Scotty Bowman

After his injury, Bowman turned to the job that would consume him for the next half-century—coaching. He proved to be a prodigy. Starting in the youth leagues, Bowman coached twelve- and thirteen-year-old players, then quickly advanced to fourteen- and fifteen-yearolds. By the time he was twenty-one, Bowman was coaching twenty-year-old players at the Junior B level. The job paid only $250 a year, so he also worked for a paint company. On his lunch hour he walked five minutes to the Forum to watch the Montreal Canadiens practice—and to learn. The Junior Canadiens moved to Ottawa in 1956 and Sam Pollack, the coach and general manager, asked the 23-year-old Bowman to come along as his assistant. The team won the 1958 Memorial Cup, the top prize in junior hockey, and Bowman, just twenty-five years old, was named head coach of a Junior A team in Peterborough. After three years he became the Canadiens' head scout for eastern Canada, but found he missed being with a team. In 1963 he was back on the bench, coaching the Junior Canadiens. His office in the Forum was down the hall from the office occupied by legendary Canadiens coach Toe Blake, who would become Bowman's mentor. Blake led the Canadiens to eight Stanley Cups in thirteen seasons from 1955 to 1968—a record that would stand until Bowman won his ninth cup as head coach in 2002.