John Shorthouse remembers Bob Cole
Posted April 26, 2024 10:04 am.
The voice of the Vancouver Canucks remembered his colleague and friend Bob Cole in an interview Friday.
After a half-century as a radio and television sportscaster, Cole died Thursday at the age of 90.
Speaking on Sportsnet 650, John Shorthouse said he thinks of the late broadcaster every time he calls a game. The two men overlapped on coverage of NHL games since the 1990s.
Cole was known for “letting the play breathe” for the audience — a quality which Shorthouse says he admired and tried to emulate.
“I’ve been told repeatedly that my best-ever work was performed in the Sedins’ final home game, when Daniel scored in overtime against the Arizona Coyotes,” said Shorthouse. “And this is borrowing from Bob again. My best work involved me shutting up and not saying a word for eight straight minutes.”
Cole was honoured by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 when he won the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster. In 2016, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
With files from Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
