William H. Clement (born December 20, 1950) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player who became an author, speaker, actor, entrepreneur, and hockey broadcaster. Clement played 11 seasons in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL), and was named an All-Star twice. He spent his first four years with the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...

, with whom he won two

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

championships (

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

). Clement later played for the

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL) ...

, whom he captained, and the

Flames A flame (from Latin ''flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...

, both in Atlanta and Calgary. Clement has broadcast five different

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and has worked for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, Versus,

Comcast SportsNet NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origina ...

and TNT in the U.S., and CTV, CBC,

Rogers Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language 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 r ...

and

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

Radio in Canada. His acting credits include work on the ABC daytime drama ''

All My Children ''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...

'' and more than 300 television ads for clients such as

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

Bud Light Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in othe ...

, and Deepwoods Off. He was also one of the in-game announcers on EA Sports' NHL video games from ''

NHL 07 ''NHL 07'' is an ice hockey video game, which was released in 2006. The game improved the series' gameplay with more realistic features, such as stickhandling and a wider variety of controller schemes. As NHL 07 was released on the Xbox 360, this ...

'' through ''

NHL 14 ''NHL 14'' is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It is the 23rd installment of the ''NHL'' series and was released in September 2013. However, the game was released on September 7, 2013 for subscribers of ...

'', as well as on

2K Sports 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. 2K was founded under Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels, following Take-Two Interactive's acquisition of Visual Concepts that same m ...

' ''NHL 2K'' series in ''ESPN NHL Hockey'' and ''

ESPN NHL 2K5 ''ESPN NHL 2K5'' is an ice hockey simulation made by ESPN Videogames (now 2K Games) and published on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles. ESPN's Gary Thorne on play-by-play commentary and Bill Clement on color commentary calls all the action. Th ...

''.

Biography

Playing career

Prior to his career as a broadcaster, Clement was an amateur and NHL hockey player. Born in Buckingham, Quebec, he played hockey as a child in nearby

Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; sco, Thursa, gd, Inbhir Theòrsa ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Great ...

with

Guy Lafleur Guy Damien Lafleur (September 20, 1951 – April 22, 2022), nicknamed "the Flower" and "Le Démon Blond", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was the first player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 50 goals in six c ...

. He played Junior Hockey with the

Ottawa 67s The Ottawa 67's are a major junior ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, that plays in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Established during Canada's centennial year of 1967 and named in honour of this, the 67's currently play their ...

of the O.H.A., in their first three seasons. Originally selected 18th (second round) in the 1970 NHL Entry Draft by the

(the Flyers' first pick of the draft), Clement played four seasons with the Flyers (as well as in minor league teams at

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

and

Richmond, VA (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

), and was part of the

-winning Flyers teams of 1973–74 and 1974–75 as the 4th line Center. Prior to the

1975 NHL Amateur Draft The 1975 NHL Amateur Draft was the 13th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the NHL office in Montreal, Quebec. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers made the most noise at the draft, trading Bill Clement, Don McLean, and t ...

, he was traded to the

for their right to draft

Mel Bridgman Melvin John Bridgman (born April 28, 1955) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1975–76 until 1988–89. Bridgman was born in Trenton, Ontario, but grew up in Thund ...

, as the first overall draft pick that year. After playing just 46 games with the Capitals (and serving as the team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

) in the 1975–76 season, he was then traded to the

Atlanta Flames The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta from 1972 until 1980. They played home games in the Omni Coliseum and were members of the West and later Patrick divisions of the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with t ...

for Gerry Meehan,

Jean Lemieux Jean Louis Lemieux (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. Selected by the Atlanta Flames in the 1972 NHL Draft, Lemieux played parts of two and a half seasons with the Flames before he was traded to the Wash ...

and a Round 1 pick in the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft. He would play with the Flames organization in both Atlanta and

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, until his retirement following the

1981–82 NHL season The 1981–82 NHL season was the 65th season of the National Hockey League. The William M. Jennings Trophy made its debut this year as the trophy for the goaltenders from the team with the fewest goals against, thus replacing the Vezina Trophy in ...

. He played in two NHL All-Star Games, in 1976 and 1978. In 719 regular season games, he scored 148

goals A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer to: Sport * Goal (sports), a method of scoring in many sports, or the physical structure or area where scoring occurs ** Goals, the goal frame in ...

, earned 206 assists, and 383 penalty minutes. In 50 playoff games, he collected five goals and three assists. Clement was known for a calm and consistent passing game, leading to the rhyme "Clement, Clement, Hands of Cement."

referenced the old taunt in one of their popular "Hockey Falls" commercials.

Post-playing career

After retiring from hockey, he worked for many years as a lead color commentator for ESPN's hockey coverage first with play-by-play man

Mike Emrick Michael "Doc" Emrick (born August 1, 1946) is an American former network television play-by-play sportscaster and commentator noted mostly for his work in ice hockey. He was the lead announcer for National Hockey League national telecasts on bot ...

from to and later

Gary Thorne Gary F. Thorne (born June 9, 1948) is an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles games on MASN from 2007 to 2020. He has also worked for ESPN and ABC, including National Hockey League, Major League ...

during these

-produced telecasts to . From until he worked for

SportsChannel America SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC. Operating from March 1, ...

as lead color commentator on their national telecasts and regional

games, both with Emrick. He worked with

Jim Lampley James Lampley (born April 8, 1949) is an American sportscaster, news anchor, film producer, and restaurant owner. He was best known as a blow-by-blow announcer on ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' for 30 years. He also had covered a record 14 O ...

as a studio analyst for

during their coverage of both the men's and women's ice hockey tournaments at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. He worked as the

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

announcer for

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) ( gr, πένταθλον). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of t ...

events, and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

tournaments for the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

for NBC. He won province championships playing badminton in high school. He also worked as an analyst in ESPN's

Great Outdoor Games ''Great Outdoor Games'' was a series of televised outdoor games created by ESPN. The program was cancelled in 2006. ''Great Outdoor Games'' individual events include: * Fishing Events ** Fly Fishing ** Freshwater Doubles * Sporting Dog Events ...

for several years. He provided color commentary for the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

' ''NHL'' series for ''

NHL 2000 ''NHL 2000'' is an ice hockey video game developed by Electronic Arts Canada. It was released in 1999 and was the successor to ''NHL 99''. The game did not boast great improvements to the game from ''NHL 99'', nor did ''NHL 2001'' feature any ide ...

'' and ''

NHL 2001 ''NHL 2001'' is a video game released by Electronic Arts in 2000. It is the successor to ''NHL 2000''. An add-on featuring Elitserien and SM-Liiga was released on the PC version on March 8, 2001, that added Swedish and Finnish hockey leagues and ...

'', with

Jim Hughson Jim Hughson (born October 9, 1956) 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 Ca ...

; and for all next-generation versions from ''

'' through ''

'', with

. The latter duo previously voiced

' ''NHL 2K'' series for ''ESPN NHL Hockey'' and ''

'', when 2K Sports had the

license. He is also host of a Flyers-based

radio talk show Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

on WBCB 1490 AM in

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the Englis ...

. The show includes current and former players and coaches, as well as players from the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

's Trenton Devils. He also continues to provide color commentary, as well as

post-game show A post-game, postgame, or post-match show is a TV or radio presentation that occurs immediately after the live broadcast of a major sporting event. Contents may include: * replays of key moments in the game. * interviews with players, coaches and ...

analysis, working several local Flyers broadcasts for

NBC Sports Philadelphia NBC Sports Philadelphia is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by locally based cable television provider Comcast (and owns a controlling 75% interest), and the Philadelph ...

and

The Comcast Network The Comcast Network (TCN) was an American cable television network owned by the Comcast Corporation, through NBCUniversal; it was carried mostly on Comcast cable systems in four states and 20 television markets in the Eastern U.S. from New Jersey ...

since the 2007–08 season. From –, he broadcast at least one game of every

Stanley Cup Finals The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey (also known as the Stanley Cup Final among various media, french: Finale de la Coupe Stanley) is the National Hockey League's (NHL) championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, North America ...

series (with ESPN from –,

from –, ESPN again from –, and

from –). After a lockout canceled the 2005 Finals, he worked the and 2007 Finals as the studio host for

OLN OLN (formerly Outdoor Life Network) is a Canadian English-language Category A specialty channel. OLN primarily broadcasts factual-based and adventure-related reality programming aimed at male audiences. OLN is wholly owned by Rogers Sports & ...

and

. He continued his streak in as a color commentator for

NHL Radio NHL Radio is the official national radio broadcaster of the National Hockey League, covering the Stanley Cup Finals, both Conference Finals, selected early round playoff action, the All-Star Game, the NHL Winter Classic and a selected number of ...

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

. In January 2021, Clement announced his retirement from broadcasting at the age of 70.

Personal life

After retirement from hockey, he married and had two children, and resides in

Solebury Township, Pennsylvania Solebury Township is a township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,709 at the 2020 census. History Migrating English Quakers began to settle down in an area of Buckingham Township. Around 1702, this area was in ...

. His daughter Reagan graduated from The Hun School of Princeton in 2007, while his son Chase graduated from New Hope-Solebury High School in 2008 and now goes to

Delaware Valley College Delaware Valley University (DelVal) is a private university in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1896, it enrolls approximately 1,900 students on its suburban, 570-acre campus. DelVal offers more than 28 undergraduate majors, seven master's p ...

where he plays soccer as their goalkeeper and was First Team All Freedom Conference Player in 2012. Clement became a U.S. citizen on November 4, 2010. Bill Clement was first married to Cathie (nee Maclarty) of Ottawa, Ontario. They have a daughter Christa, and grandchildren.

Career statistics

References

External links

BillClementSpeaking.com

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120902044025/http://www.billclementspeaking.com/book.html "EveryDay Leadership: Crossing Gorges on Tightropes to Success"*
Profile at hockeydraftcentral.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clement, Bill 1950 births Anglophone Quebec people Atlanta Flames players Calgary Flames players Canadian ice hockey centres Canadian television sportscasters Ice hockey people from Quebec Living people National Hockey League All-Stars National Hockey League broadcasters Ottawa 67's players Philadelphia Flyers announcers Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Philadelphia Flyers players Quebec Aces (AHL) players Richmond Robins players Sportspeople from Gatineau Stanley Cup champions Washington Capitals captains Washington Capitals players