived at Vierumaki on time and I proceeded to stall the van several more times while dropping everyone off...eventually just leaving the van in the middle of the parking lot...

Bob was the last to leave the van.  Before he left he thanked me for the ride and noticing perhaps how embarrassed (and somewhat nauseous even I now was) he said "You know what Ross?  This is going to be a story I can tell some day when I'm presenting an award to you"  He patted me on the back and got out to hug Heikki.

There are moments in ones life where emotions can turn on a dime.  In the 5 seconds it took for him to say that I went from the most embarrassed and disheartened with myself I had maybe ever been to feeling like I could do anything in the world.  Bob Nicholson is a man who can make anything seem like a reality.

In the years since, I would run into Bob all over the place.  As my presence and experience in the sport grew, I found myself at the same events, in the same room and sometimes at the same table as Bob more and more.  I was fortunate enough to coach his son, Grant and spend some time with the Nicholson boys and the Hietanen boys jumping in lakes after marathon sauna sessions.  He always made time for me when I came to Calgary and gave me great advice.  On one occasion I had just gone through a fairly intense end of what I considered a serious relationship and I ran into Bob in the middle of a crowded concourse during a World Junior game.  I obviously wasn't myself, and I feel like he tuned into that immediately.  He pulled me aside and gave me what I know now as a classic "Bob pep talk".  As hard as my outlook on life was at that time, he managed to somehow inspire me.  Funny enough, it wasn't the last time he would find me in such a situation.

Three years ago, I had applied for a few jobs with Hockey Canada and had come up just short every time.  Again, Bob brought me in for a meeting and pumped my tires and told me my time would come.  A few short days later, Paul Carson sent me an email saying he and Bob had talked and were wondering if I would be willing to go to Bosnia or Poland for an international development project.  Paul and Bob fall into a similar category of decision making as the Hietanen family does when it comes to personal requests.  So, off to Sarajevo I went.

Bosnia changed me.  It gave me something I could have never obtained in Canada or on my own.  I was there for close to 6 months and it was incredible.  Before I left for Bosnia, Bob again pulled me aside at a hotel bar in Penticton, BC.  He once again showered me with advice and told me that Bosnia is an opportunity that doesn't exist that often in sport.  It was the chance to build something, to help some people who were open to ideas and to put my own spin on the sport for that country.  He warned me that it was a difficult situation and it could be frustrating but if I went in determined and open-minded I would be able to accomplish something that very few people will ever get to experience.

Bob is a captivating man.  He has a tremendous ability to hit your soul with his words and he can swap from a fun, seemingly carefree, easy to be around guy at a party to an inspiring and motivating leader in the blink of an eye.  He's the guy everybody wants to be around and he handles that with incredible poise and optimism.

At the end of my Bosnian adventure, Haris Muhic, the Bob of hockey in Bosnia, invited me to the World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia as a guest of Bosnian Ice Hockey.  I was given accreditation to attend IIHF Congress, something that for most people isn't that exciting, but for me it was as exciting as game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  During one of the breaks, Haris asked me what I wanted to do next, and I told him I wanted to work for Hockey Canada.  Haris pulled Bob over and told Bob he wanted to know what it would take to convince him to assign me to Bosnia for longer.  I wasn't fully prepared for that question, but I was even more unprepared for Bob's response.  "Sorry Haris, we have plans for Ross back in Canada".  The conversation continued for some time but I heard nothing after Bob said that...Haris gave me a wink.

That September I started working for Hockey Canada.

Since then, I've had hundreds more interactions and have had the privilege of seeing the day to day attention to detail and personality that makes Bob such a valuable and cherished leader.  I've watched him handle difficult situations, bring staff together and provide guidance to countless sport leaders from countless other countries.  I've stood on the sidelines as he spoke to the media and watched him tease and joke with some of the most powerful people in sport.  The video for his 60th birthday was an amazing collection of people with outstanding stories and inside jokes.

The impact Bob has had on so many people is incredible.

When Bob made his announcement to the staff and then to the world, there were misty eyes among our staff.  Looking around the office I could see the almost hundred other people with stories and experiences like mine.   We were as glued to his press conference in Toronto as we were to the Olympic final.   It was bittersweet.  I'm extremely happy for Bob and his family and I know it won't be the last time he influences some direction for my future.  I just really like having a desk a few steps away from Bob Nicholson's...