Joe Bowen and son David will call Maple Leafs game vs. Winnipeg Jets
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Around the family home in Unionville years ago, Joe Bowen would overhear youngest son David playing NHL video games, providing his own play-by-play like his Hall of Fame father.
Joe’s much-older boys — Liam, Derek and Sean — also loved hockey and the Maple Leafs, but their careers took them far from behind a microphone.
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Joe Bowen and son David will call Maple Leafs game vs. Winnipeg Jets Back to video
On Monday, Bowens will crowd the radio broadcast booth as up-and-coming David splits duties for the ‘Next Generation’ game on Sportsnet with Leafs hosting the Winnipeg Jets.
David is no novice, calling the OHL junior Sudbury Wolves’ road games and a few home dates for CKLU the past few seasons, a springboard from his sports administration studies at Laurentian University.
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“David has sat up with me and (analyst) Jim Ralph before, but this will be a proud moment,” Joe said. “He’s picked it up mostly by himself, invented his own style. He used to call PlayStation games like in our day playing ball hockey in the street, but he’s taken a much different path than I.”
David did follow Joe as a goalie, including a brief time with the Wolves whose games Joe called before graduating to the AHL in Halifax and, in 1982, to the Leafs.
However, COVID-19 and the OHL’s shutdown essentially ruined David’s junior career. At a crossroads, he answered an email from his school program asking for a volunteer to call Sudbury Nickel Kings’ Under-16 and U-18 games.
“I was at a ‘what’s next?’ phase and maybe that’s when I probably realized it was in the bloodline,” David, 24, said with a laugh in a phone interview on Friday while driving down to Toronto. “I gave it a try, partly because extra income doesn’t hurt a university student and really enjoyed it.
“I wasn’t sure it would continue. Then CKLU reached out in 2021 and said ‘I think it’s time we get another Bowen to do the Wolves.’ They wanted someone to get on the bus for those long trips, which isn’t for everybody, but I recognized the opportunity.”
Fans of a certain vintage know Monday won’t be the first time a father-son team has shared the Leafs broadcast duties.
Pioneer Foster Hewitt would give Bill a turn at the mic during a forerunner of the Next Generation game, a promotion called Young Canada Night in the 1940s and ‘50s, when youth were encouraged to attend a game at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Bill, whose voice echoed his father’s just-the-facts delivery, would often be up in the famous gondola before face-off and call an imaginary game which his father would critique.
As the elder Hewitt owned the flagship CKFH station in Toronto, Bill was first choice to replace him when the CBC asked Foster to go overseas for the world championship or other hockey events.
Bill had a regular gig with Foster on radio, then became Toronto’s primary TV commentator beginning in 1963 until illness forced him to retire in 1981.
Joe did take credit for proposing to MLSE president Keith Pelley that David join him for this Next Generation event (there will be millennials working throughout game operations), but insists he didn’t use his clout with the Wolves to “pull strings” for David.
“I had actually been angry with the Wolves for the way David’s playing time had been handled. Then the chance to do their games came right out of the blue. All I said to him was take the opportunity and run with it.”
David is also handling some home games, some of which are televised in Sudbury.
“You listen and he’s very good,” Joe said. “People have to realize calling a game on radio is much different than TV (Joe did both until a few years ago), you have to be more graphic in your description for people to visualize.”
Earlier this year, when the Garson Arena in Greater Sudbury had a ceremony to be re-named for four-time Leafs Stanley Cup winner George Armstrong. Joe came back to Sudbury to call a Wolves game on radio with David.
“A full-circle moment,” David said. “He’s used to doing play-by-play, but that became a one-sided game and it turned into story time for him about growing up in Sudbury.”
Yes, David has been tempted to boom out Joe’s signature “Holy Mackinaw!” for a home goal or big save.
“I’ve never used it and not sure I’ll pull that out of the bag. I’ve used ‘Bingo!’ a few times, which just came out of me one game and listeners seem to like it. But a lot of what I learned from my Dad is by osmosis. He does a good job being himself, making a game sound like he’s in your home. He can also put on a comedy show with Ralphie to remind you it’s not all about the game.
“I think I’ve got better just by doing more work and because I’ve been a goalie and can anticipate some of what’s coming. And in the OHL, not everyone knows who the player is, so you have to make it more a picture of where they and their team are on the ice.”
Joe will call the first period on Monday afternoon (a 2 p.m. start), then David takes over with Ralph while Joe is on the third headset.
“You can say I’m fairly comfortable being a fan of the Leafs and know their team,” David said with a laugh. “But I’ll do my Jets’ research, too, and let the veterans have most of the airtime.
“There’s no pressure on me, I’m just super-excited.”
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