Can You Guess Who I’ Am?
Can You Guess Who I’ Am? I was born on November 21, 1902, in Toronto Ontario Canada. Growing up in the early twentieth century, I was heavily influenced by my father, who happened to be the sports editor of The Toronto Star, manager of the Toronto Rugby Football Club, and secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association. So almost by default, it was my destiny that I would have a propensity to become just as immersed in sports as my father before me was. Can You Guess Who I’ Am?
At the age of eleven, I attended Upper Canada College prep school. During my time at UCC, I didn’t exhibit a great scholastic aptitude, but I did manage to squeak by. Later on, I attended the University of Toronto. It is during my tenure at the university that I gained notoriety for my boxing skills. It was as a boxer in the 103-pound class where I had my greatest successes, winning all of my bouts. I later won both the 112-pond class and the 118-pound boxing titles at the university and intercollegiate levels. Can You Guess Who I’ Am?
As a teenager, I became enthralled with the advent of radio during the nineteen twenties. It was during this time in my life that I took a job with an Independent Telephone Company, which manufactured radios. I later left that job to become a reporter at the Toronto Daily Star. This eventually led to me going on the air when CFCA was launched. The first-ever game that I broadcast was on February 16, 1923. The game was between the Toronto Argonaut Rowing Club and the Kitchener Greenshirts.
On May 24, 1925, My father and I made the world’s first-ever broadcast of a horse race.
In 1927, I was invited as a guest announcer to broadcast the first game from the new Detroit Olympia.
I was present for opening night at Maple Leaf Gardens on November 12, 1931, where I sat in the newly built gondola, with the permission of the Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe.
For forty years I sat In my perch in the gondola above the ice at Maple Leaf Gardens where I would give the play by play for General Motors (Canada), and later Imperial Oil Limited, Hockey Broadcast on Saturday nights. I became famous for my phrase “He shoots, he scores!” as well as my introduction to the broadcast, “Hello, Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland.
I retired from television in 1963, but I did continue to broadcast Leaf games until 1968. In 1965 I became one of a group of owners of the WHL Vancouver Canucks, a minor pro hockey team.
I came out of retirement in 1972 to broadcast the 1972 Summit Series. I was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1965. In 1972 I was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. The media gondola at the Scotiabank Arena is named after me. Sadly the original gondola from Maple Leaf Gardens was dismantled and later incinerated in August 1979 to make way for private boxes, under the leadership of Harold Ballard.
I was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. If you haven’t guessed who I’ am by now, then you can shoot but you didn’t score.
My name is Foster Hewitt.” Henderson, right in front, a shot, another shot, he scores”.
Remember “Keep You’re Stick On The Ice”.
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