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.