TORONTO — Oh baby, Bob Cole knows hockey. But as his autobiography “Now I’m Catching On” reveals, the 83-year-old broadcaster has many more strings to his bow.

Cole called Bob Beamon’s world-record long jump at the 1968 Olympics, curled in the Brier, served as quiz master on “Reach for the Top” and worked for the Newfoundland government. He counts family, flying, dogs, Broadway shows and fly-fishing among his loves.

In short, he has also enjoyed — and continues to enjoy — a life well lived.

Cole’s life story, an enjoyable and easy read co-written by Stephen Brunt, explains the origins of his trademark “Oh Baby” call — “He’s been saying that around the house as long as I can remember,” daughter Megan says.

As for work, Cole says he first remembers using it to describe some memorable Mario Lemieux stickhandling in a 1991 playoff game against Minnesota.

“What a goal. What a move. Lemieux. Oh baby,” Cole said excitedly after Lemieux skated through the defence and deked the goalie.

“I don’t know when it’s going to come out. No idea … I don’t plan it. It’s spontaneous,” he writes. “I don’t script the thing. It’s ad-libbed — and that’s what broadcasting’s all about.”

Cole says the experience of writing the book surprised him in how the memories came back.

“It was like yesterday,” he said in an interview.

Cole initially wondered who would be interested in his story “just because I do hockey games.”

His journey to the commentary booth is well worth reading, however. As with most, his life journey was not that straight but filled with signposts.

At the age of 11, he was bed-ridden for almost five months due to a soccer injury. The neighbourhood helped him collect Quaker Oats box tops for a promotion that involved photos of NHL players. With the photos spread out on his bed in line formations, he’d listen to the VONF radio broadcasts of games.

Years later, he still has his own system for writing down the lines for use in the broadcast booth.

Throughout the years, Cole has met a myriad of stars and personalities from Joe Louis and Mickey Mantle to Jesse Owens and Toots Shor, among others. Sometimes by chance, sometimes because Cole just knocked on a door.

In 1956 on the way back from a trip to New York, the aspiring broadcaster decided to drop off an audition tape at Foster Hewitt’s Toronto radio station. To Cole’s surprise, Hewitt made time for him and listened to the tape right there and then.

Hewitt’s advice — to save the big call for the big play, to use different voice levels and to feel the flow of the game — has served Cole well throughout his career.

Beginning on radio, Cole looked to paint a picture with his calls — “You’ve got to take over somebody’s mind, try to get them into the building.”

Cole, however, says calling a game is not about him.

“As long as I can be part of the fan enjoying the game,” says Cole. “Really that’s what it is, that’s what it’s all about.”

Cole continues to do TV broadcasts on a limited basis. On Sunday, he will be at Madison Square Garden for the Jets-Rangers contest. He has already done games in Ottawa and Boston with future assignments in Montreal, Detroit and Pittsburgh this year.

“I wish it were more but they’ve got a lot of guys in place,” he said.

“They’ve got my phone number. I answer every time that it rings” he added dryly.

Maintaining his home in St. John’s makes for some long nights watching West Coast hockey to stay up to date.

His work routine has not changed. For Saturday games, he flies in Friday and returns Sunday. He meets the coaches the morning of the game to go over their lineups, has a nap in the afternoon and then returns to the rink to go to work.

A stickler for preparation, he left no stone unturned in ensuring he had pronunciations right whether calling an NHL game or the Summit Series.

Years on, he still gets butterflies ahead of a game.

Harry Neale was one of his favourite broadcast partners. “We had a pretty good chemistry in the booth,” Cole wrote. But he has adapted to changing time, working with a colour commentator between the benches rather than in the booth.

Cole’s distinctive play-by-play style “comes on you like smoke from a campfire,” Ron MacLean writes eloquently in the book’s foreword.

And his signature calls — like “Desjardins! And the Canadiens win in overtime,” in the 1993 Stanley Cup final — remain in demand.

“I’ve had guys in NHL dressing rooms come up with something like that. “Give us that (Eric) Desjardins goal, C’mon Bob,” Cole recalled.

But he saves them for the real thing.

 

“Now I’m Catching On. My Life On and Off the Air.” Bob Cole with Stephen Brunt. Viking, 146 pages, $32.95.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press