12/21/24
November 03, 2005
Jacques Demers is illiterate: - The former Montreal Canadiens coach, Tampa Bay GM and Stanley Cup Champion comes clean. Pretty amazing.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey to hockey at 09:20 AM - 18 comments
Amazing. We must have posted at almost exactly the same time. This is a tremendous story, and hopefully it will give others the courage to start their learning process.
posted by wfrazerjr at 09:37 AM on November 03, 2005
Wow. Good for him.
posted by garfield at 10:01 AM on November 03, 2005
Explains why I never got a Thank You card.
posted by yerfatma at 10:09 AM on November 03, 2005
When Jacques was the coach for the Red Wings, he had a restaurant in the Detroit area. A friend of mine waited tables there and said that Jacques was the nicest guy. He was also very impressed with Jacques' ability to *always* remember faces and names. I guess that was just a survival thing for him to be able to remember everybody.
posted by NoMich at 10:44 AM on November 03, 2005
The fact that a functional illiterate can be a GM and coach a team to win the Stanley Cup, and have that illiteracy go undetected for decades, tells me a couple things: One, that hockey management and hockey players aren't real bright guys; And two, that it doesn't take a genius to win the Stanley Cup. All it takes is a hot goal-tender. Still, a crazy story... and an inspirational story. And yeah, he fooled me too. I always thought he was a smart guy, but I wonder how much of that is projected and assumed because of his title. I mean, he gets a GM title, he's getting paid millions of dollars, he stands behind a bench wearing a suit and speaks in two languages on TV...who would have imagined he couldn't read or write??
posted by the red terror at 11:34 AM on November 03, 2005
re: "I always thought he was a smart guy," Replace "smart guy" with illiterate, because if anything, this story proves smart guys can be illiterate, and some illiterates can be smart guys. You knew what I meant, move along now...
posted by the red terror at 11:40 AM on November 03, 2005
...i was just about to say.
posted by garfield at 11:58 AM on November 03, 2005
Management positions (head coach, GM, regional manager of a paper company, etc) are positions where faking literacy can be accomplished with a little subterfuge.
- Instead of reading the 10-page reports, have a sub-ordinate "summarize" it for you and give you his "interpretation". He's looked on as someone who "gets all the information" and "listens to all sides".
- Rather than dealing with emails and memos, the person uses phone calls and meetings to convey information. He's looked on as more "personable" that way, and his underlings are asked to prepare minutes and summaries for the rest of the staff.
posted by grum@work at 12:08 PM on November 03, 2005
errata: Replace "smart guy" with illiterate literate. I could use a lesson in literacy myself today.
posted by the red terror at 12:16 PM on November 03, 2005
I have worked with literacy organizations and have always been amazed at actually how smart these individuals need to be in today's world. Just look at our President to see how far one can advance!
posted by RedStrike at 12:54 PM on November 03, 2005
Not that I am even closely comparing Mr. Demers with that other guy! Jacques has actually accomplished something.
posted by RedStrike at 12:55 PM on November 03, 2005
Demers biggest accomplishment, if my memory serves me right, is being able to get a call for an illegal stick. Must have had pictures in the rule book.
posted by tselson at 01:06 PM on November 03, 2005
Mr Demers certainly had the position that made "hiding" his literacy or lack there of. Grum is right, we would be shocked by the numbers of people who are functionally illiterate. This is certainlly a problem that will not go away anytime soon Maybe something could be done to make "coming out" easier for people who are illitereate. Redstrike-that certainly was a cheap-shot that you took at the President! shame-shame
posted by daddisamm at 01:11 PM on November 03, 2005
Yeah, just call me Claude. Lemieux that is.
posted by RedStrike at 01:29 PM on November 03, 2005
Can someone please link the audio for this post, so Jacque (or maybe Jackue, or is it Jack)can follow along?
posted by American Infidel at 01:33 PM on November 03, 2005
that certainly was a cheap-shot that you took at the President My first thoughts on reading grum's workplace post was 'Oh, he's describing the White House!'. In Australia we once had an adult literacy campaign headed up by posters saying 'Can't read or write? Then call....' Yes, yes, I know functional illiteracy is way different from actually not being able to recognize some words, letters and numbers. And I'm sure everyone is double checking their spelling on this thread.
posted by owlhouse at 06:32 PM on November 03, 2005
My first thoughts on reading grum's workplace post was 'Oh, he's describing the White House!'. It was not my intention at all, but it is pretty interesting that someone would read it that way.
posted by grum@work at 09:27 AM on November 04, 2005
That is pretty amazing, almost as amazing as the '93 Canadiens winnig that Cup.