Remembering Glen Cochrane

Glen Cochrane suited up with the Philadelphia Flyers in the '80s.

Source: https://www.flyersnation.com/tag/glen-cochrane/#google_vignette

(May be subject to copyright)

It’s funny how history can come around.

Yesterday, I was looking at the list of notables who had died, and one particular name caught my eye.

It took me back 40 years to a news story I saw on CBC, of a woman struggling to live, and the life line she had been thrown.

The player
Glen Cochrane was born in Cranbrook, grew up in Kamloops, and played his junior hockey in Alberta. He played for the Calgary Centennials before moving on to the Victoria Cougars, both of the Western Canada Hockey League, the precursor of the current Western Hockey League.

He was taken in the third round, 50th overall in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers. He played one game for the Flyers in the 1978-1979 season, but he played 76 games that year and 77 in the 1979-1980 season for the Maine Mariners, the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate.

Cochrane split time in the 1980-1981 season between Maine and Philadelphia. He played 38 games for the Mariners, and 31 games with the Flyers where he recorded one goal and eight assists for nine points, and was assessed 219 minutes in penalties.

By the 1981-1982 season, Glen Cochrane was full time with the Flyers, appearing in 63 games where he had six goals and 12 assists for 18 points to go with 329 penalty minutes. By then he had also assumed a role as enforcer with the club.

Cochrane played 77 games for the Flyers in the 1982-1983, recording two goals and 22 assists for 24 points, and 237 penalty minutes.

The 1983-1984 season, would be Cochrane’s final full season in Philadelphia. He appeared in 67 games, scoring seven goals and adding 16 assists for 23 points, to go along with 225 penalty minutes.

The following season, 1984-1985, Cochrane played just 18 games for Philadelphia, scoring three goals and three assists for six points and 100 penalty minutes. He also played nine games for the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League.

Cochrane headed to his home province for the 1985-1986 season, suiting up in 49 games for the Vancouver Canucks, where he had three assists and 125 penalty minutes. The next season, 1986-1987, he appeared in 14 games where he accumulated 52 penalty minutes. I suspect he was hurt for part of the year, because the following season, 1987-1988, he moved on to Chicago where he played in 73 games for the Blackhawks, scoring one goal and eight assists for nine points, and 204 penalty minutes.

His final season would be 1988-1989, where he played six games for Chicago, accumulating 13 penalty minutes, and 12 games for the Edmonton Oilers, racking up 52 penalty minutes.

The brother
I saw Glen Cochrane play for the Flyers. I was familiar with him when I saw an interesting story on “The National” on CBC.

The story was about a young woman named Naomi who was suffering from leukemia. This was the early 1980s when leukemia was still a virtual death sentence, or it had been. The story was about new hope for leukemia patients in the form of a new treatment, and maybe cure, called the bone marrow transplant.

The challenge was finding someone who was a match. The only real possibilities were blood relatives, particularly parents or siblings. Naomi came from a large family, so there were a number of possibilities.

One of Naomi Cochrane’s siblings was her brother Glen – who they said played for the Philadelphia Flyers. They even showed a picture of him in his uniform.

If memory served, one of Naomi’s siblings was a match, although I don’t think it was Glen. That’s because I do recall thinking he would have had a tough time coming back from that type of surgery.

I never did find out if the transplant was successful, and I never gave it another thought until yesterday when I was looking at that list of notable deaths.

Echoes of history
When I saw Glen Cochrane, I thought immediately of that CBC story of 40 years ago. I found his obituary online and immediately saw what I was looking for. In the paragraph of relatives who predeceased him was – his sister Naomi.

I immediately wondered if Glen Cochrane had died of leukemia, because I presumed his sister had.

At the end of the obituary, the family expressed their sincere gratitude to Dr. Tom Nevill and the entire bone marrow transplant team at Vancouver General Hospital who took such loving and compassionate care of Glen. They also requested those who wished to express their sympathies to consider making a donation to the Vancouver General Hospital Foundation.

It sure seemed like history had repeated itself and Glen fell victim to the same disease as his sister.

He passed away on January 13, 2024, just 16 days short of his 66th birthday.

Update
So, after writing this, I found a Vancouver Sun interview from a Naomi Cochrane from 2006. She talks about having a successful bone marrow transplant 25 years earlier. The dates, and obviously the name, match. The interview goes on to say she was a poster child for the success of bone-marrow transplants. She was a healthy mother of two teens, 18 and 15. After her transplant, she went back to school, earned a degree in social work, and worked with seniors at a care home.

Cochrane added she would have died within two months had she not had the transplant. Another article, this one from the Vernon Morning Star in 2010, indicates she was the first person in Western Canada to have an adult bone marrow transplant, almost 30 years before.

I also found her obituary in the Vernon Morning Star, explaining Naomi was born on February 13, 1962 and died on June 10, 2015. She was 53 years old. The obituary listed Glen as a brother, so it is her.

However, the cause of Naomi’s death is still a mystery to me.

I am heartened the CBC news story I saw 40 years ago had a happy ending.

Parting thoughts
It’s interesting what the memory chooses to hold on to. The instant I saw Glen Cochrane had died of cancer in mid January, I immediately wondered if he died of the same thing his sister did.

Then I wondered if I was misremembering, until I saw Naomi’s name.

I went looking online for any mention of that CBC news story, but haven’t found anything.

Still, I am quite certain I have these details right, and my heart breaks for the Cochrane family.

I am glad Glen Cochrane got to live to 65, and that his sister’s bone marrow transplant had extended her life by more than 25 years.

And I hold on to hope that research will continue to increase the life expectancy and survival rate of people afflicted with this illness.

My deepest condolences go out to the Cochrane family.