Lessons from Dick Irvin

Bob Dunn
Distant Replay

Every time I talk to Dick Irvin, Jr., as I did a couple of weeks ago, I learn something. This is a process that has been going on for about five decades, off and on, and you’d think by now my sports IQ would be more impressive than it is.

Always the teacher, an assignment made easier when you have his encyclopedic memory, the long-time Montreal Canadiens, Hockey Night in Canada and Hall of Fame broadcaster readily imparts his deep reservoir of sports knowledge to we who are less astute.

Our latest conversation was, simply, lesson number 1,645…or so.

From it, I learned he was once a travel agent. That job lasted one day. He heard that a cruise ship, Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, was in Quebec City and he wanted to have a look. He called a travel agent friend who said: “You’re a little late but leave it with me.” The agent made Irvin employee-for-a-day, Dick drove to Quebec and stepping aboard the Queen Mary felt his jaw drop. He became a cruiser for life, 16 of his 20 cruises on the Queen Mary 2: “That drive to Quebec City was the most expensive car trip I ever made!”

I also learned that Guy Lafleur, whose lung cancer returned last fall, is undergoing an experimental treatment that appears to be working. “He looks good,” Irvin says. Lafleur was merely one of the Canadiens’ super stars who skated in and out of Dick’s broadcast galaxy. Now 69, Lafleur is a distant memory from when Montreal won Stanley Cups with astonishing regularity.

I also learned Dick has now appeared on Hockey Night in Canada every year since 1966. That 55-year record was extended in this pandemic-shortened season by something of a cameo appearance (not on Zoom or FaceTime) and this time he was caught off-guard, which never happens. He was at home watching the Habs on TV in March when HNIC announcer John Bartlett sent him birthday wishes, two days after he turned 89 — “They didn’t have to mention how many years!” A tribute video followed, with Irvin welcoming viewers to the Montreal Forum. He acknowledges that may make “55” a bit of a stretch, but it still counts.

With the Canadiens’ surprising advance along this year’s Stanley Cup trail, nobody should be too surprised if another Hockey Night appearance by Dick Irvin validates his 55-year record.