15 Facts About Foster Hewitt

Foster Hewitt was the son of W A Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt.

Foster Hewitt was a champion boxer in his student years, winning the intercollegiate title at 112 pounds.

Foster Hewitt became a reporter at the paper, and was ready to go on the air when CFCA was launched.

Foster Hewitt's book mentioned his first broadcast as being of a game between Parkdale and Kitchener, and the Argonaut Club was based in Parkdale, a neighbourhood of Toronto.

Foster Hewitt mentioned that game as going into overtime which the Argonaut-Kitchener game did.

Foster Hewitt was part of the opening night ceremonies for Maple Leaf Gardens on November 12,1931, and the specially designed broadcast "gondola" where Foster Hewitt would broadcast from was brought into the plans with his input, and the blessings of then Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe.

For forty years, Foster Hewitt was Canada's premier hockey play-by-play broadcaster for the General Motors, then later Imperial Oil Limited, Hockey Broadcast on Saturday nights.

Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts from Toronto were simulcast on television from 1952 until 1963, with Foster Hewitt handling the play-by-play up until 1958, at which point he handed the duties over to his son, Bill Foster Hewitt.

The elder Foster Hewitt provided colour commentary of the Saturday night games after that, while continuing radio play-by-play of weeknight games.

Foster Hewitt made a bid at purchasing CHIN in 1970.

Foster Hewitt had retired from television in 1963, but continued to broadcast Leafs games on radio until 1968.

Foster Hewitt came out of retirement to broadcast the 1972 Summit Series.

Foster Hewitt was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1965.

Foster Hewitt was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Foster Hewitt died of throat cancer on April 21,1985, at the age of 82, at Providence Villa Nursing Home in Scarborough, Ontario.