Your favourite Maple Leaf broadcasters….who comes to mind for you?

Summertime usually means less time visiting hockey-oriented web sites, and I'm sure this year is no different.  If you've not visited Vintage Leaf Memories recently or missed some earlier posts, here are a few that provide some Leaf chat...

-Why the Leafs still matter

-Your thoughts on "classy" Leafs, past and present

-How Toronto's Eastern Conference foes have improved this off-season

-10 Leaf questions you may enjoy thinking on

-An idea to get more kids into the ACC and give something back

-Do the Leafs still have one more ace up their sleeve this summer?


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I usually prefer not to think of myself as old, exactly, but the fact remains that I do vividly remember the first real “voice” of the Toronto Maple Leafs—the legendary Foster Hewitt.

Now, given that his "on-air" career started in the, what was it, 1930s, that would seem to make me pretty darn old, indeed.  But in context, Hewitt had a long and illustrious career in the broadcast booth—until well into the 1970s, as I recall.  But I, personally, only first remember him calling Leaf games when I was a youngster in a hockey-crazed (Montreal Canadiens fans all, unfortunately) family back in the late 1950s.  Because we lived in southwestern Ontario, across from Detroit, we thankfully got the Leaf games on TV on Saturday nights—not the Hab telecasts from Montreal.  It was only on the rare occasion that we ended up with a Montreal game, during the highly infrequent occasions when Toronto was not scheduled or was on the road on a Saturday night. (We would see Montreal games at times in the playoffs, depending on the Leaf schedule and how long they lasted...)

I seem to recall that the late 1950s was also right around the time that Foster was passing the television baton along to his son Bill, who eventually carved out his own niche as a well-regarded play-by-play man for the CBC/Hockey Night in Canada on the Maple Leaf broadcasts.  Bill carried the Hewitt torch until his health-related retirement in the early 1980s.

That late '50s time frame was when Foster started to focus primarily on the radio broadcasts of Leaf games, while Bill took on responsibility for the TV side.  (One thing that those who lived in and around Toronto at the time could fill me in on:  did Bill also do a lot of general sports work for his Dad’s Toronto-based radio station, CKFH?  As a non-Toronto dwelling Leaf supporter, I only heard/saw the games on TV on Saturday nights and listened to their Sunday night games on the road via CBC radio.  I know the location CTV Toronto affiliate hosted mid-week Leaf games in the 1960s, but I'm wondering if Bill also did regular sportscasts and covered other events, etc...)

But what I’m really looking for today are your memories when it comes to favorite Leaf play-by-play guys. (By all means throw in names of colour commentators, too.  You may remember Brian McFarlane and Bob Goldham on TV or someone like Bill Watters on the radio side in more recent times.)  I remember both Hewitts’, of course, as wonderful play-by-play pros. There was also (no relation, different spelling of the last name) Ron Hewatt, who did radio work for CKFH when that station held the radio rights to Leaf games back in the 1970s.

I think when the old all-news radio network (CKO, now defunct) had the Leaf rights for a year around 1979, a young Peter Maher (with the Calgary Flames, if I’m not mistaken, for many years now) was behind the mike for a season in Toronto.

We all know Joe Bowen as the “voice of the Leafs” on radio since the early 1980s, and sometimes on television as well.  Dennis Beyak (now in Winnipeg, right?) also ably handled games when Joe was on TV for many years.

As I write this, it may well be I'm neglecting names of others who handled Leaf broadcasts, so fill me in if my memory is faulty on this one.

I guess we could get into a discussion about the modern-day TV side of things, but I don’t think individuals like Bob Cole or Chris Cuthbert, for example, consider themselves “Maple Leaf” broadcasters.  That is, they are hired independently by the CBC or TSN and happen to do Leaf games, but they are not “home town” play-by-play people.  But again, if you have any comments about national broadcasters like Hughson, Cole, Cuthbert, etc. who do Leaf games on occasion (I know Cole did them for many years until recently, usually with Harry Neale) feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

But again, my focus today is mostly thinking back to various individuals (there aren’t many when you think about it) who have had the privilege of calling the Leaf games as the “home town” voice.  I realize Bill and Foster Hewitt did national broadcasts on Saturday night as well, but because they also did Leaf games on Toronto radio, I’ll include them as “local” play-by-play guys for the purposes of history and our discussion today.

So, who do you remember most fondly calling Leaf games?  Do particular games, plays or moments stand out?  Is there a "call" that still gives you goose bumps?

And by all means, if you aren’t a Leaf fan but have favorite play-by-play guys from other teams, past or present, share your memories on that front, too.  I absolutely loved Danny Gallivan on TV doing Montreal games.  Rene Lecavalier was superb on French-language radio broadcasts for the Habs, as well.  My Dad listened to Lecavalier a lot, so I was very familiar with his style.

I grew up listening to Budd Lynch and Bruce Martyn in Detroit, Fred Cusick on WBZ in Boston, Dan Kelly in St. Louis, etc.  I have fond memories of all of them, though each was charmingly “homerish” in their own unique manner.

I just thought this would be a fun topic, as we wait for training camp (or not, given Gary Bettman’s public declaration last week that, without an agreement, there won’t be games this fall…I'm betting on January) and some meaningful hockey activity.

I look forward to hearing from you…