A conversation with former Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay, currently a Florida Panthers assistant, who overcame scores of physical ailments to succeed as an NHL coach.
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34 Points North | August 2010 | ptsnorth.com ptsnorth.com | August 2010 | Points North 35
In professional sports and in many other
pursuits, smart managers always look for people with
“intestinal fortitude” to join their organizations. While
new Atlanta Thrashers head coach Craig Ramsay is
the personification of fortitude, he’s short on anything
intestinal.
The former National Hockey League player and assis-
tant coach had his first upper gastrointestinal test at 16
and his first major surgery at the age of 20. He endured
another surgery after turning 30, but in 1993 Ramsay’s
health became perilously short-handed, to borrow a word
from the hockey vernacular.
In August, 17 years ago, Ramsay nearly died due to
an ulcer. His rehabilitation after several more surgeries
lasted more than four months. In 2001, Ramsay had his
gall bladder removed and in 2005, he was diagnosed with
prostate cancer. Through all the tests, surgeries and being
a part of seven NHL organizations, Ramsay has endured
and agreed to tell his “very long story” because he wants
others “to understand that it’s OK. You can fight through
a lot of things.”
Trial and Tribulations
“I [have] had stomach problems my whole life,” said
Ramsay, who was named as the Thrashers fifth-ever head
coach June 24. “I had reflux before they knew what it was.
I was 16 and in Juniors (with the Peterborough Petes of the
Ontario Hockey League) when I had my first upper GI. I
had my first major surgery when I was 20. I didn’t tell the
Buffalo Sabres about it. I was drafted by them and unbe-
knownst to them, I already had major abdominal surgery.
I went to training camp and got the trainer to rig up a little
cover to go over the scar so it didn’t hurt so much when I
got hit,” Ramsay related.
Prior to the 1981 – ‘82 season, Ramsay had his second
surgery on the same issue.
“They lifted the stomach up and did a wrap around
my esophagus and that created a false valve. That was the
first time I didn’t have reflux. I used to have a signal with
the trainer (two fingers pointed up) when I came off the
ice that meant I needed two antacid pills. I chewed them
up and it allowed me to get through the games. I tried a
lot of different things, but none of them had worked,”
Ramsay said.
About two years after he retired as a player, Ramsay
endured a major bleed due to an ulcer.
“I almost bled out. I spit up or lost about eight units
of blood. Two years later I did it again,” Ramsay said. “It
was a slow bleed, and they could never figure out what
the problem was.”
Upon agreeing to join Roger Neilson’s Florida Pan-
thers coaching staff after spending 22 years as a player
and coach in Buffalo, Ramsay and his wife Susan were pre-
paring for the move to south Florida when things got much
worse. Ramsay started bleeding at a charity golf event.
Susan called the doctor to make an emergency appoint-
ment, but no imparity was found and he was sent home.
Staying at a friends’ during the preparations to move,
Ramsay began spitting up puddles of blood. He crawled
out of bed and yelled for help.
“I yelled for (our friend’s) daughter and said, ‘Call
your dad. Call Susan, and call 911 quick.’ ”
“They found an ulcer up over top of one of the
prior surgeries. They fixed that and thought everything
was great, but a week later it was not so great,” Ramsay
continued. “I woke up the next day and they asked if I
wanted to see the pastor and that kind of stuff. I said, ‘No.
Get out.’ ”
Sleep deprived during the entire ordeal, Ramsay said
he awoke the following day only to find himself strapped
to the bed with tubes going in all directions. “They said,
‘we took your stomach out.’ I thought that’s not good. I
like eating. They said I’d be OK, but you don’t know. I had
never heard of that before. I had a feed tube in my side.
During that stretch, I think I went through 32 units of
blood and you only have 14 in your body,” Ramsay said.
After a month in the hospital, Ramsay wasn’t getting
any better. They flew to Florida for a consultation with
Dr. Mark Sesto of the Cleveland Clinic. Being able to take
in only 800 to 1,000 calories a day, Ramsay’s health was
deteriorating.
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Despite all his past physical problems, Ramsay’s mental
toughness was harshly tested in 2000.
Ramsay’s first stint as a head coach came that season. Unfor-
tunately, it was to replace Neilson behind the Flyers bench when
his mentor began treatments for multiple myeloma, a form of
bone-marrow cancer.
Neilson underwent treatments in Dallas and after he began
feeling better, wanted to rejoin the Flyers for the Stanley Cup Play-
offs. The doctors didn’t think Neilson was ready to return, and
Flyers’ management, including general manager Bobby Clarke,
abided by the doctors’ wishes.
“It wasn’t the Flyers, and Clarke took the hit for it, but the
doctors really didn’t want Roger to return to coaching full time.
He could come back and help me, which he did, but it wasn’t
healthy for him to do that, or to do more,” Ramsay related. “We
gave him jobs. He worked in the background.”
Two Canadian reporters told the hockey world that Ramsay
wouldn’t give up the reins to allow Neilson back as head coach,
calling him a “usurper” among other things.
“Eventually, they were abusing me badly in the Toronto
media,” Ramsay said. His mother, who was still living there at
the time, was having heart problems. Neilson was getting sour
about the attention and one of the stories said that the longtime
associates weren’t even talking.
“It was awful around the team. Neither reporter ever asked
me a single question and wrote nasty things. I lost [12 pounds]
throughout that playoff series trying to get through all of that,”
Ramsay said.
“This was one of the greatest people in the history of our
game. Forget the fact that [Neilson] was one of the greatest
coaches. He was one of the greatest people in the world, ever. We
were friends right to the end. That was never an issue,” Ramsay
said of his longtime friend, who passed away in June 2003.
a Positive approach
Ramsay has the natural ability to make others feel better. Ask him
how he’s doing, and you’ll likely get a very positive response, like
“Wonderful” or “Dynamite.”
craig ramsay
Ramsay has the natural ability to make others feel better. Ask him how he’s doing, and you’ll likely get a very positive response, like “Wonderful” or “Dynamite.”
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“When I was [nearly] dead, my sister
sent me something and the story said that
every day you wake up with a choice,”
Ramsay related. “A choice to feel good or
to feel bad, to feel upbeat or to feel sad.
You don’t always wake up feeling good,
but if you use that positive approach, that
word, it helps you feel better and it helps
other people feel better. If other people feel
better, than you feel better again. I want
them to smile.”
While he never won the Stanley Cup
as a player — his Sabres lost in the finals
to Philadelphia in 1975 — Ramsay has
had plenty to smile about during the past
six years. As an assistant coach for the
2004 champion Tampa Bay Lightning, his
patience and perseverance were rewarded
when he won his first Stanley Cup. Five
years later, son Travis’ name was engraved
on the Cup for being part of the Pittsburgh’s
championship coaching staff. And in June,
Ramsay’s second oldest son Jad, won the
Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks.
He is a scout for that organization. The
Ramsays have two other children, son
Brendon and daughter Summer.
Ramsay said he would have never
imagined being named the head coach in
Atlanta, but knows his 40 years of NHL
experience and overcoming his phys-
ical challenges will yield dividends for
Thrashers fans, players and management.
In his mind, future success is linked with a
positive approach and leadership.
“Leadership is a team event. It starts
with the coach I think, but it’s about every
player on the team committed to that
one goal, which is winning and being a
successful team. That’s my idea of leader-
ship,” Ramsay said.
If Thrashers players follow Ramsay’s
courageous example, Philips Arena might
be a “wonderful” place to be during the
2010-11 season. PN
craig ramsay
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