BIG LEAGUE

By: Braedyn Wozniak, RP Show Intern

Hockey and music have an entangled history together. Athletes and musicians have shared a bond through the years, as celebrities and music lovers.

A hockey player, in many cases, is nowhere near the same without his music.

Tom Cochrane, the legendary Canadian musician and Rock legend, knows the power of music in sport as well as anyone. He joined the Rod Pedersen Show before his performance at the Grey Eagle Resort in Calgary Friday to tell of an old Globe and Mail story involving Cochrane, Nazem Kadri and his father Sam.

The day the future Stanley Cup Champion was born, Kadri’s father Sam was driving to the hospital when a Cochrane song came on.

“He was going to the hospital and played Big League all the way,” said Cochrane. “That really impacted me. It gives me chills now.”

Kadri would become what is believed to be the first Muslim player to hoist the Stanley Cup, winning it with the Colorado Avalanche last year.

“They were an immigrant family and they wanted to be great Canadians,” said Cochrane. “Part of it was saying ‘My boys going to be a hockey player.’”

In hindsight, Big League was a fitting song to come on in the moment. It’s about a proud dad watching his son play hockey on his way to, well, the big league.

In the Globe and Mail article written by Erik Anderssen in 2009, the story tells more than just the drive to the hospital, but the moment the song came on was the most impactful.

“As he raced into the hospital parking lot, he heard Tom Cochrane’s Big League on the radio. ‘It just came right on: my kid is going to play in the big league,’ he says. ‘I swear to God.’”

A powerful moment for a parent like Sam and his family, who, according to the article, didn’t speak much English as of 2009. Yet, the song still resonated with him.

Music transcends language. In hockey, the players use it to put themselves in the emotional state they require to perform at the highest level, amp themselves up, or celebrate a win.

 Cochrane sees this reflected everywhere.

“Professional sports are still playing the re-wind stuff, the classic stuff,” he said. “I heard it at the end of the Leafs game, the one they won. They hadn’t won in a while, but they won the game the other night … they played Life is a Highway.”

Not a song directly related to hockey, but a very popular one. Compared to Big League, it doesn’t compete.

There was only one song Cochrane said competed with his classic hockey tune.

“I still have to defer to Stompin’ Tom (Connors) with the ultimate classic hockey song (literally titled The Hockey Song),” he said. “But I think Big League in terms of message and storyline is on a different level than that.

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily on Game+ TV and WQEE Radio. Call you cable provider to subscribe. You can also watch on YouTube Live or listen 24/7 at RodPedersen.com/ListenLive)