by Ron MacLean
If I were still a program director, I would program “vacation radio”—no traffic reports, no business reports, no headaches. A show from a different location each week. The listener would be on permanent vacation.
If all else fails, I can always open a little bar attached to a silk-screening T-shirt shop on the beach in the Caribbean and call it The Wherewithal. Then we’ll see what happens next.
1. My dad, picking apples in Point Aconi, Nova Scotia, at age sixteen. Notice he’s not wearing gloves—the original tough guy.
2. Three weeks old in Metz, France, May 1960. Mom held me with her eyes … and never let me go.
3. In thirty-six years of broadcasting, I’ve never taken a photo where I look as sincere as I do in this one.
4. At age six in Whitehorse, Yukon, in front of Steelox #102. It’s where I first fell in love with hockey.
5. In Grade 2, at Christ the King Elementary in Whitehorse. My teacher, Miss McKenzie, used to tell us all we were special. She gave us great belief in ourselves.
6. This is what my fellow classmates wrote about me! Teacher Eileen Atkinson prepared me for the critics she knew would come my way. I am grateful for the courage she instilled.
7. It’s 1977, I’m seventeen years old and I am about to host “The Golden Wheel,” my noon-hour show “broadcast” over the intercom at Camille J. Lerouge High School. No fear yet—it’s still a lark at this point.
8. All dressed up for my high school graduation from Camille J. Lerouge in 1978. I delivered a speech during the ceremony but hadn’t yet considered a career in radio or TV.
9. High-school sweethearts at Cari’s house in Red Deer. I lived and breathed the Leafs.
10. At the old CKRD studio on Gaetz Avenue in Red Deer. I was nineteen, and rather scared. I had yet to figure out who I was talking to.
11. With Cari, celebrating Christmas 1978 at my house in Red Deer. Our first Christmas as a couple.
12. At the new CKRD studio on Bremner Avenue in Red Deer. Out the window, I watched the sun rise and played good songs. It was a way to make someone’s day.
13. My television career began as a weatherman at CKRD-TV in Red Deer, in 1981. One disgruntled farmer said, “Ron wouldn’t know a warm front if he wet himself.”
14. Ed Whalen was a prince of a man, a king of the business. Ed said, “The good thing about sports is that there is a winner. The bad thing about sports is that there is a winner.” Amen.
15. I’m twenty-one and my ship has come in. I’m saved … With Cari, I will always be.
16. Cari and me on our wedding day, September 1, 1984, in Red Deer. A week later, I began a career that has seen me fly well over a million miles.
17. My wedding party (left to right): Todd Swanson, Marty Vellner, Jerry Murphy and me. One does not hit their stride without friends like this to walk with. We remain very, very close.
18. I’ve just been named MVP of a game at a Molson Slo-Pitch NHL event. Cari’s dad was a semi-pro ballplayer, so my work at second was a home run with her family.
19. Reading a copy of A Vintage View of Hockey in the eighties. In 2011, Don and I wrapped up our twenty-fifth season together.
20. During the 1993 Western Conference final between Toronto and Los Angeles. This is the show immediately after Don’s infamous “pimp” episode. We were on a probation of sorts.
21. Grapes never likes to look shorter than me. I bet the guy who took the photo heard about it afterward!
22. Grapes would like this shot better—he looks tall, powerful, handsome and rich!
23. Our patented Detroit City octopus opening, from 1998. That’s a fifty-pounder.
24. At the Nagano Winter Olympic Games in 1998. I’m asking Don what he thought of Jean-Luc Brassard. Bad idea!
25. With Don and Cari, after the Nagano Olympics in 1998. How do I put up with Don? The beer says it all!
26. (Left to right): Floor director David Sealy, producer Joel Darling, me, Don and publicist Christian Hasse. Just before going to air, Don wants to know the birthplace of a player, so I am searching on the computer. Putting kids “on the map” is our favourite deal.
27. This is my favourite publicity photo. Don and I are at Glen Eden ski hill, an hour northwest of Toronto, promoting Hockey Day in Canada in Whitehorse. Don sleighs me.
28. With Don at the 2011 Heritage Classic between the Canadiens and Flames at McMahon Stadium, Calgary. One of us did not get the “what to wear” memo.
29. At the Air Canada Centre in 2002, for my first game after the contract ordeal. This night was a chance for me to thank the fans.
30. With Cari and Sherali Najak, the producer who inspired me the most.
31. With a replica of the Stanley Cup in 1995. I am glad it is a copy—unless you win it, you don’t get to touch the real deal.
32. In the 1990s, Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe, was on hand to perform the ceremonial puck drop at a game I refereed in the old Colonial Hockey League.
33. Reffing a pre-season NHL game between Buffalo and Pittsburgh. That’s an interference signal. I also called a chintzy trip on John LeClair that still haunts me a little.
34. In my Aussie swagman crushable hat in Sydney in 2000, wondering if it’s the rat’s ass.
35. With Lanny McDonald at a roast in his honour in 2010. I’d travel anywhere to give Lanny a hand. He was always there for me in the beginning.
36. Houseboating in the Shuswaps in 2002 with (from left to right) Jerry Murphy, Marty Vellner and Terry Krushelnicki. Four high school pals doing our version of Degrassi.
37. At sea off the British Virgin Islands in 2007, driving a fifty-three-foot Beneteau we named Nanuk. This is day one of a vacation, spent travelling to a spot called “The Bitter End.”
38. With Marianne Limpert and producer Chris Irwin. Marianne’s silver medal–winning swim in the 200-metre individual medley at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta remains the single greatest moment I’ve witnessed live.
39. With Brad Richards at the Sportsman’s Club in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in 2005. Brad and his family and friends have become good friends of mine.
40. Practising a new interview technique—the headlock!—on NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
41. With Stuartt, our thirteen-pound miniature schnauzer, in 1993. It looks like she’s thinking e = mc2.
42. Our Schattentier standard schnauzer, Lewis. He was chosen because he appreciates my puns.
43. Our local lifestyle magazine, West of the City, profiled me and my beer-league hockey team, the Coyotes, in 2002. I still lace ‘em up twice a week.
44. My parents, Ron Sr. and Lila. This was the last professional photo taken of them together, and it’s my dad’s favourite.
45. Mom at Christmas 2007—her last. Asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney cancer, macular degeneration and pancreatic cancer—what do you give someone who’s received all that with a smile?
46. Cari and Dad, arm in arm at Dad’s condo in Oakville in 2010. Dad’s thirty-two years in the military explains the remarkable way he has soldiered on since Mom’s passing in 2008.
47. With Cari and Dad on Canada Day, 2010. I co-hosted the show on Parliament Hill, with the Queen and Prince Philip in attendance. It was a privilege to show gratitude for being Canadian.
48. With my dad, Ron Sr., at a father–son Christmas luncheon.
49. Official photo as an honorary colonel of 1 Air Movements Squadron, based out of Winnipeg. This role gave me a chance to work with the bravest of the brave and to honour my folks, who were both with the air force.
50. On the set of Battle of the Blades, in a state of “glide” to be alive.
51. With Kurt Browning after he presented me with a Gemini Award for Best Sportscaster. Kurt is always hyper-aware of what is going on around him, and so full of life, he cannot stay still.
52. Getting some vitamin H (Heineken) in the British Virgin Islands.
53. Reading Don Quixote at Runaway Hill in the Bahamas.
54. With Cari at a corporate s
peech she booked for me in Toronto in 2011.
55. Cari and me, sitting on our sailboat’s lifeline. In truth, she is my lifeline.
56. With Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, on the ice in Vancouver after winning the 2011 Stanley Cup. He’s putting in a good word about Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo. That is the true spirit of sport.
57. At the 2011 Calgary Stampede. Whenever I’m onstage at the rodeo, in front of 22,000 fans, I “cowboy up.”
RON MacLEAN, host of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada for twenty-five years, began his broadcasting career in 1978 as an all-night DJ in Red Deer, Alberta. In 1984, he moved to Calgary to host Flames telecasts on Channels 2 & 7. In 1986, MacLean was hired by the CBC and CHCH for the Toronto Maple Leafs telecasts, and in 1987 he became the host of HNIC. He has also covered the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, the World Cup of Hockey and the Calgary Stampede, and has co-hosted Battle of the Blades. Ron MacLean has been recognized with ten Gemini Awards. He and his wife, Cari, live in Oakville, Ontario.
KIRSTIE McLELLAN DAY has written five other books: the #1 bestselling memoir of Theo Fleury, Playing with Fire; the bestselling memoir of Bob Probert, Tough Guy; Above and Beyond, a biography of cable magnate JR Shaw; Under the Mat, a memoir with Diana Hart of the Hart wrestling family; and No Remorse, a true-crime story. The mother of five lives with her husband, broadcaster Larry Day, in Calgary, Alberta. Visit her online at www.kirstiemclellanday.com.
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PHOTO CREDITS
Photos that appear in the interior sections are reproduced courtesy of the following:
1. Ron MacLean Sr.
2. Ron MacLean
3. Ron MacLean Sr.
4. Ron MacLean. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. Copyright NHL 2011. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
5. Ron MacLean
6. Ron MacLean. Copyright CJL Collegiate.
7. Cari MacLean
8. Ron MacLean
9. Ron MacLean. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. Copyright NHL 2011. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
10. Jim Pattison Broadcast Group LP
11. Ron MacLean
12. Ron MacLean
13. Jim Pattison Broadcast Group LP
14. Ron MacLean
15. Ron and Cari MacLean
16. D. J. Wright Photography Ltd.
17. Ron MacLean
18. Ron and Cari MacLean
19. Nancy Ackerman, The Spectator
20. Rob MacLean/CBC Sports
21. CBC/Hockey Night in Canada
22. CBC/Hockey Night in Canada
23. Ron MacLean/CBC Sports
24. Ron MacLean/CBC Sports
25. Ron and Cari MacLean
26. Copyright Dave Sidaway, The Gazette (Montreal)
27. Steve Carty/CBC Sports
28. Kirstie McLellan Day
29. Copyright Frank Gunn/Canadian Press
30. Ron MacLean/CBC Sports
31. Ben Flock
32. Ron MacLean
33. Copyright Kevin Srakocic/AP. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. Copyright NHL 2011. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
34. Cari MacLean
35. Kirstie McLellan Day
36. Cari MacLean
37. Brad Dalgarno
38. Ron MacLean/CBC Sports
39. Gary Kennedy
40. Kirstie McLellan Day
41. Barry Erskine/Metroland Media Group
42. Peter Bregg/Maclean’s
43. Copyright Liesa Kortman/Metroland Media Group
44. IPC Canada Photo Inc.
45. Ron MacLean
46. Kirstie McLellan Day
47. Ron MacLean
48. Larry Henderson
49. Copyright Canadian Forces
50. Kirstie McLellan Day
51. Copyright Gemini Awards
52. Patrick Festing-Smith
53. Ron and Cari MacLean
54. Kirstie McLellan Day
55. Ron and Cari MacLean
56. Copyright CBC Sports. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. Copyright NHL 2011. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
57. Kirstie McLellan Day
INDEX
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.
Abrams, Steve, 61
AC/DC, 214
Adam, Dyane, 204–6
Adamo, Glenn, 113–14
Adams, Scott, 294
Afinogenov, Max, 303
Albert, Marv, 175
Albrecht, Kevin, 269
America’s Cup, 296
Arnold, Ted, 51–52
Aubut, Marcel, 64–65, 227–28
Auger, Stéphane, 169–70
Baars, Derek, 264–65
Babych, Dave, 305
Baggley, Howard, 297
Bailey, Donovan, 233–34
Baincroft Orphanage, 5
The Bald Truth (Falk), 184–85
Ballard, Harold, 63–65
Balsillie, Jim, 166
Barlow, Bobby, 203
Barnes, Dan, 210
Barrie, Len, 167
Barry, Wayne, 47–48, 49
Battle of the Blades, 269–73
Béliveau, Jean, 280
Bell Canada, 111–12
Benjamin, Tom, 223
Bentley Generals, 24–26
Berezhnaya, Elena, 241–42
Bergeron, Patrice, 171, 280
Bettman, Gary, 129, 151–53, 155, 162–69, 289
Birt, Trevor, 261, 262–63
Blair, Gerry, 69
Blair, Ray, 28, 37–38
Bloom, Harold, 214–15
Bobby Orr Hall of Fame (Parry Sound), 196–99
Bolland, Dave, 275
Bouchard, Pierre-Marc, 170
Boucher, Ann, 6
Boucher, George, 6
Bourque, Ray, 19, 20
Bowie, Bruce, 37
Bowman, Scotty, 284
Bowness, Rick, 93
Brace, Rick, 191, 207–8
Brashear, Donald, 139–40
Brassard, Jean-Luc, 110–11
Brier (curling championship), 81–82
Briere, Daniel, 303
Brimacombe, Angus, 300
Brisebois, Mario, 199–200
Brock Badgers, 302–3
Broderick, Kathy, 259, 304
Brown, Dave, 90–91
Brown, Larry, 53
Brown, Matt, 216, 218
Browning, Kurt, 226, 269–72
Brunton, John, 269
Buchanan, Bruce, 40
Buchberger, Kelly, 181
Buffalo Sabres, 266–67
Burgess, Michael, 196–97
Burke, Brian, 67–69, 190, 205, 282
Burke, Sean, 228
Burrows, Alexandre, 169–71
Byrd, Jim, 110–11, 112
Calgary Flames, 59–61, 66–73
Calgary Stampede, 265–66
Campbell, Colin, 162, 170, 305
Campbell, Ken, 216
Canada Cup, 19–20
Canadian Airlines, 112
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
Battle of the Blades, 269–73
contract negotiations, 111, 112–16, 178–95
coverage of Ninety-Nine All-Stars, 129–32
criticized by Don Cherry, 94–98
desire to fire Don Cherry, 201, 204–6, 208
distances itself from RM, 201
editorial pressure on Hockey Night in Canada, 91, 171–74, 177–78
marketing of personalities, 112
radio coverage of Olympics, 237–38
Carcillo, Dan, 140
Carolina Hurricanes, 166
The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), 294–95
; Cellucci, Paul, 119
Cervantes, Miguel de, 209–10, 214–15
CFAC-TV, 51–57, 59–62, 73–75
Channels 2 & 7. See CFAC-TV
Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts, 196–99
CHCH-TV, 76
Checketts, Dave, 166–67
CHED-AM, 36–37
Cherry, Del, 16–17
Cherry, Don advice to RM, 66–67, 92, 101–2, 151, 189–90
behaviour around women, 189, 240
Brian Burke’s issues with, 67–68
and Buffalo Sabres, 266–67
criticism of CBC, 94–98
criticism of players, 139–41, 201–6
favourite song, 306–7
first broadcast with RM, 1–3
“gay pimp” opening, 107–10
on Kelly Hrudey, 298–99
and Lada taxicab, 84–86
at Olympics, 235–36
on-air rapport with RM, 87–93
political views, 110–12, 116–28, 218–20, 222–23
preparation for Coach’s Corner, 304–5
public appearances, 196–99
refusal to appear on air, 137–39
relationship with CBC, 201, 204–6, 208
relationship with RM, 209–23
reluctance to apologize, 15–21