Q

Best of Q: How Grant Lawrence went from hockey runt to radio star

No, Grant Lawrence was not destined to be the next Bobby Orr.
There's a cultural assumption that every child born in the great white north of Canada is imbued with a love and devotion for hockey. And if those kids are born to highly competitive sports-fans, the pressure only mounts.

Grant Lawrence, a musician and host of CBC Radio 3, was among those ushered onto the ice at a young age. He chronicles his early ambivalence toward the sport in his memoir The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie.

In a conversation from the Best of Q, Lawrence recalls the contrast between the hockey heroes on television and the bullying teammates who liked to pick on the "runt" goalie with big glasses.

"I had a big struggle with that polarity," he admits.