From being bedridden as a child and listening to the radio in St. John’s, to calling some of the biggest moments in hockey history, Bob Cole called NHL games for 50 years. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Bob Cole, whose voice and lively language were the Saturday night soundtrack to hockey games over a broadcasting career that spanned more than half a century, has died.�
Cole, who was 90, died Wednesday night in St. John’s surrounded by his family, said his daughter, Megan Cole.
“Thank you for decades of love for his work, love of Newfoundland and love of hockey,” Megan Cole told CBC News on Thursday.
Cole said her father had been healthy “up until the very end.”
Cole’s trademark call — “Oh, baby!” — was one of many signposts he brought to play-by-play commentaries that earned him the love of fans and even players themselves.
“His legacy will be that the players adored him. That’s not easy,” longtime Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean said in an interview Thursday.
“He always said the game’s the thing, not the show, but the players so respected him… He was comfortable. He was professional. He was talented.”
Cole, who said he still got goosebumps in his mid-80s when he stepped into an arena broadcasting booth, called one of the most famous plays in Canadian sports history: Paul Henderson’s Summit Series goal in 1972, against the Soviet Union.
LISTEN | Hear Bob Cole call the famous Paul Henderson goal in 1972 for CBC Radio:
Cross Talk1:06Bob Cole on 1972 Paul Henderson goal
Bob Cole on 1972 Paul Henderson goal
“His voice is iconic. It’s all I associated with watching hockey growing up. He has a close spot in a lot of Canadians’ hearts over the years,” Steven Stamkos, captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning captain, said in 2019, when Cole called his final game — a classic Original Six matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.
“That was the guy you grew up listening to,” Leafs captain John Tavares said at the time.
As Cole wound down his career in 2019, players paid tribute, such as teams skating with their sticks raised high in the air.
“Well, well, well — Ottawa, pretty classy. Thanks very much,” an emotional Cole said as he commented on a Senators tribute made just for him.
Fixture on Hockey Night in Canada
Already a prominent figure in St. John’s broadcasting, Cole leapt to national broadcasts in 1969 when he started calling NHL games for CBC Radio.
He moved to television in 1973 and would be a staple of Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts for decades to come. He called many Stanley Cup final series over the years, and gave sports fans thrills with on-the-spot comments, some of which have resonated for generations.
WATCH | In 2019, as he prepared for his final broadcast, Bob Cole told Ian Hanomansing about being ‘the soundtrack of Saturday night’:
Bob Cole reflects on 50-year Hockey Night in Canada career
5 years ago
Duration 10:54
Legendary broadcaster Bob Cole is preparing for his final sign-off. After 50 years in the booth, he is leaving Hockey Night in Canada on April 6.
“They’re going home,” he repeatedly said on Jan. 11, 1976, when Russia’s Red Army hockey team temporarily headed to the changing room during a heated match with the Philadelphia Flyers, then the reigning Stanley Cup champs.
The incident occurred during the first period, when Flyers defenceman Ed Van Impe, who had just finished serving a penalty, delivered a hard check on Valeri Kharlamov. The Russian star lay prone on the ice for several minutes, prompting Red Army coach Konstantin Loktev to pull his team off the ice in protest when no penalty was called. The Russian team would eventually return to finish the game.
Drawn to ‘the feel of the game’
Rooted in radio, Cole knew that what hockey fans heard could add to their enjoyment of the game.
“I get a great charge out of making exciting sound, if you want to call it that,” he told The Canadian Press in a 2022 interview, after he received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
“It’s the feel of the game that got me started and I managed to hang onto that, I think, or tried to for so long.”
For guidance on how to call a hockey game, Cole once went straight to the top with an audition tape: legendary broadcaster Foster Hewitt.
Inspired by Hewitt in his childhood — “radio was my everything,” he told Ian Hanomansing in a 2019 interview — Cole in his early 20s tracked down Hewitt in Toronto.
WATCH | Bob Cole speaks with Here & Now’s Debbie Cooper in 2016 about the life-changing advice he got from Foster Hewitt: [embedded content]
Hewitt not only agreed to listen to the tape but took Cole into the studio to give him feedback on the spot.
“It was a dream you would never imagine could happen — Foster Hewitt is talking to me about how he does, how he thinks about a hockey game,” Cole said in 2016 interview with CBC to promote Now I’m Catching On: My Life On and Off the Air, a memoir he wrote with sportswriter Stephen Brunt.
Hockey was not the only sport Cole loved. He curled for many years, twice skipping teams that represented Newfoundland and Labrador at the Brier in the 1970s.
WATCH | See highlights of Cole’s career, played for Toronto Maple Leafs fans in 2019:
‘Oh Baby!’ Take a trip down memory lane with 50 years of Bob Cole calls
5 years ago
Duration 2:38
The Toronto Maple Leafs honour Bob Cole for his final call in Toronto.
During his lengthy broadcasting career, he anchored the news for Here & Now, CBC’s flagship TV news program in Newfoundland and Labrador, and was also quiz master on CBC’s Reach for the Top in Newfoundland and Labrador.
His voice appeared outside sports, too. Actor and producer Allan Hawco asked Cole to voice the recap intro heard at the beginning of most episodes of the series Republic of Doyle.
Barb Williams, executive vice-president of CBC, said in a statement that the public broadcaster is mourning the loss of Cole.
“What a gift he had. And what a loss to the entire hockey community,” Williams said in a statement. “Like every hockey fan across the country, we are deeply saddened.… Bob will always hold a special place in our hearts at CBC.”
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.
The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.
Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.
He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.
Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.
Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.
Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.
Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — No. 1 Texas will start Arch Manning at quarterback Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe while regular starter Quinn Ewers continues to recover from a strained muscle in his abdomen, coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday.
It will be the first career start for Manning, a second year freshman. He relieved Ewers in the second quarter last week against UTSA, and passed for four touchdowns and ran for another in a 56-7 Texas victory.
Manning is the son of Cooper Manning, the grandson of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, and the nephew of Super Bowl-winning QBs Peyton and Eli Manning.
Ewers missed several games over the previous two seasons with shoulder and sternum injuries.
The Longhorns are No. 1 for the first time since 2008 and Saturday’s matchup with the Warhawks is Texas’ last game before the program starts its first SEC schedule against Mississippi State on Sept. 28.
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