Brian McFarlane is a Canadian television sportscaster and author. He is best known as a broadcaster on

Hockey Night In Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...

and as an author of hockey books. He is also the honorary president of the

Society for International Hockey Research The Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR) is a network of writers, statisticians, collectors, broadcasters, academics and ice hockey buffs. The society, based in Toronto, Ontario, has an international membership. The society cultivate ...

Early life and education

Brian McFarlane, the son of writer Leslie McFarlane, was raised in

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

and

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario. He attended

St. Lawrence University St. Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college in the village of Canton in St. Lawrence County, New York. It has roughly 2,100 undergraduate and 100 graduate students. Though St. Lawrence today is nonsectarian, it was founded in 1 ...

Canton, New York Canton is an incorporated Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The population was 11,638 at the time of the 2020 census. The town contains two Administrative divisions of New York#Villa ...

, on a hockey scholarship, graduating in 1955. In his four years he scored 101 goals for the Skating Saints, which remains a St. Lawrence record. On three occasions, he scored five goals in a game, a school record shared with several others. McFarlane was honoured as an All-American in 1952.

Career

After graduating, he worked in television at

WRGB WRGB (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Schenectady, New York, United States, serving the Capital District as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside CW affiliate WCWN (channel 45). The two station ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

, before moving to

CFRB CFRB (1010 AM) is a commercial radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by Bell Media and carries a News/Talk radio format. Its studios and offices are in the Entertainment District at 250 Richmond Street West. One of the oldes ...

Radio in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and then

CFCF-TV CFCF-DT (channel 12) is an English-language television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Noovo flagship CFJP-DT (channel 35). The two statio ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

(where he was sports director) and CFTO TV in Toronto. He had a lengthy career in broadcasting and journalism.

National Hockey League broadcasting

He is best known as a color commentator and studio host on ''

Hockey Night in Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...

,'' beginning in 1964. He made similar broadcasts on

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

games for the major American networks

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. He was a colour commentator on

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. The Maple Leafs compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the A ...

local telecasts until 1980, when he made on-air comments that were supportive of Leaf captain

Darryl Sittler Darryl Glen Sittler (born September 18, 1950) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1970 until 1985 for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Detroit Red Wings. H ...

and critical of Leafs owner

Harold Ballard Harold Edwin Ballard (born Edwin Harold Ballard, July 30, 1903 – April 11, 1990) was a Canadian businessman and sportsman. Ballard was an owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) as well as their home arena, Maple ...

. He was subsequently banned from the

Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leaf Gardens is a historic building located at the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church and Wellesley, Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was originally constructed in 1931 as an indoor arena to host ice hoc ...

press box. For ''Hockey Night in Canada'', he was moved off Toronto games at this point, broadcasting the Montreal Canadiens and

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The Jets compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The te ...

(original team) games as the host. His last year with HNIC was 1991, ending a 28-year association with HNIC.

Peter Puck connection

McFarlane is often incorrectly cited as the creator or father of the cartoon character Peter Puck. The cartoon puck, which appeared on both '' NBC's Hockey Game of the Week'' and CBC's ''

'' during the 1970s, was actually the creation of NBC executive Donald Carswell, although McFarlane had significant input. The character itself and the animation footage was created by NBC's production partner,

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

. After the network stopped carrying NHL hockey, McFarlane purchased the rights to Peter Puck from Hanna-Barbera and continued to promote the character.

Writing career

As of 2010, McFarlane had written 96 (with one in the works) books on hockey, selling over 1.3 million books. His first book, ''50 Years of Hockey'' (Pagurian Press) was published in 1968 and he continues to write about hockey. McFarlane is an expert on hockey history and has compiled several volumes of NHL lore titled ''It Happened in Hockey'', a 1999 series detailing the colourful history of the

Original Six The Original Six () are the teams that composed the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1942 and 1967. The six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. ...

NHL teams, and "Proud Past Bright Future," the history of Women's Hockey (1994, Stoddard, ). He published two memoirs, ''Brian McFarlane's World of Hockey'' (2000,

Stoddart Publishing Stoddart Publishing was a Canadian book publisher and distributor, owned by Jack Stoddart, which ceased operations in 2002. History In 1967, General Publishing purchased the Musson imprint, based in Canada, from British publisher Hodder & Stough ...

, ) republished as ''Colour Commentary'' (2009, Key Porter, ) and ''From The Broadcast Booth'' (2009, Fenn, ). In 2008, he began a youth fiction series ''The Mitchell Brothers'' which always features hockey in the plots.

Personal life

Throughout his career, McFarlane collected many memorabilia, photos, and objects focusing primarily on hockey history. In 2006, Brian sold most of his hockey collection to the Municipality of Clarington, where it became Total Hockey, a multimedia, interactive museum located at the Garnet B. Rickard Recreation Complex in Bowmanville. The museum was closed in 2007 and the collection was sold to an Edmonton-based collector in 2013. Plans for the collection have not been made public, but McFarlane was assured by the purchaser that the collection would be preserved and made available to the public at some point. From his teenage years, McFarlane was interested in painting. In semi-retirement he began painting regularly producing several hundred paintings, mostly in the Group-of-Seven style of Canadian landscapes. He became an accomplished painter, exhibiting professionally.

Recognition

*1995 inducted into the media section of the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

*Admitted into the

Ontario Sports Hall of Fame The Ontario Sports Hall of Fame is an association dedicated to honouring athletes and personalities with outstanding achievement in sports in Ontario, Canada. The hall of fame was established in 1994 by Bruce Prentice, following his 15-year tenure ...

. *Admitted into the Ottawa Sports Legends Hall of Fame *Admitted into the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame *Admitted into the St. Lawrence University Hall of Fame * 27 November 2020 - Appointed as a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

(CM),2022, for his contributions to the sport for "well over a half century"

Bibliography

*''50 years of hockey, 1917-1967: an intimate history of the National Hockey League'', 1967 *''Peter Puck: Love That Hockey Game!'', 1975 *''60 years of hockey: the intimate story behind North America's fastest, most exciting sport : complete statistics and records'', 1976 * *''One hundred years of hockey'', 1989 *''It Happened in Hockey'', 1991 *''More, It Happened in Hockey'', 1993 *''Still More, It Happened in Hockey'', 1994 *''The Leafs'', 1995 *''Clancy: The King's Story'', with

King Clancy Francis Michael "King" Clancy (February 25, 1902 – November 8, 1986) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, referee, coach and executive. Clancy played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Ottawa Senators and Toronto ...

, 1997 *''Brian McFarlane's History of Hockey'', 1997 *''The Red Wings'', 1998 *''The Best of It Happened in Hockey'', 1998 *''The Rangers: Brian McFarlane's Original Six'', 1999 *''Stanley Cup Fever: More Than a Century of Hockey Greatness'', 1999 *''Hockey for Kids: Heroes, Tips, and Facts'', 1999 *''The Bruins'', 2000 *''The Ultimate Hockey Quiz Book'', 2000 *''Brian McFarlane's World of Hockey'', 2001 *''Real Stories from the Rink'', with Steve Nease, 2002 *''The Blackhawks: Brian McFarlane's Original Six'', 2002 *''Leslie McFarlane's Hockey Stories'' (two volumes), with Leslie McFarlane, 2005-2006 *''Best of the Original Six'', 2007 *''From the Broadcast Booth: A Career in the World of Network Hockey'', 2009 *''Legendary Stanley Cup Stories'', 2009 *''Golden Oldies'', 2015 *''A Helluva Life in Hockey,'' 2021

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McFarlane, Brian Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian sports announcers Foster Hewitt Memorial Award winners National Hockey League broadcasters People from Temiskaming Shores St. Lawrence Saints men's ice hockey players Toronto Maple Leafs announcers Canadian sportswriters Members of the Order of Canada People from Whitchurch-Stouffville