Iconic broadcaster
retires after 52 seasons, 4,022 games
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| The Tigers retirement tweet for Bob Ridley. |
On Tuesday, the iconic play-by-play voice of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers announced his retirement. The announcement brings an end to a career that started with the inaugural campaign of the modern version of the Tigers in 1970-71 and would go on to last 52 seasons and 4,022 games.
Ridley’s 4,022 games called as the Tigers play-by-play voice is a record for most games called as the play-by-play voice of one hockey team, and he is the only hockey play-by-play voice to have hit the 4,000 games plateau. The total includes 3,590 regular season games, one standings tiebreaker game, 411 games in the WHL playoffs and 20 contests in the Memorial Cup tournament.
If someone called 80 games a season for 50 seasons, they would come up 22 contests short of Ridley’s total as the Tigers play-by-play voice.
Ridley, who is a product of Vulcan, Alta., was on the call for the Tigers five WHL championship wins in 1973, 1987, 1988, 2004 and 2007. He was there to call the Tigers two Memorial Cup title victories in 1987 and 1988 to become champions of the CHL.
During the Tigers first 51 seasons, Ridley missed calling just one game. In 1972, Ridley was assigned by the CHAT radio and television outlet in Medicine Hat to go to Saskatoon to cover the national women’s curling championships.
A Medicine Hat rink was the Alberta champion representative, and that squad was skipped by Polly Beaton. The foursome had a lead named Terry Kope, who was the wife of the station’s general manager.
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| Bob Ridley calls a Tigers playoff game in March of 2019. |
This past season, Ridley was absent for all but one regular season game due to the fact he had to battle cancer. Scott Roblin filled in as the Tigers play-by-play voice during the time Ridley was gone.
Before Christmas this past December, Ridley was declared cancer free. With the world in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, he didn’t return to the broadcast booth until the Tigers final game of the 2021-22 campaign this past April 15. They fell 3-0 in that contest to the eventual WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings at Co-op Place in Medicine Hat.
The Tigers missed the playoffs having finished last in the WHL regular season standings with an 11-53-3-1 record, which was an unusual down campaign for the club.
In an interview with Gates Guarin of CHAT News on Tuesday, Ridley said he contemplated a lot of things during the down time he had this past season and decided the time was right to retire in order to spend more time with family and friends. The 78-year-old added that on top of being the Tigers play-by-play voice he spent about 47 years as the sports director at CHAT, so that meant he sacrificed a lot of time with family and friends.
For about eight years starting in 1977, Ridley was also the play-by-play voice of Medicine Hat’s representatives in the Pioneer Baseball League, which is a rookie circuit for MLB clubs. That included calling games for the A’s lone season in the Hat in 1977 followed by the first number of seasons played by the Blue Jays, who came to town in 1978 before departing following the 2002 campaign. The Blue Jays won the Pioneer League championship in 1982.
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| Bob Ridley gets set to drive the Tigers bus in the 2012 WHL playoffs. |
On February 27, 2021 at Co-op Place, Ridley called his 4,000th game as the Tigers romped past the Red Deer Rebels 7-2. Before that contest, the WHL feted Ridley with a unique honour.
The WHL announced the creation of the Bob Ridley Award for Media Excellence to be presented annually to a member of the radio, television and print journalism industry in recognition of their outstanding contributions to sports journalism and the WHL.
Ridley was named the inaugural winner of the honour and was presented with the award by WHL commissioner Ron Robison during a special ceremony at Co-op Place before he called his 4,000th game.
This past April 2 before a 6-1 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes, the Tigers honoured Ridley at Co-op Place unveiling a banner to pay tribute to his career that was placed up in the building rafters alongside the retired #9 banner for Tom Lysiak and the retired #8 banner for Lanny McDonald.
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| Bob Ridley calls a game at The Arena in Medicine Hat. |
Tigers fans are going to miss Ridley’s classic goal call, “He scooooooorrrres!”
They can always hear Ridley making his famous goal call when Brennan Bosch scored in double overtime of Game 7 of the 2007 WHL Championship Series to deliver the Tigers their fifth league title and a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Giants.
The win came before a raucous sellout crowd of 4,006 spectators at the Tigers legendary former home rink in The Arena.
Ridley will always be “the Dean” of major junior hockey broadcasters. The best part about “Rids” is he has always taken all the accolades that have come his way on a humble manner, and he has never made himself that big of a deal.
Ridley is a gentleman and a Hall of Fame person. He has always treated everyone with grace and class, and for anyone associated with the Tigers, it was always a highlight to be interviewed by him.
Anyone that has come through Tigers organization has only great things to say about Ridley including players like Lysiak, McDonald, Kelly Hrudey, Trevor Linden, Chris Osgood, Kris Russell, Darren Helm, Emerson Etem and Cole Sillinger. Ridley considers current Tigers general manager and head coach Willie Desjardins as one of his all-time best friends, and Desjardins cherishes Ridley’s place in team lore.
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| Bob Ridley calls a road game in Saskatoon in 2017. |
If you did a search of Ridley’s name on social media channels on Tuesday, you will see an endless number of people and teams offering him well wishes and praise.
In finishing his interview with Guarin, Ridley said his immediate plans are to sit back and relax and enjoy his family and enjoy life. You can be sure Ridley’s wife, Deb, will be happy he is home.
On top of enjoying time with family, hopefully, Ridley will revel in some rides on his Harley Davidson motorcycle too.
Ridley has left a unique mark on the game of hockey, the Tigers and Medicine Hat as a city that will never be matched. In retirement, he deserves everything good that comes his way.
Personal note – I will
miss tracking Ridley’s games called total
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| Bob Ridley calls a game at the 2007 Memorial Cup. |
I am going to miss tracking Bob Ridley’s games called total as the play-by-play voice of the Medicine Hat Tigers. I know this will sound self-serving, but I enjoyed tracking that statistic over the years.
When Ridley announced his retirement on Tuesday, it felt weird for me that I wouldn’t be tracking that total anymore that closed out at 4,022 games called, which is the most one person has called as a play-by-play voice of any hockey team.
I first tallied up the number of games Ridley had called way back in August of 2006. As a sports reporter for the Medicine Hat News, I was doing stories about a tribute dinner night the Tigers did for Ridley at that time, which saw a huge number of the team’s alums turn out from all eras. I also did a story on that tribute night for Hockey Now.
After I figured out how many games Ridley had called back in August of 2006 in the newsroom of the News, Sean Rooney, who was my sports editor, suggested that I should keep track of Ridley’s games called tally going into the future. Rooney said that would be an important piece of information people would like as the years went on.
When I left the News and Medicine Hat after 10 years to move to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014 to be closer to family, I kept tracking Ridley’s games called total. When I arrived in Saskatoon, Ridley’s games called total stood at 3,545 contests.
At the end of every season, I would note on a post in this blog where Ridley’s games called total stood at. I also noted when he would hit milestones like 3,600 or 3,700 games called. Of course, it was big time exciting to see him become the first person to call 4,000 games as the play-by-play voice of one hockey team.
Over the years, I hope you enjoyed the games called total I was able to track. I hope it added to Ridley’s iconic status.
I’m going to miss seeing Ridley on the WHL beat. I’ll always consider him a great friend.
Thanks for the memories “Rids,” and cheers to you making many more great memories in your retirement years.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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