Maple Leafs Broadcasting Legend Joe Bowen tells Leafs stories and CHIRPS Razor

On this very special CTC Live, Mike Commodore, James Cybulski, and Andrew Raycroft are joined by NHL broadcasting legend Joe Bowen who talks everything from his incredible career broadcasting with the Leafs.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Then you do the Holy Mac and all. It's just awesome for me to be a part of it. And then Harry's like, and Raycroft was way out of position there, the both across the net. I'm like, ah, Harry, those again.

SPEAKER_05 0:10

Those guys have to tell the truth. I can lie. I can lie.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

They have to tell the truth because it's right there. And they're gonna I was dying laughing. It went 10 seconds. You wouldn't have made a spectacular tape if you were in possession.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Welcome to the Clear and the Crease podcast, powered by Ozun. Well played, alongside Andrew Raycroft. Razor, Callmie Mike Commodore. I'm James Sabalski, and today we've got the soundtrack for a generation, multiple generations of Leaf fans, Joe Bowen. Uh the soundtrack for a lot of people's lives. Uh thanks for doing this. Nice to see you. Congratulations. Thank you. Uh I fooled him for 44 years.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

Good job. The last real job I had was 5,000 feet underground at Inko in Sudbury, hard rock mining, and I decided that probably wasn't a real good spot to be. But uh, yeah, so we've uh it's been a good run and enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

You know, I I as you kind of put a bow on this past season. Were you surprised at the flowers you got? I mean, you're you're self-aware. I mean, uh you were you're modest, but at the same time, like it was crazy to receive the reaction.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

If I'd have known I was gonna get all of this adulation, I would have retired more often.

SPEAKER_05 1:36

I should have done the Brett Farm thing, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:38

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

No, I'm coming back.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

No, I am uh no, uh I'm done. I know I have uh it's been uh completely overwhelming for not only myself but my family. Um uh my four lads, um, and two of them work directly with the Maple Leafs. Uh uh and my youngest son, David, does play-by-play in Sudbury with the wolves, and fingers crossed that he might get uh a good look uh at uh sliding into the chair beside Jimmy Ralph next year. But um, I just and and once it got out and everything, and just going to a grocery store just on the street, and someone that you have no idea who they are comes up and says, you know what, you were in the car with me. We drove to tournaments and hockey practices, and you were there when you and Ralphie, and we had so much fun listening to you guys. It just was uh just overwhelming. And um, and the Maple Leafs obviously did just an uh outstanding job of uh back in December when they had Holy Mackinac night, and then the uh the last uh home game uh was uh uh very emotional. Very emotional. And uh it was uh something that we all got caught up, and it was nice to have all my friends.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

And you got the tribute from the other Ontario team, too. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 2:57

And they played the goals that I called for them. Come on! What a backhanded spot. That was holy.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

No, it was it was very, very nice of them, but they did get you had to get the little both and that's one last one. That's to be expected.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Did you always know you wanted a broadcast? I know you you were in the minor where you want to get out of there.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

I was gonna play goal. Okay, that was the first plan. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And then uh in high school, um I uh was in grade 10 playing on the senior high school team. Uh when we had grade 13 then, so I'm with guys that are three years older than. Oh, I see you.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

I'm with you.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

Well, you made it, did you?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Not yet. No, you gotta go back next year. I got a 59 of my transfer. So one of the night one.

SPEAKER_04 3:50

Anyway, I I uh we had a bad day. We had we had two guys playing defense that were football players that couldn't turn if they wanted to. And I got and the writer in the try in the Sudbury Star wrote it up and said, uh, Brian Dickey broke his uh broke his glasses and Ralph somebody uh lost a contact lens, but in the end it was rookie goaltender Joe Bowen who had trouble seeing. I kind of thought, maybe if the leaves read this, I'm probably not going to go anywhere, right? And and my dad had passed away when I was 14, and so I'm in this kind of all by myself. And I kind of figured, well, if this guy thinks I'm really crappy, well, then maybe I better start thinking about doing something else. And um I always enjoyed, you know, out in the backyard playing and doing play by play. Everybody did play by play when you're playing ball hockey. Of course. Everybody was Foster Hewitt or Danny Galavan or whatever, and I was no different. And uh uh I went to university and got involved uh with the student radio station at the University of Windsor. And who was your guy? Like who was the voice that who was? Oh, well, it would have been it would have been Foster and Will. I hated Danny Galavan with a passion because he did that team's games. And then I met him, and you couldn't have met a nicer guy. And I I've always said, Danny Galavan is here. The rest of us are swimming around here in a cesspool of whatever, and no one is ever going to reach the pinnacle what what he is. I I he was just and just the nicest man, and uh, and I got to know him when I was down in Halifax doing the Voyager games, and and then uh when I got to the NHL, he was the first person that came up to me and said, Joe, how good. I said, You remember me. I interviewed you for 10 minutes. Oh no, no, I've been following you. I said, just just an amazing experience to have someone What an experience for that. Oh, what a moment. Like to get that sort of the rub like Oh, no, no. I grew about five inches right now. This guy knows me. I'm no good, but he knows me. Hang on. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

How long were you in uh Halifax? And how was that? It must have been some bus trip.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Three years, three years, three years, and three of them with John Brophy. Oh boy, have you got time for a broke story? We got time for whatever. His name's come up a few times. All right. Well, anyway, uh we are uh going to Freddie Beach, Fredericton, and they're the Quebec Nordiques farm team. And they uh got injuries up at Quebec. Their roster in Fredericton is right down to the fair minimum. Danny Grant is the team president. He's 50 some odd years of age. They don't have enough players. He signs a one-day contract, dresses, sits on the end of the bench so that they can play the game. Yeah. So here's two quick points. We'll slide into Freddie Beach, back to back home. It's back and down and back. And with uh about three, four minutes left in the third period, we trail six two. And broth goes down the beat down the bench, taps Dwight, Schofield, aka Sconan the Barbarian. Oh boy. And Scoey misinterpreted the tap. He thought he wanted him to go out and score four goals, tie the game. Oh, okay. That didn't happen. And we lose, we get on the bus, and it's snowing like we're getting 20 miles outside. And brofe is sitting in the front with a broken stick, and it's like a pendulum. Dead ass silence on the bus. They get 20 miles outside.

unknown 7:27

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_05 7:28

Pull it over. Scuff out! Get up here! Bring your coat!

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Bring your coat. Let's go! We left him on the side of the road. Oh, we left him outside.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Oh. Left him! We went off to Halifax. He's about 20 miles this way with his thumb, or about 150 miles that way with his thumb.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

He was gonna have to do like push-ups or something. No, no. He's left up.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

No, entered. Now, having said that, um, can you imagine having that happen now? Or just be in jail. But Scoey never misinterpreted the tap again. And he played about 500 games in the National Rocky League and made it. It was a coaching moment.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Yeah, for sure. A teaching moment, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Yeah. A little tough love.

SPEAKER_05 8:13

No, no, no. They wanted to. They wanted to, but by then it was uh that was not, yeah, that wasn't there. The horse is out of the bargain. No, the horse is out of the bargain. Well, you can only do it once.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Oh no, uh Brofe was uh I always said if World War III happened, I'm climbing in the foxhole with Brofe. Yeah. Because we'd be the last two standing and I wouldn't have to do a damn thing. That man was and I but he was he was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yeah just the nicest guy. Still he is out of the rank with him, but in the rank completely uniform. Either in uniform, and if you listen to him and Don Perry tell stories about one another, it was hysterical. Yeah, but he would never tell stories about himself. He hate and when they wanted to do slap shot, they talked to him. Yeah. And bro, no, I don't know. No interest. Not getting no interest, none whatsoever.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

There were a few people that kind of had that uh uh Mark Crawford in his prime years as a coach, like there was summer crow, winter crow, like exactly that two personalities were offseason. Hey, C-Ball, great to see you. You know, mid-October, like don't even know.

SPEAKER_04 9:21

Yeah, we just had him in here, he was nice. God forbid that you're on the ice and you do something because there was never any discussion with Wendell. No, no. He never you didn't get do you want to go. You got do you and you were in it. There was no discussion, there was never anything. But yeah, but most of those guys are they are totally different in uniform and outside uniform. And both was uh exactly. Same way.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Remember your first game as a leaf broadcaster?

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Yes, yeah, vividly. Uh October 6, 1982, uh Chicago Stadium. Um and and ironically, a young uh goaltending hopeful uh in the Chicago Blackhawk chain uh was a healthy uh scratch that day and was up in the organ loft, and his name was Jim Ralph. He was at the game. He was at the game. Yeah, I didn't know that. I find that Ralphie told me that a couple of years ago. I said, That's crazy. I looked for you. I couldn't see it. I didn't know Ralphie then at all. But uh yeah, no, it was um yeah, it was uh a 3-3 tie. We we fell behind 3-0. Walt Pedubny scored a couple of goals and uh Boreas Alming tied the game, and it was a 3-3 tie.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Yeah, awesome. Did you plan the stadium? I did not. No, I missed it. No, and you did. Yeah, I missed it too. Yeah, yeah, I missed all the big ones. Yeah, I've heard a lot about it.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

I never even went. It was loud. It was just ridiculous. I mean, we were in a in a gondola. The main press box was behind one of the the actual goals. It took up the seating area, just above the glass. So if there was a writer up there that you didn't like, fired it off his typewriter just to see if he was. There's no netting. But we were up in this gondola. We had to go 97 stairs to get to it because there was no escalators, no elevators, and you got there, and it was held by like rods, like metal rods. And when they got that organ going and they got the national anthem book, that thing was like a tuning fork. You're sitting there looking at the bolts just make sure nothing's falling off because this thing is going down sooner or later.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

I wouldn't like that at all. Oh, it was a great spot, though. Why did it work so well with Ralphie? Because Jim is is my god, his sense of humor is very dry, very like dead like dead pen, but but he's he's he's he's the Bob Euchre of hockey.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

Yes, he really is it's it's it's very self-effacing. Um it's always woe is me, and I never got the chance and all of this stuff, you know. But he does it so so well. But you've got to be a good one. But I've been really blessed. Like I think that also kind of helped work for the broadcast. And he he understands what I'm trying to do, so he doesn't jump kind of on to when we could do a goal call or whatever. I'm gonna get into something stupid like singing happy days are here again. But Ralphie lets it go. Yeah. And then he comes in and he does his stuff. But he he has such a great sense of humor. And it's always I've always thought that it was like two guys sitting at the bar at the Unionville Arms having a couple of pints. One guy's job is to keep the score, the other guy's tell you what the hell just happened. And that's that's what he does. And he's so good at it. But I've had Harry Neal and Bill Waters and uh Gord Stelek and uh Greg Millen, who we we lost. Uh a lot of great people that have sat in that chair. John Garrett uh did a couple of games with me when I was doing TV as well. So Cheech was so much fun, too. Oh God, yeah. Oh no. And and they all had the same thing. You had a wonderful knowledge of the sport, um, uh a great ability to tell exactly what is transpiring in a short amount of time, and a great sense of humor to make it fun and to have fun. That's not every game is cerebrant, there's a lot of Picasso's.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

It certainly is. Some people hate a Picasso and some hate a barb. You had a lot of those calls with me involved. I know that. No, I didn't, no, I didn't. Not a chance. I was lucky, I you and Harry were together. You're doing at least the Lili's TV when I was there. What's your favorite call of all time? I have my favorite Joe Bowen call. It's a St. Louis, dive across the net save, glove save. I've heard it on YouTube, but you and Harry doing it. It's the funniest thing because I heard it the other day. Uh someone played it, or or for whatever reason, I think we're talking about you retiring. And it was the funniest thing. You do the holy macina, it's just awesome for me to be a part of it. And then Harry's like, and Ray Croft was way out of position there. I'm like, Harry comes again.

SPEAKER_05 14:01

Those guys have to tell the truth. I can lie. I can lie.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

They have to tell the truth because it's right there and they're gonna.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

I was dying laughing.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

It went 10 seconds to the city.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

You wouldn't have made a spectacular state, but you were in position, right? And it just been a normal stop. So that's my favorite call. What's yours?

SPEAKER_04 14:18

I don't know. I've got a bunch of them, I guess. Um I think the Nikki Borishewski goal in '93, really, because we'd gone through 10 years of my tenure with Harold, and there was no chance. He wasn't going to spend the money. We weren't going to acquire players, we weren't going to have as good a coaching uh group or or support staff to make it work. He was more interested in having his picture in the paper and and making money, which he did quite well. But when when the new management and ownership arrived and Cliff Fletcher arrives, you can see that, you know what, okay, we're trying. And and from that point on, and you can you can be upset with the fact that they haven't won since 67, and you can be upset about them not getting past the first round, and you can all of that. But it hasn't been for the lack of trying. And it hasn't hasn't happened, and that and that's that's sports. Yeah. You know, the Boston Red Sox went 86 years, the Cubs went 104. So uh, you know, but but that goal seemed to be, okay, here's the springboard. Here's the springboard. And then of course they went 21 games and 42 nights. And except for small high stage. Most most of us. So okay, so some of us have forgotten.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

I haven't forgotten. You've got the so the Borshewski goal for you personally, what's the one that what are the ones that fans come to talk to you most about? Obviously, uh the Borshewsky has to be up there. What are the other ones that come to mind?

SPEAKER_04 15:57

Uh we found out that Felix Pot fan could fight. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. Of course, I remember that. Uh Ty Domey sitting in the penalty box when he had a visitor. Oh, yeah, that's right. The the Bless You Boys uh effort in in Ottawa when we were so shorthanded. And Alex McGilney is blocking shots.

SPEAKER_06 16:19

Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_04 16:21

Alex McGillney? I know we were trying to score an ep better, but Elmo was blocking shots. I thought, okay, that they all bought in, and that was that was a very special time, too.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

The Elmo was uh, you know what's funny, the one that for me um that stands out in it in a lot of ways, the law, all the wrong reasons for a Leafs fans. My dad came to visit, this was 2013 with my nephew, who was about eight years old at the time. It was game seven, Toronto and Boston. The the horrible ending. As I explained to them as they were coming in, the train, we no, they had booked this trip weeks or months earlier. The train is coming in in the middle of game seven. The train gets delayed, it's the third period, and they're getting out, and I'm like, look, go two blocks up the road. Like, this is pre-Jurassic Park and Maple East Square and all the thousands of people, so it's the wild west. There's probably 20,000 people outside. I pull up, they hop in the car, and now we're speeding back to get to our place, neck of the woods. We're living in college in Dufferin area in the west end of downtown, and just trying, you know, speeding down the gardener, trying to get away. And it's 4-1. And then it's 4-2. But he's gonna bring it up. No, no, but I'm not sure. But you don't like but I say this the bigger- You don't think I have feelings anymore. My whole point with this is though, when I say this, like the bigger the moment, the better you got. You were a bright lights commentator. Like the the more intense, you just leveled up. You're like Super Mario getting the mushroom, man.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

Like you were like, You're like a player, except you're not playing. I mean, you you have that adrenaline and the antennas and everything else that goes. And you know, the the one thing about that game, and I'll never forget this, and yeah, they they score late. And we go to the intermission between the third period and the overtime. And the fans in Boston did not sit down. And all they played was sing-along stuff, shipping off to Boston. Sweet carrot. And Ralphie and I are this close to one another, I couldn't hear him. And I'm going, Oh, are we in a lot of trouble here? Because the atmosphere and the intensity, and obviously, they were gonna get a big time shot in the arm coming out, and of course, it ends up uh they ended up scoring. But yeah, that's that was a great thing. They're painful for all the wrong reasons.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

And we're sitting in the car, you know, but you know, I guess part of it from a family standpoint, there's my dad riding shotgun with me, my nephew in the back, and they're oh, it's 4-2 now, and it's like, oh my gosh, like, you know, and you know, the other thing.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

I mean, some broadcasts say, Oh, and the other team scored. And what? I hate that. Somebody scores can't. It's you it's exciting to do the game, and you hope that your team comes out on the right side of it, but I think you're you're you you owe it to the people who are listening that you're engaged in both sides. Like Rafi says to me, he says, Sometimes I don't know which team scored with the way you did it. I said, I love it. Yeah, but that's the that's how I do it. I've I've told my son David, who's trying to do this job too, and I said, you you have to. Yeah, I mean, you know, you can't uh no, yeah, have have enjoy enjoy the sport, enjoy the game, and then you hope that at the end of the night the the team that uh might be paying your salary wins and you move on. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

My last one of 44 years. Uh I'm favorites, not the right what I'm looking for, because I'm sure there's no not one one answer, but who would be some some leafs that stand out from over the years for you?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Oh, I was quick, man. There is only one, my bad.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

That cost us how many years of getting into the playoffs because we gave away that other guy.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

I mean, really.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

No, you know what? It's it's uh I I don't know. I I honestly I think I've I've called probably 700 guys that pulled the leaf uniform on. Yeah. And I I I I I maybe two or three that I would say I had no time for.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

I will never mention who they are.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

No, I'm yeah, I'm not asking for that.

SPEAKER_04 20:42

I don't want to do that. But I mean, everybody, I mean, you can go up and down the lineup. And obviously the the big names that you you know, they're they're favorites of yours because they were great on the ice. Yeah. But there's a lot of the guys that were plumbers and pluggers that just, you know, were just terrific guys. And and uh and you got to know them as people.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

And instead of just the uniform and the uniform number, um, and just so many of them that uh and you know, and a lot of them were Ontario kids. Yeah, and like uh Stephen Lorenz and and uh uh Scottie Lawton uh this year came right made a point, making sure they came and saw me early. Can't tell you how much we enjoyed you and the car when we you're one of the reasons why I fell in love with the sport and why I wanted to push on and become and it break breaks your heart, but it just makes you feel you know so good about it. And uh and they're and they're great people. They're just uh, you know, sometimes we we get lost in the fact that there's a crest on the front and a number on the back, and uh, you know, and and you get too much involved in being critical as opposed to realizing what great human beings they are and there's uh and how much work they do away from the rink and everything else, it uh a lot of times goes unnoticed. And you know. My my son, David or uh Sean, had leukemia when he was a year old. He's thirty-five now, and in fact we were just celebrating yesterday's engaged to be married. Congratulations. And and he was in sync in in uh Sick Kids. He was a year old. And Mike Fellino and Dougie Gilmore and and uh Wendell Clark and Felix Potman, Jamie McCowan. But it all came up. And I mean it was great, and and I really appreciated it. And I said to them, you know, guys, I mean, as often as you do this, and they do a lot of it, no fanfare, no cameras, no nothing, just show up. I said, most of the kids here have no idea who you are. But it's the parents that need the shot in the arm. They're going through absolute hell. And they know who you are, and they appreciate the little effort that's gone in. And like they came up and visited Sean, and then they stayed for two hours and just wandered around the hospital. Went in and shook hands and signed autographs. And and again, it's the parents who really need that kind of a jolt, and that's what athletes can do. And that means a lot.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

Especially we've got a sick kids hospital here. It's the best in the world.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

I what I love about you as a broadcaster is you make it fun. You know, and I and I think it has to be fun, the energy, and I think your I love your point about like even when the other team scores, like it's still a goal in hockey.

SPEAKER_06 23:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

So some of them are really neat too. Yeah. Yeah. You'd like to hit them over the head with a shovel.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Some of those other guys are pretty good too.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yes, exactly. Michael, I wish our team could score that one.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Um where did Holy Mark and uh where did you start to incorporate it or when did you get a few more? Yeah, I've been asked this, and it's uh I'm actually doing a book. Uh Scotty Morrison and I are writing a book. Okay. Awesome. Uh the idea, too, is we're gonna have when we do the Nikki Borishevsky thing or whatever, we'll put a QR code in the book and you can listen and hear, and then I can back some and go over. But my dad uh was a general surgeon in Sudbury, um delivered 3,000 Sudburyans, two mistakes. Paul Remstead, who was a writer for the Torados son, who was completely nuts, and his running mate, a guy named Edward Shack, who was certifiably nice.

SPEAKER_05 24:18

Okay, but those were the only two mistakes.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

But I would sit and he was a goalie, and I was a goalie, and so we're I'm sitting on his lap, and Johnny Bauer was our idol and still is, and Johnny would make a great save, and my dad would blurt out holy mackall, what a great save Johnny made. And I never got to ask him where he got it because he passed away when I was 14. I didn't use it in junior or the American Hockey League. About six or seven years into the NHL, we're in the stadium in Chicago, and Felix made a great save, probably one of those badly out of position, but came across, and I blurted it out. And I probably wouldn't use it again. I looked over in Bill Waters, who was doing color with me, he'd fallen down off this chair, he was laughing so hard. So I said, well, if I got that reaction out of him, let me use it again.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

That's awesome. What's what's the plan? Last one for me. What's the plan now? 44 years?

SPEAKER_04 25:09

I want to be involved with you guys. Okay. Um, I'm I'm hoping that I can do some stuff with the Leafs, sort of in an ambassadorship, but I want to be involved with the alumni. I want to take the microphone out when you clowns are trying to play hockey and pump you up and take the other guys apart or whatever. Just have some fun with that and enjoy that. And I, as I said, I'm I'm gonna go to most of the games. The difference will be I'll be about three Crown Royal and diet in before they drop the first buck. And if the game's horseshit, I'm going home too early. I get to go home early.

SPEAKER_05 25:42

Yeah, it's just perfect.

SPEAKER_04 25:43

It's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

So it's the best of both worlds. Awesome. Remind me what was on the Bowen Burger again.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

Oh God, no, I they had everything on there. We did about 18 different ones, and all I want is mustard. I love that commercial, though. I know.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

So did my bank manager. Uh thank you. It's it's so great to catch up with you again. Great to see you guys. And everything you got, man, you deserved every moment of those flowers that you got. I appreciate it. What innovation and all that. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

A lot of fun and uh good run and a good uh good ride. And uh, we didn't quite get to the uh top of the mountain, but we got up a good portion of it anyway, and enjoyed every bit of it. Yep. Hell of a journey in the soundtrack as well. Absolutely. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Absolutely one of the greatest play-by-play announcers you will ever hear, the soundtrack of hockey. Joe Bowen joining us here on the Clearing the Crease podcast, powered by Ozun. Well played.

SPEAKER_05 26:42

Gilmar to Bobby Rose! Just guard! Nikolai Boriski! It's going for Toronto! The least one! The least one! They're stuff on the far side for both sides.