Darren Dutchyshen: Becoming one of the best

Sportscaster Darren Dutchyshen in his

days in Edmonton in the late '80s.

Source: https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal

(May be subject to copyright)

When I went off to Edmonton in the Fall of 1987 to start school at the University of Alberta, one of the things I stopped doing was watching the nightly news. It had been a part of what I did every night back on the farm, but not in Edmonton where there were so many more interesting things – and people – to occupy my time.

On top of that, local television was all new to me. I didn’t even know what channels were the three staples of the peasant vision dial – CTV, CBC, and the precursor to Global. Interestingly, because two of the three were national networks and the third was affiliated loosely with Channel 7 back home, I did recognize some of the TV personalities.

One who I encountered for the first time in Edmonton, commenting on a hockey game, was a personality so big it almost burst through the screen and out the sides of the TV. He was loud, brash, and had a unique way of describing sports.

He was on a show called “Sports Night” on a station called ITV, which would eventually become part of Global.

He would parlay that role into a gig that lasted almost 30 years on TSN.

A few days ago I heard the sad, and to me, shocking news that Darren Dutchyshen had died of prostate cancer. He was 57 years old.

Simply known as “Dutch”, he was a unique and large part of the tapestry of sports in Canada.

ITV in Edmonton
Darren Dutchyshen, Wikipedia reveals, was born on Dec. 19, 1966 in Regina Saskatchewan, and grew up in the town of Porcupine Plain. After high school, he went on to the Western Academy Broadcasting College in Saskatoon.

He began his sportscasting career at STV Saskatoon, which is now Global TV. After a year he moved to IMTV in Dauphin, Manitoba, then spent seven years hosting “Sports Night” on ITV in Edmonton, which is also now a Global station. At the same time he also hosted a daily radio sportscast on 630 CHED, which was co-owned by ITV.

This was where I picked up the trail of Darren Dutchyshen. It was my third year of university, so the Fall of 1989. By then, I had moved to a new floor in res which had its own culture. One of the things they did was watch Darren Dutchyshen. What I will always remember was how great he was at setting up the highlights of a game with background and lead-up exposition.

He also had his own unique way of describing things. The example I always use comes from hockey, where he was describing a goalie who could not control what happened after he made a save.

“He gives up a moldy rebound,” Dutchyshen said.

That has always stuck with me, partly because he took that to TSN when he left Edmonton in 1995 to take a job with the national broadcaster.

The years after
Dutchyshen would host TSN’s coverage of the Canadian Football League, and do weekend editions of “Sportsdesk”. He hosted “Olympic Prime Time” for both the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He would also, with Russ Anber, co-host “In This Corner”, a boxing program.

On Sept. 9, 2021 he announced he had prostate cancer.

He died on May 15, 2024. He was 57 years old.

Parting thoughts
It is always hard to really wrap my head around someone dying so young, especially someone who is pretty close to the same age I am.

Yet, in that time, Darren Dutchyshen made a name for himself as a broadcaster and analyst.

To be honest, I really did not like him at first on ITV. I thought he tried too hard, was kind of cocky, and felt he was unable to back up the claims he made.

Yet, when I was 19, Dutchyshen was 23. Looking back, it is obvious he was finding his style and, along the way, his humility and respect.

He found those in spades, because over time, he grew to be one of my favourite sportscasters.

Dutchyshen had grown and matured into the role.

He truly became one of the best.