Al Strachan

Last updated
Al Strachan
Occupation(s)journalist, author
Employer(s) Montreal Gazette
The Globe and Mail
Toronto Sun
Awards Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award

Alan Strachan is a Canadian sports author and journalist. A former sports columnist for The Globe and Mail , Montreal Gazette , and Toronto Sun , he won the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award in 1993 and is a member of the media section of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is also a former panelist on Hockey Night in Canada and analyst on The Score.

Contents

Career

Strachan joined the Montreal Gazette as a journalist in 1973 while also working as a radio show host in Montreal. [1] While working for the Gazette, Strachan was promoted to sports editor. He subsequently hired Glenn Cole in 1977 to fill his former position. [2] In 1980, Strachan joined The Globe and Mail [1] where he was the 1993 recipient of the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award. [3] He was likewise named a lifetime member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. [4] A year later, in 1994, Strachan was hired by the Toronto Sun. [1] He worked for the Sun until 2006 when it was announced his contract would not be renewed. [1]

Throughout his career, Strachan worked a panellist on Hockey Night in Canada. This was cut short in 2005 when he was fired from Hockey Night in Canada's Satellite Hot Stove panel. Although the full reason was unknown, Strachan stated it was because "they said it was time to change direction." [5] This did not deter Strachan from continuing his sports journalism career. In 2008, Strachan collaborated with Don Cherry to write Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff. [6]

Shortly after the release of his book Why The Leafs Suck: And How They Can Be Fixed in 2009, Strachan was let go from Hockey Night in Canada a second time. [7] [8] CBC stated this was because the cover of the book portrayed Strachan with a Hockey Night in Canada tag without permission. [7] [9] [10] He subsequently moved back to St. Andrews, New Brunswick before Thanksgiving. [11]

In 2010, Strachan published a book titled "I am not making this up: my favourite hockey stories from a career covering the game" which detailed untold stories from his career in hockey journalism. [12] A year later, his book "Over the line: wrist shots, slap shots, and five-minute majors" published more insight into inside stories and anecdotes from his career. [13]

Publications

The following is a list of publications: [14]

Personal life

Strachan is married and has two sons. Despite his career in hockey, Strachan stated his wife kept their son out of hockey due to the violence. [15]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hockey Night in Canada</i> CBC broadcasts of the National Hockey League in Canada

CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the Hockey Night in Canada brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its history in various platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Cole (sportscaster)</span> Canadian sportscaster (born 1933)

Robert Cecil Cole is a Canadian former sports television announcer who has worked for CBC and Sportsnet and former competitive curler. He is known primarily for his work on Hockey Night in Canada.

Jim Hughson is a retired Canadian sportscaster, best known for his play-by-play of the National Hockey League. He was the lead play-by-play commentator for the NHL on Sportsnet from 2014 to 2021 and Hockey Night in Canada from 2008 to 2021. His career spanned 42 years.

Brian McFarlane is a Canadian television sportscaster and author. He is also the Honorary President of the Society for International Hockey Research. He is the son of writer Leslie McFarlane. He is best known as a broadcaster on Hockey Night In Canada and as an author of hockey books.

The 1985–86 NHL season was the 69th season of the National Hockey League. This season saw the league's Board of Governors introduce the Presidents' Trophy, which would go to the team with the best overall record in the NHL regular season. The Edmonton Oilers would be the first winners of this award.

The 1952–53 NHL season was the 36th season of the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens were the Stanley Cup winners as they beat the Boston Bruins four games to one in the final series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Hodge</span> Canadian sports announcer (born 1945)

Dave Hodge is a Canadian sports announcer. Hodge worked for TSN, the CBC and CFRB 1010 radio in Toronto.

Gregory H. Millen is a Canadian hockey commentator-analyst and a former professional ice hockey goaltender who played 14 seasons for six teams in the National Hockey League (NHL). He is currently a colour commentator on Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL on Sportsnet, primarily covering the Calgary Flames.

Dick Irvin Jr., is a Canadian retired sports broadcaster and author. In 1988, the Hockey Hall of Fame presented him with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, for his contributions to hockey broadcasting. In 2004, he was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

"The Hockey Theme" is a Canadian piece of instrumental theme music composed in 1968 by Dolores Claman and orchestrated by Jerry Toth. It was widely recognized as Canada's unofficial second national anthem.

Paul Romanuk is a Toronto sportscaster and writer. He was born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Cuthbert</span> Canadian play-by-play sportscaster

Chris Cuthbert is a Canadian sportscaster. He currently serves as the lead play-by-play commentator with CBC Sports/Sportsnet for Hockey Night in Canada, and calls most national and regional games for the Toronto Maple Leafs on the network. Formerly, he worked for TSN, NBC, and CBC Sports in a multitude of roles. He and Glen Suitor were the lead broadcast team for the CFL on TSN from 2008 to 2019 before Cuthbert gave that lead play-by-play role to Rod Smith.

<i>NHL on Sportsnet</i> Television series

NHL on Sportsnet is the blanket title for presentations of the National Hockey League broadcast held by a Canadian media corporation, Rogers Communications, showing on its television channel Sportsnet and other networks owned by or affiliated with its Rogers Media division, as well as the Sportsnet Radio chain. Sportsnet previously held the national cable rights for NHL regular season and playoff games from 1998 to 2002. In November 2013, Rogers reached a 12-year deal to become the exclusive national television and digital rightsholder for the NHL in Canada, beating out both CBC Sports and TSN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Hockey League on television</span> Overview of North American professional ice hockey on television

The National Hockey League (NHL) is shown on national television in the United States and Canada. With 25 teams in the U.S. and 7 in Canada, the NHL is the only one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada that maintains separate national broadcasters in each country, each producing separate telecasts of a slate of regular season games, playoff games, and the Stanley Cup Finals.

David Shoalts is a Canadian sports reporter and columnist for The Globe and Mail.

Coach's Corner is a commentary and analysis segment that aired from 1982 to 2019 during the first intermission of the Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) television broadcast of National Hockey League (NHL) games. It featured Don Cherry, and was co-hosted by Dave Hodge from 1982 until 1986, and by Ron MacLean from 1986 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHL on television in the 2010s</span>

On April 19, 2011, after ESPN, Turner Sports, and Fox Sports placed bids, NBC Sports announced it had reached a ten-year extension to its U.S. television contract with the NHL worth nearly $2 billion over the tenure of the contract. The contract would cover games on both NBC and sister cable channel Versus, which became part of the NBC Sports family as the result of Versus parent Comcast's controlling purchase of NBC Universal earlier in 2011.

Donald MacPherson was a Canadian broadcast executive who served as head of First Choice from 1981 to 1984 and CBC Sports from 1984 to 1988.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Housten, William (September 21, 2006). "Van Horne, two others out of work". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Sportswriter Cole died of stroke at age 63". Montreal Gazette. May 17, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2019. Cole joined the Gazette in 1977, hired by former sports editor Al Strachan...When I became sports editor, we needed to fill the hole that my promotion had created
  3. ↑ "Five chosen for Hockey Hall of Fame". upi.com. April 2, 1993. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Lifetime PHWA Members". thephwa.com. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  5. ↑ Housten, William (October 18, 2005). "Strachan kicked while he's down". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  6. ↑ Woosly, Garth (December 14, 2008). "Winter reading for the hockey fan". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  7. 1 2 "The Leafs and HNIC really do suck". The Province. October 23, 2009. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  8. ↑ Dowbiggin, Bruce (October 21, 2009). "On Hotstove, head shots and Gemini honours; Strachan gets dropped from HNIC intermission feature, broadcasters are doing a better job tackling the concussion issue and TSN scores a broadcasting awards hat trick". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on October 24, 2009. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  9. ↑ Gallagher, Tony (October 26, 2009). "Was it something he wrote?; HNIC fires Strachan over book on how Maple Leafs suck". Montreal Gazette.
  10. ↑ Zelkovich, Chris (October 30, 2009). "Canadian committee losing race to start cable channel". First, CBC has jettisoned Hotstove semi-regular Al Strachan. CBC says Strachan used a reference to Hockey Night In Canada on the cover of his latest book without permission. "We are no longer using Al on Hotstove this year,"said CBC Sports head Scott Moore. The CBC has its own HNIC books
  11. ↑ Blatchford, Christine (October 15, 2010). "Bickering as sport with the best husband I never had". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  12. ↑ Ralph, Christopher (January 21, 2011). "Al Strachan's "I Am NOT Making This Up" Book Review". thehockeywriters.com. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Seven hot new books about hockey". The Globe and Mail. November 5, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  14. ↑ "au: Strachan, Al". worldcat.org. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  15. ↑ Witt, Howard (February 21, 1988). "HOCKEY IN CANADA HARD TO FATHOM". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 9, 2019. - One of the country`s leading hockey sportswriters, Al Strachan of the Toronto Globe and Mail, loves the game and defends it against any suggestion that it is excessively violent. But, he adds, his wife kept their 9-year-old son out of hockey because it's too violent.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.