Howie Meeker: Stop it right here

Howie Meeker and John Wells sporting their powder blue Hockey Night in Canada blazers in the '80s.
Source: https://awfulannouncing.com/
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He was a decorated hockey player, four-time Stanley Cup winner, and one of a few players to score five goals in a game.

However, to anyone who grew up watching hockey in the 1980s, Howie Meeker was synonymous with broadcasting and Hockey Night in Canada.

Meeker was a teacher of the game and the first person I ever really heard analyze it on screen. For his efforts in the broadcast booth, he was selected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and named a member of the Order of Canada.

He passed away a few months ago, and it reminded me what a fixture he was in the broadcast booth, utilizing replay and filling the screens with arrows using a telestrator to explain something.

Hockey Night in Canada
It was about 1977 when I started watching hockey and Howie Meeker was already a big part of Hockey Night in Canada. He joined the broadcast team in 1969, just before I was born, and stayed until 1987, when I left home for university.

So Howie Meeker was there my entire childhood and youth.

Like so many other broadcasters, he taught me about the game of hockey.

Back to school
Howie Meeker took pride in teaching the game, and held all kinds of hockey schools. Some were even televised, and that is most likely when I first heard the sage advice, “Keep your stick on the ice”. That was long before Red Green popularized the phrase.

It was only later that I discovered what kind of a life he had, and all he accomplished before he got to the broadcast booth.

The years before and beyond
Howie Meeker joined the NHL in 1946, after serving in the Canadian Armed Forces in the Second World War. He scored 18 goals and 25 assists for 45 points to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year at the end of that 1946-1947 season. He also tied a rookie record scoring five goals in a single game, against Chicago. That season he also played in the first ever NHL all-star game, in 1947 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and helped the Leafs win the 1947 Stanley Cup.

He would go on to win Stanley Cups in 1948, 1949 and 1951, and retired after the 1953-1954 season.

Meeker went on to coach the Maple Leafs in the 1956-1957 season, recording a record of 21 wins, 34 losses and 15 ties in 70 games, finishing in fifth place and out of the playoffs. He was promoted to general manager but was fired before the start of the following season.

He also dabbled in politics, winning a federal byelection in 1951 in the riding of Waterloo South for the Progressive Conservatives, but did no run for re-election in the subsequent 1953 general election.

Then it was into the broadcasting booth first with CBC and Hockey Night in Canada from 1969 to 1987, then on to TSN from 1987 until he retired in 1998. Seeing him wear that black TSN blazer just never looked quite right. The image of him wearing that powder blue Hockey Night in Canada blazer will forever be etched in my mind.

Parting thoughts
I grew up watching Hockey Night in Canada because that was what you did in the 1980s when you only had three channels.

As I learned more about the game it was because of Howie Meeker. He utilized instant replay to “Back that up” and “Stop it right here”, then drew some arrows to illustrate I point I clearly missed or never understood before that.

He also got really excited, was not afraid to criticize players if they deserved it, and he used phrases like “Golly Jee willickers” and “Jumping jehosophat”.

There was no one else like him.

Howie Meeker was a legend, and it saddens me that the next generation of hockey fans won’t get a chance to learn more about the game from his unique point of view.

But I will always remember to keep my stick on the ice and appreciate a good instant replay.

Thanks for everything Howie.