1999 Ralph Mellanby

Ralph Mellanby by Dick Irvin The first time I stood in front of a television camera, Ralph Mellanby was standing behind it. It was 1961 at the fledgling station, CFCF-TV, in Montreal. Ralph was an experienced floor manager and I was a very inexperienced rookie sportscaster. A few months later, Ralph moved into the control … [Read More …]

1999 George Gross

George Gross by Jane O’Hara If you want to know how respected Toronto sports columnist and editor George Gross summitted sports journalism, if you’re trying to figure out how this tough-minded outsider with not even an uncertain grasp of the English language bulled his way to becoming one of this country’s media insiders, you must … [Read More …]

1999 Red Fisher

Red Fisher by Fred Walker “He’s combative, arrogant, smart, amusing, compassionate, wealthy, a winner, a good family man”. That’s part of how Red Fisher began his description of Glen Sather in his book, Hockey, Heroes, and Me. Red could just as easily have begun his autobiography in the same fashion. In fact, most of those … [Read More …]

1998 Bertrand Raymond

Bertrand Raymond by Pat Hickey As he approaches his 54th birthday, Bertrand Raymond has achieved the goals he set for himself as a young reporter in Chicoutimi, but he has no intention of resting on his laurels. “I have the greatest job in the world and I wouldn’t trade places with anyone,” said Raymond Raymond … [Read More …]

1998 Jim Proudfoot

Jim Proudfoot by Milt Dunnell Come on, you guys who get out this Journal, how can anyone tell the life history James A. (Chester) Proudfoot in 500 words? It’s like tracing the bloodlines of Northern Dancer on the head of a horseshoe nail. Just tell the things that people don’t already know, you say. Like … [Read More …]

1996 Jim Coleman

Jim Coleman by Trent Frayne In his time as a daily columnist Jim Coleman wrote wonderful, funny, inventive stuff. He always remembered that games were not, in Red Smith’s word, Armageddon. In print, among many sportswriting jewels, Jim gave birth to the Curse of the Muldoon, to the mysterious Umlaut twins, and to a sudden … [Read More …]