COLE PROVIDED THE SOUNDTRACK FOR HOCKEY
The voice of the NHL to generations of fans, he was the greatest broadcaster of them all
Bob Cole sounded like hockey, and hockey sounded like him.
You heard his voice and instantly you knew the game mattered. He made you sit up and listen. His words. His tone. His volume. His intonation. All of the Cole-isms. Oh, baby! So much of it so original that it became part of the personal vocabulary of a generation of hockey lovers.
The greatest hockey play-byplay man of our lives has died at the age of 90, five Aprils after he called his last game on Hockey Night in Canada. But he will never really leave those of us who knew him from our TV sets and radios or were fortunate enough to know him personally.
”He's the greatest voice in the history of the game,” said Chris Cuthbert, the No. 1 voice today on HNIC. “I think the voice will be his legacy more than anything. It's not just that he did this for so long, it's how he did this.
“He's the soundtrack of our game. I know this much about Bob. He loved Frank Sinatra and to me, he was our version of Sinatra in broadcast — a special voice, with special timing, longevity and tone. He just had that kind of aura about him.
“And you know, a funny story about Bob. He did get to meet Sinatra, his idol, at the Montreal Forum years ago. He got one ticket for the show on the floor. And Sinatra walked by and was shaking hands with some of the people around him.
“He went by Colie and it may have the been the first time in Bob's life he was lost for words. My understanding is he just stood there, kind of frozen and said nothing.”
The Hockey Sinatra freezing in front of the real one. One voice of a lifetime silent in awe of another.
Cole didn't come from nowhere — he came from Newfoundland and Labrador, and never really left — although his broadcast story is of another time.
He told me this years ago, how he came to Toronto at the age of 23, rented a car, drove with friends to New York to see his beloved Yankees play. He also wanted to meet Mel Allen, the legendary voice of the Yankees and somehow he managed to arrange that.
Young Cole made such an impression on Allen that the next day, he arranged for a media pass for Cole and his friends and it was there they took a photo he cherished forever — a photo in 1956 with Yankees legend Mickey Mantle.
On his return to Toronto, before heading back to his radio job back home, Cole stopped at CKFH Radio — the FH standing for Foster Hewitt, the father of hockey broadcasting — to drop off an audition tape.
“My friends waited in the car and I went up to leave the tape,” Cole told me. Somehow, the receptionist got him in to see Hewitt, who took the tape into a studio to listen.
“My knees were knocking,” said Cole. “I asked (Foster) for some advice and I think we spent two hours talking. My guys were down in the car waiting for me and I'm sitting up there with Foster Hewitt. And when he said, `I like your voice.' I couldn't believe it.”
Still, it took Cole almost a decade to get to Hockey Night and he arrived at just the right time for the playoffs.
“Jean Beliveau scored in the second overtime period, the only overtime goal of his career,” said Cole of his first game. “Pretty good to be able to start out that way.”
There were so many monumental moments after that one, most of which can't be individualized because of the number of games, years and circumstances, so many playoff series including the radio version of the famed Canada-russia series of 1972.
But he certainly never forgot the famous game in January
1976, with the roughhouse Philadelphia Flyers playing the Moscow Red Army in the last match of an eight-game series across the NHL. He never forgot it — nor, it seems, has anyone else.
It was on that afternoon that the physical style of the Broad Street Bullies so intimidated the Red Army, the Russians pulled their team from the ice and Cole made his famous, “They're going home! They're going home!” call.
Years after that, a morning radio sports show in Vancouver ended daily with: “They're going home! They're going home!”
The longtime Toronto morning man, Mike Richards, did regular impressions of Cole, who didn't originally appreciate them, until his daughter told him they were funny. Many other comedians and after-dinner speakers have regularly imitated Cole. In one way or another, we all did his voice.
“Many broadcasters make broadcasts better,” tweeted Dave Hodge, the longtime host of Hockey Night In Canada. “Not many make the games they are broadcasting better. Bob had that singular ability.
“He was a gift to his profession, his province and country, his fans, colleagues and friends, and, mostly, to his family. We mourn (today).”
The last game Cole called for Hockey Night was, rather perfectly, a Montreal-toronto matchup on a Saturday night in April 2019. It wasn't his choice to retire, but it was probably time.
Hewitt was best known as the voice of the Leafs. Danny Gallivan was best known as the voice of the Canadiens.
Bob Cole was the voice of the game. No team needed to be attached to that.
“I did games in Montreal and I've been accused of being a Montreal fan and accused of hating Montreal. I did games in Toronto and I've been accused of being a Toronto fan and accused of hating Toronto,” Cole told me once.
“That was part of the job.”
Bob Cole was the voice of hockey for more than half a century in a hockey-loving nation. He spoke of Canada, for Canada, always loudly, curled for Newfoundland in two Briers.
I was thrilled to have known him, to call him a friend. I should have called more often. Just to hear that special voice one more time.