Bruce Dowbiggin

Last updated

Bruce Dowbiggin
Born
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Alma mater University of Toronto
Occupation(s)Sports broadcaster, journalist, writer
Years active1984 to present
Family Ian Dowbiggin (brother)
Awards Gemini Awards (2)

Bruce Dowbiggin is a Canadian sports broadcaster, journalist and writer. A graduate of the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto, Dowbiggin has worked as a journalist for the Calgary Herald and The Globe and Mail and as a broadcaster for CBC Newsworld. He has authored several books about ice hockey and received two Gemini Awards for sports broadcasting.

Contents

Early life and education

Dowbiggin attended Lindsay Place High School in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, and then Nelson High School in Burlington, Ontario after his family moved. [1] In 1974, Dowbiggin was one of the early editors of the student newspaper in Mississauga, The Medium. [2] [3] He graduated from the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto in 1977, [4] with a degree in English and Drama. [2] After graduation, he was briefly a playwright with two plays produced in Toronto, and his poetry and prose were featured in literary collections. [5]

Career

1980s – 1990s

Dowbiggin began his journalistic career with TV Guide magazine before transitioning to broadcasting with CBC Radio in 1984. [6] In 1985, he was the television sports anchor at CBC Toronto for The Six O'Clock News and CBC at Eleven. [5] [6] He later co-hosted the television broadcast of the 1988 Caribana parade, [7] and began broadcasting with CBC Newsworld in 1990. [6]

Dowbiggin made his reputation in journalism by investigating Alan Eagleson. [8] Dowbiggin was the first Canadian journalist to report on investigations into Eagleson and how National Hockey League players' pensions were mismanaged, with a series of articles in 1991. [9] Dowbiggin later collaborated with American journalist Russ Conway on another set of articles in February 1993. [10] Dowbiggin was critical of how slowly the Law Society of Upper Canada investigated the allegations against Eagleson, prior to another article published by Stevie Cameron. [11] CBC Sports did not initially show interest in the investigations, and his work was aired by The National and A Current Affair instead. Dowbiggin later said that television sports "ignore[s] the real problems when they come up", and also criticized sportcasters by saying "the idea of having to turn on one of their own is too difficult for them". [12] His investigative reporting on Eagleson earned him a Gemini Award in 1993. [5] Later in 1993, Dowbiggin released a book on Eagleson titled The Defense Never Rests. [13]

Dowbiggin later investigated the influence of money in sports. He wrote the article "Pedal to the Medal", where he contrasted the efforts of Olympic hopeful Tanya Dubnicoff to athletes that had better funding. [8] In 1996, he won his second Gemini Award as the best sports broadcaster. [14] He was given the opportunity to anchor CBC's television coverage of the 1994 Commonwealth Games and 1996 Summer Olympics, as well as radio coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics. [6] Dowbiggin moved from Toronto to Calgary in 1998 to work for the Calgary Herald . [15] [16]

2000s – present

In 2002, he released a book titled The Stick: A History, A Celebration, An Elegy which detailed the history of the hockey stick and players relationships with it. [17] In 2003, Dowbiggin authored a book titled Money Players which was a finalist for the 2004 National Business Book Award. [18] [19] When an opportunity arose to replace longtime journalist Bill Houston at The Globe and Mail , Dowbiggin earned a job writing the media column. [15] He stayed with The Globe and Mail from 2009 until 2013. [19]

In 2014, Dowbiggin wrote Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever. [20] The following year he worked with former National Hockey League player Grant Fuhr to write Fuhr's biography, Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion. [21]

In 2018, he released a book co-authored by Ryan Gauthier titled Cap in Hand which was a critique on the use of salary cap in professional sports. [22]

Dowbiggin is a columnist at Not the Public Broadcaster alongside Rhys and Evan Dowbiggin, [19] and works as a sports columnist for Troy Media. [23] As of 2017, he contributes to SiriusXM Canada Talks Channel 167, and hosts a podcast titled The Full Count With Bruce Dowbiggin. [24]

Publications

List of publications: [25]

Personal life

Dowbiggin is one of five sons born to Mary and Bill Dowbiggin in Montreal. [26] His brother Ian Dowbiggin is a professor and author. [27] His father Bill, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a bomber pilot. [28] Dowbiggin's grandfather fought in World War I, and four of his family members fought in World War II for Canada. [29]

Related Research Articles

Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then was required to divest its stake in the network following its 2001 acquisition of competing network TSN. Rogers then became the sole owner of Sportsnet in 2004 after it bought the remaining minority stake that was held by Fox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Fuhr</span> Canadian ice hockey goaltender (born 1962)

Grant Scott Fuhr is a Canadian former ice hockey goaltender in the National Hockey League and former goaltending coach for the Arizona Coyotes, who played for the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s during which he won the Stanley Cup five times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron MacLean</span> Canadian sportscaster (born 1960)

Ronald Joseph Corbett MacLean is a Canadian sportscaster for the CBC and Rogers Media, best known as the host of Hockey Night in Canada from 1986 to 2014 and again since 2016, and is also a hockey referee.

Robert Alan Eagleson is a disbarred Canadian lawyer, hockey agent and promoter. Clients that he represented included superstars Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler, and he was the first executive director of the NHL Players Association (NHLPA), which was initially lauded for improving the bargaining power of National Hockey League (NHL) players. He is also well known for providing the opportunity for professional players to compete in international hockey, by promoting the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, and the Canada Cup. However, Eagleson was convicted of fraud and embezzlement and briefly imprisoned, after it was revealed that he had abused his position for many years by defrauding his clients and skimming money from tournaments. After his convictions, he was removed as a member of the Order of Canada and resigned from the Hockey Hall of Fame where he had been inducted in the builder category.

<i>Calgary Herald</i> Daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser. It is owned by the Postmedia Network.

Eric Duhatschek is a Canadian sports journalist. Duhatschek won the 2001 Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for distinguished ice hockey journalism and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Duhatschek is also on the selection committee for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Based in Calgary, Alberta, he was the lead hockey columnist for The Globe and Mail and is a writer for The Athletic. Duhatschek rose to prominence for his coverage of the Calgary Flames as a sportswriter for the Calgary Herald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Wittman</span> Canadian sportscaster

Donald Rae Wittman was a Canadian sportscaster.

Darren Dreger is a Canadian sportscaster for TSN, and currently serves as one of TSN's Hockey Insiders. He had previously hosted Leafs Lunch on CFMJ AM640 Toronto Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Oake</span> Canadian sportscaster

Scott Oake is a Gemini Award-winning Canadian sportscaster for CBC Sports, Sportsnet, and Hockey Night in Canada.

Scott Moore is a Canadian television executive. He is the former director of CBC Sports and head of production for Rogers Communications' Sportsnet and NHL properties. He was appointed on March 1, 2007, succeeding Nancy Lee. On November 9, 2010, Moore left CBC and on the following day he was named president of broadcasting for Rogers Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob McKenzie (broadcaster)</span> Canadian hockey commentator (born 1956)

Robert Malcomson McKenzie is a Canadian hockey commentator who has covered hockey since joining TSN in 1986. As a TSN Hockey Insider and TSN's Draft Expert, McKenzie provides analysis for NHL on TSN telecasts, as well as for the IIHF World Junior Championships, NHL Draft, NHL Trade Deadline, Free Agency, and for six Olympic Winter Games.

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

Chris Cuthbert is a Canadian sportscaster. He is the lead play-by-play commentator for NHL on Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada, since 2021. Formerly, he worked for TSN, NBC, and CBC Sports in a multitude of roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aggie Kukulowicz</span> Canadian ice hockey player

Adolph Frank "Aggie" Kukulowicz was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and Russian-language interpreter. He played four games in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, then played 12 combined seasons in the minor leagues and senior ice hockey leagues. He won two Turner Cup championships with the St. Paul Saints in the International Hockey League, and was a 1964 Allan Cup champion with the Winnipeg Maroons. He was fluent in Russian and Polish, had a brief coaching career with GKS Katowice in Poland, and later worked as a European scout for the Philadelphia Flyers.

<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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russ Conway (journalist)</span> American journalist and writer (1949–2019)

Russell G. Conway was an American journalist, writer, and auto racing promoter. He worked in investigative journalism with The Eagle-Tribune, and wrote a series of articles and a book about Alan Eagleson and the mismanagement of funds, and National Hockey League players' pensions. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, and honored with the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award in 1999. He owned and operated several motorsport venues, and was inducted into the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame.

The Gordon Sinclair Award is a Canadian journalism award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for excellence in broadcast journalism. Originally presented as part of the ACTRA Awards, it was transferred to the new Gemini Awards in 1986. During the ACTRA era, the award was open to both radio and television journalists; when it was taken over by the Academy, it became a television-only award.

Derek Holmes is a Canadian retired ice hockey player, coach, administrator, and agent. He served as captain of the Eastern Canadian national team during the late 1960s, and was the technical director of Hockey Canada from 1974 to 1980. He managed the Canadian national teams at the 1977 and 1978 World Ice Hockey Championships, and helped build the 1980 Winter Olympics team. Holmes spent many years on the international ice hockey stage, which included being head coach of Team Finland and Team Switzerland, and later as an international ice hockey agent signing many players to European teams. He was inducted into the builder category of the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1999, the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 2021, and is a double inductee into the Kemptville District Sports Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Kryczka</span> Canadian lawyer, judge and ice hockey administrator

Joseph Julius Kryczka was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, coach and referee, and had a legal career as a lawyer and judge, where he was commonly known as "Justice Joe". He graduated from the University of Alberta, and played hockey with the Golden Bears. He practiced law in Calgary for more than 20 years, beginning in 1959 as a lawyer, becoming a judge, and was eventually elevated to a justice on the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta.

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

References

  1. ↑ "About Bruce Dowbiggin". Facebook . Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Sports caster alumnus talks hockey and money". themedium.ca. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  3. ↑ Sawczak, Luke (September 8, 2014). "The Mountain We're Standing On". themedium.ca. Archived from the original on August 30, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Bruce Dowbiggin". greatpast.utoronto.ca. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 "Face-off: Are We Getting What We Deserve From Sports Reporters?". cjf-fjc.ca. Archived from the original on December 31, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "CALGARY BOOSTER CLUB 56th Sportsman of the Year Dinner" (PDF). calgaryboosterclub.com. 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  7. ↑ "TV Specials". Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Manitoba. July 30, 1988. p. 155. Lock-green.svg
  8. 1 2 "Elm Street Contributors". Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Manitoba. June 2, 2000. p. 115. Lock-green.svg
  9. ↑ Houston & Shoalts (1993), pp. 174–175
  10. ↑ Houston & Shoalts (1993), p. 20
  11. ↑ Houston & Shoalts (1993), p. 21
  12. ↑ Kylie, Aaron (March 3, 1999). "Ethics On Ice". rrj.ca. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  13. ↑ Sigurdson, Hal (October 27, 1993). "NHL hides dark past of pension injustice". Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Manitoba. p. 29. Lock-green.svg
  14. ↑ "The 1996 Gemini winners". playbackonline.ca. March 11, 1996. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  15. 1 2 Dowbiggin, Bruce (March 4, 2019). "Three Questions with Bruce Dowbiggin" (Interview). Interviewed by Steve Paikin. TVOntario . Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  16. ↑ "Sports columnist joins Herald today". Calgary Herald. November 9, 1998. p. 1. Outspoken, articulate and to the point – that's the Calgary Herald's newest columnist, Bruce Dowbiggin. Dowbiggin, twice a winner of a Gemini Award as this country's top sports broadcast journalist, has joined the Herald as our lead sports columnist.
  17. ↑ Smith, Stephen (October 13, 2001). "One big Stickout among hockey tomes". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  18. ↑ "Five finalists announced for business-book prize". The Globe and Mail. March 30, 2004. p. R2.
  19. 1 2 3 "The Broadcasters". notthepublicbroadcaster.com. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Rise and Fall of the Greatest Canucks Team Ever – An Interview with Bruce Dowbiggin". dailyhive.com. September 30, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  21. ↑ Whyno, Stephen (October 31, 2014). "Grant Fuhr shows comfort in life and decisions in new book". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  22. ↑ Pike, Ryan (October 16, 2018). "Cap in Hand is Thought-Provoking History Lesson". thehockeywriters.com. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  23. ↑ "Your columnists". troymediadigitalsolutions.com. Retrieved March 7, 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  24. ↑ "When A Threat Is Not A Threat Even Though It's A Threat". notthepublicbroadcaster.com. April 2, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2019. Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy.is the host of the podcast The Full Count with Bruce Dowbiggin on anticanetwork.com. He's also a regular contributor three-times-a-week to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167.
  25. ↑ "Dowbiggin, Bruce". WorldCat . Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  26. ↑ "Mary Dowbiggin Obituary". National Post. 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  27. ↑ "How Unhappiness Became Depression: The False Hope Of Getting Doctors To Make Us Happy". notthepublicbroadcaster.com. May 11, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  28. ↑ "Lancaster Tire Evokes Memories of War". bombercommandmuseum.ca. Archived from the original on August 4, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  29. ↑ "Bruce Dowbiggin: Honouring the flowers of society". sportsnet.ca. November 9, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2019.

Bibliography

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.