Joe Bowen, the “Voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs”, announced that the 2025-26 season would be his last in a broadcast booth. By his admission, Bowen will finish his broadcasting career with more than 3,800 Maple Leafs games in the booth.
Bowen began his broadcasting career with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, his hometown team, in the mid-1970s. It wasn’t until he made an organizational change to the AHL’s Nova Scotia Voyageurs in 1979 that he would earn a tryout with the Maple Leafs.
He debuted as Toronto’s fifth radio broadcaster in the 1982-83 season, and remained as the team’s main morning anchor and radio broadcaster. In 1995, Bowen almost lost his job when his employer, Telemedia Sports Network, lost the bid to broadcast Maple Leafs games on the radio to Q107.
Bowen eventually joined Q107 to remain in radio and became the organization’s primary radio broadcaster, with mild work in television on regional broadcasts. His work on television ended in 2014, when Rogers Communications purchased all rights to NHL games in the Canadian market.
For those who primarily listen to Maple Leafs games on the radio, many will remember Bowen’s iconic catchphrase, “Holy Mackinaw”, typically reserved for some of the most iconic goals in recent franchise history. Bowen won the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for his outstanding contributions to broadcasting in 2018 and will likely find a home in the Maple Leafs Hall of Fame once he finally hangs up the microphone.
Joe is the best along with his sideshow Jimmy Ralph. Wish he were doing the television broadcasts. All the best in retirement.
Good riddance, he’s awful. Take Ralph with you, please.
Ralphie may end up breaking his back trying to get Bonesy to pronounce names correctly this next season. MLSE should not consider the first replacement for Dan Robertson after he left MTL to succeed Dennis Beyak. That guy (name withheld to not further incriminate the guilty) has always been awful, and should never be on interweb radio broadcasts.
@Mac – Those of us AM radio listeners have fond memories of those Leafs broadcasts coming thru loud and clear on that Hamilton based station. Games followed by radio theater, lol! :D
@Gbear — There are (supposedly) some stations still airing Old Time radio shows in the overnight hours, at least according to their schedules. Start with a game, finish with Jack Benny, or if you’re not a nightmares type, Inner Sanctum Mysteries. :)