It seems a lifetime ago that I met Miki Ah You, Jr., at the Autostade in Montreal, and since the stadium disappeared four decades ago and Junior Ah You now has 43 grandchildren, I guess it is a lifetime ago. He is the kindest, gentlest professional athlete I’ve ever known, […]
Bob Dunn – Distant Replay
How being in the sports media gave one writer & broadcaster the opportunity to interview sports personalities he never imagined he’d even meet in places he never imagined he’d be. These will be his stories about their stories — or just about them — from the pages of his past, while working out of Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver in the 60s and 70s.
The man who introduced me to sports broadcasting is a member of the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. His name is Ken Nicolson and they called him Friar because when he did Robin Hood Flour radio commercials in his home town — then Fort William — he was accused […]
Almost every day, I think of the late Toller Cranston, whom some experts say was the most revolutionary Canadian figure skater in history. Never having qualified as either an expert nor a figure skater, I’m not among them, but from a distance even to me it was clear that Cranston […]
Through all my formative years as a fan of Canadian football, Winnipeg versus Hamilton was not the best Grey Cup rivalry — it was the only one. While I was becoming an adult, these teams met seven times in 13 years and when other teams met in the Grey Cup […]
My “association” with Don Cherry was almost over before it began. Years before he began delivering clever analyses, insults and politically incorrect statements on Coach’s Corner, Cherry twice coached the Boston Bruins to the Stanley Cup final. His second trip was in 1978, Cherry’s best season of five behind the […]
Imagine having a Canadian Football League team with a Super Bowl quarterback, three first-round NFL draft picks (including the No. 1 pick overall), a Pro Bowl MVP and a wide receiver who averaged 600 yards over six NFL seasons. Now imagine how many games that team might win in one […]
His name was Anthony Keith Waiters and if ever a “soccer Brit” threw himself into his new country as he left his old one, it was Tony Waiters. He didn’t come to Canada to teach Canadians how to play the game, it just turned out the way. And while he […]
When I first covered international hockey, the Russian (then called Soviet) goaltenders were Viktor and Viktor, which sounds like a circus act in Las Vegas with Siberian huskies. Viktor Konovalenko and Viktor Zinger played goal when the Soviets won an unprecedented nine straight world championships — and they paved the […]
As a young football fan growing up in Winnipeg, I intensely disliked Jackie Parker. It seemed every time the Blue Bombers didn’t represent the West in the Grey Cup, he was largely responsible. Parker could do everything well and he usually did. Many years later, I wound up on the […]
Full confession. Last week, I identified my greatest moment covering the games people play was seeing Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on three pitches in Game 6 of the World Series. And that was my “sports” highlight for the World Series, the year 1977 and the career. However, my […]
It was 44 years ago this week that Number 44 gave baseball a World Series record that may stand forever, and gave a Montreal baseball writer the most memorable sports moment of both their careers. Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on three pitches to make the New York Yankees […]
Sitting under a stifling sun in a polluted central Mexico city known for manufacturing leather shoes, I leaned over to the woman who has been at my side for more than five decades now and uttered this unlikely and profound statement: “There is nowhere in the world I would rather […]
