Iconic Canadian play-by-play voice Bob Cole passed away Wednesday night at age 90, his daughter Megan told CBC News today.
Cole was regarded as one of the most legendary voices in hockey broadcasting history on both sides of the border, even if all his work was done for Canadian networks. He had a remarkable 50-year career calling games for both CBC and Rogers on television and a few seasons on radio in his early years starting in 1969. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 and rightly received the Hall’s Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for broadcasting excellence that year, also receiving the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.
The Newfoundland and Labrador native was the voice of multiple Canadian generations, working as the lead play-by-play announcer for CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” from 1980 to 2008, as well as their coverage of the Stanley Cup Final, until Jim Hughson was named his successor. He returned to coverage for Sportsnet in 2014, shortly after Rogers acquired the exclusive national rights for the NHL in Canada, where he remained until he called his last game in February 2019, a regular-season match between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs.
Perhaps even more consequential in the fabric of Canadian society were his calls for seminal moments internationally. He was on the air for Canada’s victory over the United States in the gold medal game of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (video link), as well as the final game of the 1972 Summit Series between the Soviet Union’s national team and an NHL All-Star contingent that was the most-watched sporting event in Canada for decades.
All of us on the PHR team send our deepest condolences to Cole’s family and friends and to all those who benefited from his decades of service to the sport and the broadcasting field.