Sportsnet announced Thursday Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Cole will call 10 games on Hockey Night in Canada in his 50th and final season. Photo courtesy CBC.
One of the most familiar voices to fill Canadian living rooms on Saturday nights will be back on the air for one more season.
That’s according to Sportsnet in announcing Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Cole will return to the booth to call 10 games in his 50th and final season on Hockey Night in Canada.
Sportsnet did not say which games Cole would call, but all will be during the first half of the season.
The 85-year-old from St. John’s, NFLD, has been used in a reduced role in recent years.
Known for his catchphrase, “Oh baby!”, Cole did not call a playoff game for the first time in his career last spring.
Cole’s first game of the new season will be Oct. 6 in a game between Montreal and Pittsburgh.
The network said further details of a tribute to the Gemini Award-winning broadcaster and Order of Canada member will be announced at a later date.
Cole was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for excellence in hockey broadcasting.
While many Canadian hockey fans will remember Hewitt’s call of Paul Henderson’s winning goal during the Canada-Russia Summit Series in 1972, Cole was on the mic for one of the sport’s most famous goals on the radio.
Cole was also the lead play-by-play announcer of Canada’s 2002 men’s hockey team’s gold medal-winning performance at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, that ended a 50-year Olympic championship drought.
With files from the Canadian Press.
CHEK News
