STEVE MILTON
Hometown Hockey’s host Ron MacLean comes back ‘home’ this Sunday
We’re not sure if he’ll refer to this city as “The Hammer” sometime during Sunday night’s broadcast, but Ron MacLean has certainly earned the right.
The popular host of Hockey Night in Canada, Coach’s Corner, CBC’s Olympic coverage and Metaphors R Us will be here Sunday for the second day of Rogers Hometown Hockey and has a lot of the city in his past, his present and his eardrums.
“Hamilton is special to me, personally,” says MacLean, who joins Tara Slone on the televised portion of Rogers Hometown Hockey from Pier 8 on Sunday. “I’ve officiated a lot of games in the area, but to me Hamilton is music, almost more significantly than sports to me. Seeing Bryan Adams there, Dire Straits, and I just saw the Arkells’ 10th anniversary.”
MacLean and wife Cari lived in Ancaster from 1989 to ’92, as his HNIC reputation was building, and they still live just outside Hamilton’s catch basin, in Oakville. “We had a little bungalow in Ancaster Heights near the Mill, and our kitchen had a great view into Dundas,” he recalls. “I loved looking over into Dundas, so I actually looked forward to doing the dishes.
“My wife worked in Oakville, so we had to move eventually but I have really fond memories of Ancaster and Hamilton. I loved the restaurants, Lo Presti’s, Shakespeare’s, It’s All Greek To Me and all those great Italian places.”
MacLean did work for CHCHTV in 1987 and ’88 and for much longer than that worked the ice of local arenas as an Ontario Hockey Association referee. In a conversation last week, he mentioned he knew how hard the passing of Lawfield Hockey Association president Daryl Villeneuve had hit the local hockey community.
“I worked games in Binbrook, Glanbrook, all the arenas around the area,” he recalls. “I remember in the Dave Andreychuk Arena working with Bill Sturrup and Evelyn (Russell) the timekeeper. She did it for the Jr. A team, the AHL (American Hockey League) Bulldogs and she’s still there (with the Ontario Hockey League’s Bulldogs). Bill and Evelyn … a magical duo.”
This weekend is Hometown Hockey’s first foray into Hamilton, and concludes the weekly travelling show’s third season. MacLean hosts the national games Saturday nights, then flies out most Sunday mornings to that week’s “Hometown,” which made for a brutal mid-winter, when most of those Sunday sites were in Western Canada. The final three sites of the year, though, have been driveable for him.
Over those three years of on-site weekends, he and Slone have been criss-crossing the country stitching together a quilt of Canadian identity, through our hockey stories, much like Rick Mercer, Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café and Peter Gzowski’s Morningside, have done in other aspects of our culture via their travelling caravans.
“Tom Cochrane will come and play in Hamilton and Tara (a former Juno nominee) will sing with him,” MacLean says. “So, Life is a Highway is the metaphor there. It results in a warm feeling when you use the game as a metaphor or a simile, and it works. Hockey conjures up a feeling of Canada, of hockey. Saturday nights with the family around Hockey Night in Canada I really like that we do it on Sunday nights. It’s a good family show. It’s a man and a woman hosting, so you’re not seeing it through the prism of just male hockey commentators. There’s music, games, NHL alumni, it’s like a circus for two days. Even if it’s cold or rainy, we’ve got plenty of tents, you’ll be warm and safe. It’s a viewing party and this game could really mean something for the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
McLean is recognized everywhere in this country but, humble and well-grounded, the Red Deer, Alta., native is more approachable than many national figures.
And, to borrow just a little bit from MacLean, that could be a simile for the show.
“Sometimes when we’ve stood there and signed and talked to people, it has felt like it’s family,” he says. “Really down to earth.”
Accordingly, he encourages visitors to Pier 8 this weekend to speak to him and Slone, and to share their life experiences.
“Everyone,” MacLean says, “wants to talk about a Don Cherry story they have.”