HALL CALL FOR COLE
Stellar work earns nod
Hours after the Pittsburgh Penguins hoisted the Stanley Cup last June, and the last of seemingly countless stories had been filed on deadline, yours truly and Postmedia colleagues Cam Cole and Michael Traikos walked onto the ice at San Jose’s Shark Tank and knelt on the blue line for our own team photo.
At that time last June, who knew that this, after covering 30 or more Cup finals, would be the last of Cam’s illustrious career?
Cam tapped out his final column back in December when he announced his retirement from The Vancouver Sun. The fact that Traikos and I were able to share in that moment with the man Postmedia types referred to as “The Franchise” is an occasion I’ll never forget.
Not that I could ever forget Cam anyway. From the way he could turn a phrase in print to how he could use his words to paint a mental picture that made you feel as if you were inside the rink, few in this profession did it better.
Cam Cole and his outstanding work will be honoured by the Hockey Hall of Fame, after Scott Burnside, president of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, announced Monday that Cole will receive the Elmer Ferguson Award for excellence in hockey journalism.
Also being honoured is longtime play-by-play man Dave Strader, who is this year’s recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.
In a profession full of egos, the quality of Cole’s work would have allowed him one, but that wasn’t his style. It should come as no surprise that he was humbled upon receiving the news that he had been chosen for the Ferguson award.
“To be honest, I was totally surprised when Scott told me,” Cole said. “I’d always associated the Ferguson with people like Red Fisher and Frank Orr and Helene Elliott and Kevin Allen, people who covered the sport on a daily basis and were in tune with the daily rhythm of the hockey world.
“It wasn’t until I did the research in the past two hours that general (sports) columnists like myself had also received the honour, legends like Trent Frayne and Milt Dunnell.”
A proud Alberta native, Cole’s 41-year career included stints with the Edmonton Journal, National Post and Vancouver Sun. His rise to prominence as one of the greatest Canadian sportswriters coincided with the emergence of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the 1980s, the one featuring Hall of Famers such as Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Paul Coffey.
“Guys like Terry Jones, Jim Matheson, myself, we were so fortunate to be at the right place at the right time,” Cole said. “It was a magical time, a special time, and we all embraced it.”
Cole said the most memorable hockey column, among the hundreds he’s penned, came in advance of Gretzky’s retirement in 1999. He would go on pleasing readers with his elegant prose for another 17 years after that before he, too, decided to hang ’em up.
Asked what he misses most about the business, Cole pointed to the vibrancy, camaraderie and adrenalin rush that goes hand in hand with covering the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“Certainly not all the flights and the deadlines,” he said with a chuckle. “Those started to get old. But the games, the writing, the going out with colleagues afterward and staying out far too late, then getting up too early to start working and do it all over again — those are the things you remember.”
As a friend and colleague of Cam’s for more than two decades — one who took part in a fair share of those bleary nights on the town — what I’ll remember is the countless times reading a Cole column the next day and saying: “Wish I had written that.”
And knowing, each and every time, that I couldn’t.
Because there is only one Cam Cole.