Cole was voice of Canadian hockey fans for a half-century
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90.
Born June 24, 1933, the St. John’s, N.L., native provided a distinctive soundtrack to Canada’s game. He was known for his signature “Oh baby” call, an expression that was not restricted to hockey arenas.
“He’s been saying that around the house as long as I can remember,” daughter Megan said in Cole’s 2016 autobiography “Now I’m Catching On. My Life On and Off the Air.”
Cole first remembers using it to describe some memorable Mario Lemieux stickhandling in Game 2 of the 1991 Stanley Cup final against Minnesota.
“Look at Lemieux. Oh my heavens. What a goal. What a move. Lemieux. Oh baby,” Cole said excitedly after Lemieux went the length of the ice, skated through the defence pair of Shawn Chambers and Neil Wilkinson and deked goalie Jon Casey.
“I don’t know when it’s going to come out. No idea … I don’t plan it. It’s spontaneous,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I don’t script the thing. It’s ad-libbed … and that’s what broadcasting’s all about.”
“Hockey Night in Canada” host Ron MacLean said Cole’s distinctive play-by-play style “comes on you like smoke from a campfire.”
Fellow broadcaster Greg Millen, a former NHL goaltender, said Cole’s voice was “almost like a symphony.”
“Bob had an unbelievable ability of bringing the game up and down depending on what was happening on the ice.”
In typical Cole fashion, he initially wondered ahead of doing the autobiography who would be interested in reading his story, “just because I do hockey games.”
But what games. He did the 1972 Summit Series on radio. On TV, there was the 1976 game in Philadelphia when the Soviet Red Army players left the ice in protest at the Flyers’ take-no-prisoners tactics. “They’re going home,” said an incredulous Cole.
He was there for the 2002 Olympic final in Salt Lake City when Canada ended its 50-year Olympic gold-medal drought with a win over the United States in the final.
“Joe Sakic scores and that makes it 5-2 Canada. Surely that’s got to be it?” said Cole.
Not to mention a string of Stanley Cup finals.
But Cole was more than hockey. He called Bob Beamon’s world-record long jump at the 1968 Olympics, curled in the Brier, served as quiz master on “Reach for the Top” and worked for the Newfoundland government.
Cole’s “Hockey Night in Canada” swansong came April 6, 2019, the regular-season finale in Montreal between the Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. Players, coaches and fans stood in appreciation to honour Cole in the second period as his four children, Christian, Hilary, Megan and Robbie, watched in the gondola at the Bell Centre.
“Thank you so much Montreal and Canada,” he said to viewers. “It’s been a pleasure. I’m going to miss this.”
Cole was honoured by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 when he won the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster. In 2016, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.