05/16/25
April 29, 2024
For five decades, Bob Cole was Canada's hockey soundtrack: What made him famous?
It was his voice, sure, but also his cadence. Every Canadian of a certain age is assuredly friends with someone who was once supremely confident in their Bob Cole impression, either in the goal call (a high, pinched “scores!”) or in pacing, which … can go … a little something … like this.
At his best, Cole worked in both science and art. His catchphrases were repeated in street hockey games across the country. (In 2015, with the help of a long-time producer at CBC, Cole launched an app filled with his own recitations.)
“How about that?”
“Hold onto your hats”
“Oh, baby.”
There were more, but none so famous as that last one.
posted by tommybiden to culture at 07:52 PM - 2 comments
Cole calling Olympic hockey (I think Gold Medal game in Salt Lake City) "...everything is happening..."
posted by tommybiden at 09:40 PM on May 01, 2024
I am old enough actually to have heard a Foster Hewitt hockey broadcast. I grew up in a town next door to Boston directly on the coast. When atmospheric conditions were just right, I could listen to the CBC hockey broadcast, usually from a station on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Boston Bruins have had a couple of very good radio broadcasters, Fred Cusick and Bob Wilson, but Hewitt was clearly better. I never heard a Bob Cole broadcast, but in listening to a YouTube memorial it is clear that Cole was a worthy successor to Foster Hewitt. Hewitt taught the young Bob Cole well. RIP, Bob Cole.