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Ted Darling 1969 - Hockey Night in Canada


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What a cool way to start a Sunday.  I “found” hockey in the fall of 1970.  It was the Sabres’ first season.  The young, up and coming, Bruins in the video were by then “Big, Bad”.  I pledged my allegiance to the Sabres, but adopted the Bruins as a second team.   Boston had an AM radio station  powerful enough for me to listen in Buffalo on my oh, so, modern 4 inch by 2 inch transistor radio.  I was ten, and learned about radio waves, transmission power, and atmospheric bounces!  We Love You Bruins Boston’s Gashouse Gang from Eddie Shore to Bobby Orr was on my bookshelf, next to a tape recorder, a souvenir rabbit pelt, and plastic dinosaur models from the Buffalo Museum of Science.  Robert Gordon Orr of Parry Sound, Ontario.  To read, I had to buy the book.  To listen, I had to dial the tuner at time certain.  To see, I had to rotate the television aerial, also at time certain.  Hockey trading cards accumulated.  Oh, did they accumulate.

When I watch a video like this, I remember a time, a vibe, and a way of life as much as I remember a game.  Decades later, I would spend some time with Orr, Bucyk, Hodge and Esposito in various circumstances.  I believe they sensed that while I was being introduced that day, my relationship with them went back decades.

Of course, there’s been so much progress since then and our lives are ... better and ...  happier.

Edited by Neo
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8 hours ago, Taro T said:

Yep.  The '70-'71 season isvwhen they switched from road whites to home whites.

That famous photo of Bobby Orr flying after scoring the SC winner was taken in the Gaaaaahden.

I knew that Orr scored that goal in Boston. I thought it was just a one-off for that series or something.  So when we get all nostalgic for home whites, there's actually another generation older who thought home whites were newfangled?  Interesting.

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I started in 1970 at age six with my radio alarm clock under my pillow so my parents wouldnt catch me. PS met Bobby’s father when I was a kid up in Parry Sound... big wide shouldered man with meathooks for hands.  My folks owned a cabin just north of there where we kids spent our summers fishing, camping and exploring the islands of the Georgian Bay.,,

Now there is a Hockey Hall of fame dedicated to Bobby at the tip of the harbor... really cool... suggest if you get a chance visit it and take a 30,000 island day cruise..

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Great memories - to me, Ted Darling did the best hockey play-by-play ever. For years,  I had trouble listening to a hockey game with someone other than Ted (or RJ) doing the announcing.  I still prefer to watch games on CBC rather than NBC because the play-by-play guys are just so much better. (Not to mention the between period analyses). In fact, even now when watching games, if a puck leaves the ice surface, I actually do my impression of Ted out loud: "The puck goes up and over the glass and into the crowd. Caught by a fan from Depew..."  God bless Ted - he was awesome.  

Geez, I don't know what we're going to do when RJ is no longer "Voice of the Sabres". God bless him, too!

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