Brabham had big impact on Tortorella

Columbus Blue Jackets’ head coach John Tortorella has enjoyed extraordinary success as a coach in the National Hockey League. His teams have advanced to the postseason 11 times. He led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the 2004 Stanley Cup title. And on Jan. 10, 2019, he became the first American-born coach in league history, and just the 19th overall, to reach the 600-win plateau.

However, none of these accomplishments would have been possible without Henry Brabham.

Brabham, who passed away on March 30 at the age of 90, co-founded the ECHL with Bill Coffey in the summer of 1988.

Prior to the creation of the League, Brabham’s Virginia Lancers played in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League and All American Hockey League in the mid-1980s. It was there that Tortorella cut his teeth in the coaching ranks after the conclusion of his playing career in the 1985-86 season.

“I played for Henry in Virginia for a number of years and I am forever grateful to him,” Tortorella said. “I never even thought about coaching, I never thought I was going to stop playing, but I got injured and he came to me and gave me my first opportunity to start coaching. So I am forever indebted to him.”

Working closely with Brabham on a daily basis helped to forge a relationship that spanned the next three-plus decades.

“My memories of him are that he and I used to fight every day,” Tortorella said. “I think if you ask anyone who is a good friend or an enemy of Henry Brabham, you’ll get the same answer. You fight every day with him because he was one stubborn individual but he had a big heart and him and (his first wife) Betty were really close to us. Our daughter was born there. I am very glad I had an opportunity to speak to Henry a couple of days before he did pass.

“We stayed in touch all the time, we became very close. It’s a tremendous loss to me and my family, and I’m sure a lot of people can say that as he lived a great, long life.”

While the personal relationship with Brabham is certainly one that Tortorella relishes, it was the business relationship that has helped him flourish in his role as an NHL head coach.

“We were constantly talking about how to improve the team, about how to do things better around the players, off the ice,” he said. “Henry had some really good thoughts. As we went through it, and we had a lot of conversations about how to run the organization, I learned a ton from him.

“It’s one of the greatest training grounds I’ve ever been involved in because you wear 10 different hats,” Tortorella continued. “I respect him for allowing me and trusting me to do that. But he also taught me so much on the business side of it and just little things you need to do to make things operate the proper way. When I was a player, we fought. When I was a coach, we fought. I think we got closer when we started working with one another.”

Tortorella was in place as the Lancers’ head coach during the summer of 1988 as Brahbam and Coffey worked on developing the new league, allowing him to see the hard work and dedication that went into developing a league that has gone on to flourish over the last 32 years.

“There would not be an ECHL today if it were not for Henry Brabham,” Tortorella said. “Because back in that day, he owned four of the five teams to keep it alive. That’s something I’ll never forget as far as him, putting that money in, traveling all over the place to make things work. You weren’t sure if the league was going to be there on any given morning when you woke up. He made sure it was and that’s why it’s thriving right now. People can’t forget that about this man.”

However, Tortorella never got the opportunity to coach in the new league, as he was hired as an assistant coach for the American Hockey League’s New Haven Nighthawks prior to the start of the season. Despite that, he will always have another link to the league, as he is the person credited for coming up with the East Coast Hockey League name.

“I forget where the meeting was. Henry brought me with him, and it was with Bill Coffey. We sat around the table and talked about a lot of different things. And I think I had a little bit to do with it, I’m not sure. I think it came out of my mouth, but it was such a long time ago, we were throwing a lot of different names around. I think we have to give credit and thoughts to all of the people who were in that meeting,” Tortorella said.

The competitive spirit he learned working under Brabham over 30 years ago still resonates with him now in his 20th season as a head coach in the NHL.

“As a player, I was pretty competitive, and when he gave me that opportunity to coach, I had some strong convictions on how to do it,” he said. “They certainly clashed with Henry. It was an everyday occurrence. I think we are built similar in that we have a thought and think it’s right, and you try to stick with it. And the thing I loved about Henry is you fought with him at 10:00 in the morning, and it could be a doozy, but by 11:00, we’re on to another problem or another thing and we’ve moved by it. That’s the way he and I operated.”

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made funeral services impossible all across the country. When the day comes that a service for Brabham can be held, Tortorella and his family will there. And he’s certain he won’t be alone.

“That is a man, whether you’re an enemy or a really good friend of his, when (his wife now) Sarah does have a service for him when she’s allowed to after this virus goes, I bet you people will pour out there to see him,” he said. That’s just the way he operated. You’re mad at him, you fight with him, but you love the man. He is very close to my heart and our family’s heart, and I am very sad to see him go.”