By Paul Patskou
Unlike ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ where it was an easy transition for Foster Hewitt moving from radio to television play-by-play, there was no such traditional football broadcaster to have the honour of calling the first televised Canadian Football League games.
In preparation for the first Grey Cup telecast on November 29, 1952, technical testing as well as the audition of play-by-play men took place at the preceding playoff game between Sarnia Imperials of the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) and the Toronto Argonauts. A sportscaster from Hamilton’s CHML’s radio station, Norm Marshall, was the winner in this test run. Montreal broadcaster Larry O’Brien joined Marshall and together they called the first televised football game in Canada. Marshall and O’Brien were each paid $250 for their work in this game.
For the 1953 Grey Cup game, Norm Marshall became the radio voice and the opinionated Steve Douglas was hired to replace him. Douglas had not seen a Canadian football game in 16 years when he was asked to call the play-by-play of the Canadian Collegiate finals between Toronto Varsity Blues and the University of Western Ontario Mustangs.
The game was played in seven inches of snow without visible yard lines and Douglas’ expert work under trying circumstances in this ‘Snow Bowl’ game impressed the CBC enough that he was offered the chance to call the 1953 Grey Cup game. Douglas then shared play-by-play duties on the next eight Grey Cups from 1954 to 1961. His partners in the booth during these years were ‘Cactus’ Jack Wells, Bob Moir and Don Whitman from Winnipeg and Bill Stephenson and Ted Reynolds of Vancouver.
The Canadian Television Network commenced televising Canadian Football League games in 1961 and the CTV’s JohnnyEsaw had the onerous task of calling the play-by-play in the infamous ‘Fog Bowl’ game of 1962 between Winnipeg and Hamilton from CNE Stadium in Toronto. This was the game that was halted because of the lack of visibility and resumed the next day.
Long time radio and television personality Brad Keene called the 1963 Grey Cup game from Vancouver, which was notable for having colour commentary by Hugh McPherson and Frank Anderson. The colour analyst then became a fixture on the telecasts and a number of former CFL players were used in the booth including Nobby Wirkowski, (the Argo quarterback in the first televised Grey Cup) Gene Filipski, Bill Bewley and Bernie Faloney.
Dan Kelly and Don Wittman from the CBC shared the play-by-play of the 1964 Grey Cup. Johnny Esaw returned as the Grey Cup commentator in 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1970 with CBC’s Fred Sgambati in 1966 and Don Chevrier in 1969 performing the play-by-play duties in those years.
In an unusual arrangement starting with the 1971 Grey Cup game between the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders, the CBC and CTV television networks each called one half of the game. From 1971 to 1973, Johnny Esaw and Don Chevrier shared the duties and in 1974 and 1975, Pat Marsden of CTV shared the commentary with CBC’s Don Wittman. Then for the next 11 Grey Cups ending in 1986, Pat Marsden and Don Chevrier were fixtures as the Grey Cup commentators. Both networks provided colour commentators from 1971 to 1986. Former CFL stars who provided their expert analyses during this time were Dick Shatto, Mike Wadsworth, Russ Jackson, Frank Rigney, Ron Lancaster, Leif Pettersen, and the outspoken former Argonaut head coach Leo Cahill.
From 1987 to 1995, the CBC’s Wittman was the sole commentator to be replaced by Chris Cuthbert in 1996. Wittman’s regular sidekicks in the booth were Lancaster followed by Joe Galat, James Curry, Dan Kepley, and David Archer. Chris Walby moved in as the colour analyst in 1998 and together with veteran play-by-play commentator Mark Lee worked the CBC’s final Grey Cup telecast in 2007, following 55 years of coverage by the CBC of Canada’s ‘National Classic’.