Sports Media Canada

FOSTER HEWITT by George Gross During his reign as the Voice of Hockey Night in Canada – one of Canada’s most widely-followed and influential sports broadcasts – EVER – Foster Hewitt was probably better known than any Prime Minister of the day. Foster was as well known as the stars he brought to life in [...]

DANNY GALLIVAN by George Gross Danny Gallivan was the legendary voice of the Montreal Canadiens and one of the superstars of Hockey Night in Canada. As Foster Hewitt introduced the immortal phrase: “He shoots…..he scores!,” Danny Gallivan coined a veritable dictionary of colorful adjectives and descriptive phrases to conjure up pictures of the action on [...]

DOUG GILBERT by George Gross Doug GIlbert was one of the most knowledgeable and prolific sportswriters in Canada. His column in the Montreal Gazette and, later, in the Edmonton Sun, offered his readers an in-depth look at the world of sports. He became an expert on East German sports when that country, then still behind [...]

STEVE DOUGLAS by George Gross Steve Douglas was a television icon in sports broadcasting in the 1950s and 1960s who marched to his own drummer. It eventually cost him his job as the CBC’s television announcer and broadcaster of CFL games. If Foster Hewitt had his own inimitable way of opening a hockey broadcast with [...]

MYRTLE COOK MCGOWAN Record books illustrating past glories of Canadian Olympians will highlight the name of Myrtle Cook McGowan, raised in the Beaches area of Toronto, who captained the women’s 400-metre sprint relay team that won the gold medal at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Holland. Myrtle Cook moved to Montreal and became a [...]

Rick Fraser by Tim Wharnsby Rick Fraser wrote about boxing, golf and hockey. But his labour of love was life itself. He was the life of the party, whether it was in the newsroom, a pressroom or a piano lounge. In more than 40 years of journalism, Fraser covered athletes and characters in the sporting [...]

DAN KELLY by Don Goodwin Dan Kelly was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame on October 3, 1989, just eight months after he died of cancer at 52. Dan had established his broadcasting bona fides in Canada, coming into his own as Ottawa’s outstanding sportscaster and football broadcaster as well as illustrating a natural [...]

WES MCKNIGHT Sports on radio today is enjoying an unprecedented following but Wes McKnight was around at a time when he had to convince senior management at CFRB radio to give it a try. The ‘thumbs up’ was given and in September 1931, and McKnight became the first person in Canada to have daily sports [...]