The sporting fraternity is much poorer today with the death of Don Wittman, who lost his battle with cancer on Saturday.
Wittman, who was 71, was one of sports broadcasting’s all-time greats. But he was a whole lot more than that.
I first met him in the mid-1970s while I was at the Winnipeg Tribune. Back then, sports journalists looked forward to something called the WFC Skywriters’ Tour, an event that preceded each CFL season. (To the regret of many of us, the tour, which also included stops at various breweries, was discontinued.)
Anyway, we all would board a plane and fly into the five Western Football Conference teams’ training camps. In a period of three days, we would hit all five camps.
There were a lot of names on those tours – (Breathless) Bill Good Sr., Larry Tucker, Ken (Noodles) Newans, Barry Burns, Terry Jones and on and on – and Wittman was the biggest name of the bunch.
He had been with CBC since 1961 and had covered, among other things, 16 Summer and Winter Olympic Games, numerous Grey Cups, men’s and women’s curling championships, golf tournaments and NHL games. He was at the tragedy that was the Munich Olympics and he was in Seoul for Ben Johnson’s victory and the ensuing scandal. In fact, as good as he was at calling football, he was even better at track and field.
But you wouldn’t have known it had you been around him. On those football tours, he was just one of the guys. And he had all the time in the world for the young and the inexperienced.
Over the next 30 years, whenever I would bump into him, he would always have time to chat.
As the longtime voice of curling on CBC-TV, Wittman has made an annual stop in Kamloops at the Strauss Canada Cup of Curling. The 2008 edition won’t be the same without him. And I just know that when I’m in Interior Savings Centre that week, I will continually look to my right and expect to see the man affectionately known as Witt.
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Condolences also to the family of Royden Taylor, who died Friday while helping the Caronport Fire Department at a fire on an area farm. Taylor, who was 60, was the governor of the Moose Jaw Warriors about 20 years ago when turmoil reigned with that franchise. As a member of the media – I was in Regina then – I always enjoyed dealing with Royden, who never dodged a question and always returned phone calls. . . . He continued to be active in hockey in the Caronport and Moose Jaw areas, and also was the mayor and fire chief in Caronport at the time of his death. . . .
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SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:
In Moose Jaw, LW Frazer McLaren’s two goals led the Warriors to a 5-3 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . The Warriors (26-13-4-4) have won five in a row and remain tied for third with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice in the Eastern Conference. . . . The Raiders are 16-28-3-2 and 14 points out of a playoff spot. . . . McLaren, acquired from the Portland Winter Hawks earlier this season, has 16 goals, three shy of his career high from last season. . . . C Jason Bast had a fine night with a goal, his 22nd, and three assists for Moose Jaw, while RW Jordan Knackstedt had an empty-netter, his 24th goal this season, and two assists. . . . LW Dustin Cameron scored all of the Raiders’ goals, giving him 10 this season. . . . Moose Jaw was 3-for-6 on the PP; the Raiders were 1-for-3. . . .
In Saskatoon, C Chris Durand set up two goals to help the Blades to a 3-2 victory over the Red Deer Rebels. . . . The victory lifted the Blades (17-28-2-1) into a tie with Prince Albert for 10th in the Eastern Conference, six points ahead of the Rebels (13-31-4-1), who have lost three straight. . . . The Blades took a 2-1 lead into the second period and stretched it to 3-1 on RW Kirk Belyk’s third goal of the season at 18:37 of the third period. . . . Red Deer C Landon Ferraro got his eighth goal at 19:57 of the third. . . . C Brandon Sutter had two assists for the Rebels. . . . There was an interesting scrap just 1:45 into the game when Saskatoon D Mitch Berg danced with Red Deer RW Brett Miller. They used to be teammates with the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers. . . . Saskatoon was without D Jyri Niemi (groin) but he plans on playing in Wednesday’s Top Prospects game in Edmonton. . . .
In Swift Current, the Vancouver Giants scored two power-play goals and beat the Broncos, 2-1. . . . Vancouver (32-10-1-5) had lost 6-1 in Moose Jaw on Friday. . . . The Broncos (23-20-0-5) are eighth in the Eastern Conference. . . . C Casey Pierro-Zabotel, with his 10th goal, at 10:03 of the first period and C Evander Kane, with his 18th, just 29 seconds into the second scored for the Broncos. . . . LW Geordie Wudrick got his 11th for the Broncos at 4:55 of the third. . . . The game featured 111 minutes in penalties, 58 to the Broncos. . . . Vancouver RW Garet Hunt returned from a six-game suspension and got into a fight with D Bretton Stamler at 6:20 of the first period. . . . Vancouver LW Craig Cunningham was ejected with a checking-from-behind major in the second period. . . . After dishing out 91 penalty minutes in the second period, referee Cory McLean called only one minor in the third. . . .
In Calgary, G Linden Rowat stopped 25 shots to lead the Regina Pats to a 2-1 victory over the Hitmen. . . . Calgary held a 10-2 edge in shots in the third period but couldn’t score. . . . The Pats (30-15-3-1) are 6-0-2-0 in their last eight games and have moved to within three points of the Hitmen, who lead the Eastern Conference. . . . Calgary (32-13-1-2) had its eight-game winning streak halted. . . . C Brandon Kozun opened the scoring for Calgary just 1:02 into the first period but the home side wouldn’t score again. . . . RW J.D. Watt got his eighth at 1:27 of the second period and sophomore C Jordan Eberle, with his 29th, scored the eventual winner at 14:17 of the middle period. . . . G Martin Jones stopped 13 shots for Calgary. . . .
In Lethbridge, G Mike Maniago stopped 25 shots for the Hurricanes as they bounced the Tri-City Americans, 2-0. . . . Maniago, a second cousin to former NHL G Cesare Maniago, has four shutouts this season and six in his career. He has posted two straight shutouts. . . . The Hurricanes (28-14-1-3) are 4-0-0-2 in their last six games. . . . The Americans (32-11-1-2) were 4-0-0-2 over their previous six outings. The Ams are third in the Western Conference, a point behind the Spokane Chiefs and three behind Vancouver. . . . C Mitch Fadden, with his 22nd, and C Colton Sceviour, with his 19th, scored for Lethbridge. Fadden and Sceviour had an assist each, too. . . . Lethbridge C Zach Boychuk got the heave-ho with a checking-from-behind major before the first period was nine minutes old. . . . F Taylor Procyshen was back in Tri-City’s lineup after being out with a concussion since late November. . . . Tri-City has been blanked twice this season. . . . Lethbridge D Jesse Craige was on crutches at game’s end with an apparent knee injury. . . . Tri-City D Jarett Toll didn’t play again after suffering an apparent injury in the first period. . . .
In Medicine Hat, the Kootenay Ice scored the game’s last two goals and beat the Tigers, 3-2. . . . The Ice (28-15-3-1) is 3-0-0-1 in its last four games and is tied with Lethbridge and Moose Jaw for third in the Eastern Conference. . . . The Tigers (25-17-4-1) are seventh in the Eastern Conference. . . . C Steve Da Silva had three assists for the Ice. . . . Ice RW Michael Stickland tied the score 2-2 at 16:35 of the second period and RW Andrew Bailey won it with his 21st goal of the season at 8:36 of the third period. . . . Bailey received credit for a goal that actually was scored into his own goal by Medicine Hat C Sean Ringrose. He mishandled the puck in the crease area and had it skitter into his own goal. . . . The Tigers were 2-for-4 on the PP; the Ice was 1-for-1. . . .
In Everett, the Silvertips received the game’s first eight power plays and scored on four of them en route to a 4-2 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . This was an emotional game after Wednesday’s game in Spokane that Everett won, 2-1. The end of that game, which has been much discussed, ended with Everett F Kyle Beach on the ice concussed, the victim of a punch by Spokane C Chris Bruton. Spokane head coach Bill Peters accused Beach of acting and was fined $500 for his comments. Bruton drew a two-game suspension and served it out last night. . . . The referee was Pat Smith and he handed out 32 penalties. . . . Everett RW Dan Gendur scored the game’s first goal, on the PP, at 10:05 of the first period. . . . Everett LW Clayton Bauer then struck for three PP goals, upping his season total to 20. Gendur had assists on two of them. It was Bauer’s first WHL three-goal game. . . . The Silvertips were 4-for-10 on the PP; the Chiefs wound up 0-for-5. . . . Everett (27-20-0-2) has won four straight and is a comfortable fifth in the Western Conference. . . . The Chiefs (32-10-1-3) are two points behind the Western Conference-leading Vancouver Giants. . . .
In Kelowna, the line of Colin Long between Jamie Benn and Brady Leavold combined for 15 points as the Rockets doubled the Prince George Cougars, 6-3. . . . Leavold had four goals and an assist, Benn scored twice and set up the other four, and Long had four assists. . . . The Rockets (29-14-2-4) have won two in a row after having a seven-game winning streak halted in Kamloops on Tuesday. . . . The Cougars are 14-31-1-1 and 17 points out of a playoff spot. . . . Benn has 27 goals now, while Leavold, who had never scored three goals in a WHL game, has 20, six more than he scored last season in Swift Current. . . . Long took over the WHL scoring lead and now has 74 points. He has a five-point lead over Chilliwack LW Mark Santorelli, who went pointless in a 3-2 shootout victory over the visiting Kamloops Blazers. . . . LW Brad Riege had a goal and an assist for the Cougars, while D Patrik Magnusson had two helpers. . . . The Rockets are 6-1 against the Cougars this season and have outscored them 42-12 in the seven games. . . .
In Portland, RW Bud Holloway and RW Greg Scott each had three points to lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 7-2 victory over the Winter Hawks. . . . Scott scored twice, giving him 18, and set up another, while Holloway had a goal, his 21st, and two assists. . . . The Thunderbirds (20-16-5-2) had lost three in row. . . . The Winter Hawks are 9-36-1-1. . . . Seattle held a 47-18 edge in shots on goal. . . . F Phil Gervais scored both Portland goals, with F Luke Walker, the son of former WHL sniper Gord Walker, drawing assists on both scores. . . . Attendance was 7,701. . . .
In Chilliwack, LW Mark Santorelli and D Nick Holden scored in the circus to give the Bruins a 3-2 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The Bruins (22-20-3-1) are sixth in the Western Conference, one point ahead of Kamloops (22-23-1-2) and Seattle. . . . The Bruins had a 2-0 lead before the Blazers got a 5-on-3 goal from RW Brady Calla at 16:00 of the second period. . . . RW Kenton Dulle tied it for Kamloops just 1:46 later. . . . RW Randy McNaught, with his first goal since joining the Bruins from the BCHL’s Nanaimo Clippers, and C Brayden Metz, with his third goal in two nights, scored for the Bruins. . . . Chilliwack LW Cody Smuk, who has played in every game the Bruins have played since their inception, left with an apparent shoulder injury. . . . The teams meet in a home-and-home series next weekend. It opens in Chilliwack on Friday and concludes Saturday in Kamloops.
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