Olver was MLB TV fixture in 1980s
“How about those Blue
Jays?”
Those words became a well-known catchphrase courtesy of former Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Fergie Olver, a native of Moose Jaw who became one of the faces of Major League Baseball in Canada during the 1980s and ’90s.
Before gracing television screens across the country, Olver was a minor-league outfielder who also played close to home in the old Western Major Baseball League.
His sportscasting career commenced in the Regina area before moving to Montreal in 1969. He worked for a TV station in Toronto before joining the Blue Jays’ baseball crew as a broadcaster and dugout reporter from 1981 to 1996 with CTV and TSN.
Olver arrived on the scene during the Blue Jays’ early years — they were an expansion team in 1977 — and remained through the club’s glory days that included back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
He also appeared in the 1971 film Face-Off as a member of the media covering a hockey team.
Olver was nominated in 2004 for the Ford C. Frick Award, which is presented annually to a broadcaster who made significant contributions to baseball.
Olver is also known for co-hosting an ’80s children’s game show called Just Like Mom with his now-former wife Catherine Swing, who doubled as the show’s creator.
Both of their children, Emily and Alison, were also involved in the show.
The format of the program was to determine which child-and-mother combo knew each other the best via question-andanswer sessions. That was followed by a bake-off challenge.
The program ran from 1980 until 1985 on CTV.