Don Chevrier, RIP

[GA Russell]

Don Chevrier has died. Some of you may not remember his work because he was a true professional without the goony personality so many sportscasters have nowadays.

I had the pleasure of meeting him in 1978 at a Grey Cup party. Nice guy.

Here's his LA Times obituary:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries

December 21, 2007

Don Chevrier

Broadcaster called Blue Jays' 1st game

Don Chevrier, 69, a longtime broadcaster who covered several Olympics and called the Toronto Blue Jays' first game, was found dead Monday at his home in Palm Harbor, Fla., according to his daughter, Melanie. The cause of death was not immediately known.

The Toronto native began his broadcasting career in Canada at 16 announcing high school sports. He eventually worked on TV and radio for several networks, including ABC, NBC, ESPN and the Canadian Broadcasting Co. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., he called the USA-USSR "Miracle on Ice" hockey game for ABC Radio.

By one count, Chevrier had broadcast 21 sports, including team handball at the 1976 Olympics.

Chevrier called the Blue Jays' opener in 1977 and did his best to make the baseball games sound exciting during the team's dismal inaugural season.

During the 1970s and '80s, Chevrier covered some of boxing's biggest bouts, often with Howard Cosell, on ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

In addition to doing the play-by-play on "Monday Night Baseball" for ABC Sports, Chevrier called National Hockey League games for ESPN and other networks, Canadian Football League games for ESPN and United States Football League games for ABC Radio.

He spent more than 20 years on radio covering the Kentucky Derby, 14 years as the television voice of curling in Canada and was the longtime host of ABC Radio's "World of Sports" show.

[GregK]

wow. Sad news. I watched a lot of his Blue Jays broadcasts with Tony Kubek and Fergie Olver in the 80s.

[B. Clugston]

Thanks for posting. I remember Chevrier as a good no-nonsense broadcaster. I remember him calling CFL games for CTV in the 1970s. CTV's broadcaster roster was pretty thin compared to CBC in those days, but you never noticed a drop in quality when Chevrier was calling a game.

[GregK]

During the 2002 Olympics, I preferred to watch the CBC broadcasts of hockey, but at least there wasn't the usual drop-off in quality of the broadcasts when I had to switch to CNBC, because Chevy was handling the NBC portion of Olympic hockey that year.

[B. Clugston]

I dig the Cancon (Canadian content) Mr. Russell brings to this forum.

[GregK]

I dig the Cancon (Canadian content) Mr. Russell brings to this forum.

at least it isn't Bryan Adams

[GA Russell]

I dig the Cancon (Canadian content) Mr. Russell brings to this forum.

Why thank you, BClug! Merry Christmas!