Born and raised in the hockey hotbed of Ornsköldsvik, hockey came naturally for Gunnar Nordstrom.
The 73-year-old hockey reporter and columnist for Swedish daily Expressen is this year's recipient of the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, earning him induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He'll be the award's 67th recipient and the first from outside North America.
Nordstrom is honored -- and a bit surprised.
"I knew my name had been mentioned in connection with the award, but I never thought I stood a chance of actually winning it," he said. "Occasionally, past recipients I guess just to be kind would say that,'Well, you really deserve to win this award,' but I'd always reply,'No, that will never happen.
But now it has, and it feels truly significant and a great honor.
"Last year (chair of the selection committee) Eric Duhatschek let me know that I was one of six or seven candidates for this year's award, and that some felt it was time for an international journalist to be recognized. I mean, players from any country can be inducted, so why shouldn't a journalist be eligible too?
Then, this summer, he called to tell me I'd won. At first, I thought it was a joke.
The award, voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, is presented,"in recognition of distinguished members of the hockey-writing profession whose words have brought honor to journalism and to hockey. It will be presented at the Hockey Hall of Fame's NHL Media Awards Luncheon in Toronto on Nov.
9.
"For nearly half a century, Gunnar Nordstrom has been the most influential hockey writer in Sweden, earning the respect of generations of players and readers alike," Duhatschek said when the announcement was made. "There is no more deserving choice for the first person from outside North America to win the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award than Gunnar Nordstrom.
Nordstrom joins an exclusive group of hockey journalists. He has heard of some and is friendly with others, including Jim Proudfoot, who won the award in 1988, and Michael Farber (2003).
"I got to know Jim in Stockholm when he was there reporting on (Borje) Salming, and Michael, I first met him on a ski slope in Vail, and later at many Stanley Cup Finals and other games," Nordstrom said. "Then there's Erik Duhatschek (2001), there's Helene Elliott of the LA Times (2005) who was a fantastic columnist and the only woman to receive the award.
Roy McGregor (2012) and Larry Brooks (2018) of the New York Post… these are some of the truly big names in my book.
I mean, real legends and major role models for me.
"To be honest, to end up in this group of journos, it honestly feels incredible."
Nordstrom was born and raised in Ornskoldsvik, the small city some 600 kilometers north of Stockholm that through the years has nurtured some of Sweden's biggest hockey stars, including Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Victor Hedman, among others.
"My own career? Well, let's just forget about that.
I played a bit of junior hockey for Asele IK, but I mostly played soccer -- in the fifth division," Nordstrom said. "Though I didn't exactly achieve great success in either sport.
Still, it would be easy to assume that the breeding ground for so many world class hockey players also influenced Gunnar to write about hockey. But he downplays that.
"Well, perhaps a little bit. I started out at (local newspaper) O-viks Allehanda in 1974, working with general assignments and as a crime reporter.
My father worked for the forestry division of (local forest industry company) Mo och Domsjö and Ulf Lundstrom, who played hockey, also worked in that office. Ulf would always provide us with tickets to the games.
so, yeah, there was a lot of hockey in my life early.
At that time, Anders Hedberg and later four-time Stanley Cup champion Anders Kallur (New York Islanders) played for the team.
"Then, ahead of the 1976 Canada Cup, Anders Hedberg came by the newsroom for an interview," Nordstrom said. "We started talking, and he was curious about how the newspaper was made.
We struck up a friendship, and I got to travel to Winnipeg to report for OA about the Swedes there.
"It was a pretty decent group of players -- Hedberg, Kent Nilsson, Ulf Nilsson, Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Willy Lindstrom, Dan Labraaten and Thommie Bergman. Anders was incredibly helpful; he brought me along to practices and games, which really helped me get a foot in the door.
By the time I joined Expressen, all those guys were playing for the national team, The Three Crowns, so those old connections were really good for me. I also got to know Pelle Lindbergh and many of the Swedes playing in the NHL.
And from there, well, things just took off.
Nordstrom has covered the Stanley Cup Final countless times, hockey at six Olympic Games and four Canada Cup tournaments. On top of that, he has authored several books for young people about hockey, as well as the 2018 book,"Nicklas Lidstrom: The Pursuit of Perfection."
During the 1981 World Hockey Championships in Gothenburg, he was approached by Thomas Malmqvist, the sports editor for Expressen, a major national newspaper. Nordstrom was offered a temporary summer position.
"I took it, partly because I wasn't sure about the future… and that's how it all began," he said.
His career in the national press started with a big bang. His first assignment?
The 1981 Canada Cup.
"It was a real stroke of luck," Nordstrom said."And by December, I was hired as a permanent staff member."
Malmqvist always emphasized upon his staff that reporters were just that -- reporters. Nordstrom has lived by that maxim throughout his career.
"Coaches and insiders are experts, reporters (are) not. That really stuck with me," he said.
"I mean, I'm not super interested in the technical side of things; I'm not an analyst who sits around pouring over statistics and making comparisons. I'm no hockey expert.
I'm more fascinated by the people in and around the sport, getting to know them and writing about them -- why they succeed, what makes them so good and who they are under all that equipment.
At 73, Nordstrom is six years beyond the standard retirement age in Sweden. He knows his career is heading toward the end.
"I suppose I'm on the final stretch," Nordstrom said. "Every summer, the paper asks if I'll do one more year.
My wife is a few years younger than me and she was planning to retire last year, and it felt like the right time. But she decided to work for another year, so I didn't want to just sit at home doing nothing.
"I've been taking it one year at a time, but we'll see next summer whether I finally retire. It's certainly possible that this will be my last year."
