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Rod Phillips Gets His Due
By BRIAN PIKE, MOP Squad Sports Hockey Editor
Nov 4, 2003 - 5:34:00 PM

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Usually footnotes to the Hall of Fame proceedings are the inductees in the media categories, the winners of the Elmer Ferguson Award for hockey writing and the Foster Hewitt Award for broadcasting. Now, I’ve got nothing against Pat Lafontaine, Mike Illitch, Brian Kilrea, Grant Fuhr, or even Ferguson winner Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated’s longtime hockey writer.

It’s Rod Phillips winning the Hewitt Award that’s the most personally satisfying to me, however. For those of you that haven’t read all the Hall of Fame press releases for this year’s induction and don’t live in Edmonton, you probably have no idea who Rod is.

Rod started broadcasting Oiler games in 1973, seven years before they joined the NHL and were instead part of the old WHA. Since that time, he’s done nearly 3,000 games. He missed only two pre-season games, once because of the death of his father in 1987 and once for the birth of his daughter in 1981, and one regular season game because of an illness three years ago. Now 62 years old, Rod also missed Saturday’s game against Detroit for his trip to Toronto for this long-deserved honour. That’s it. Four games in thirty years.

Rod’s something of a personal idol. I grew up in a small town outside Edmonton in the ‘80s, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been listening to Rod Phillips call Oiler games. In my town you could get Calgary Flame broadcasts as well, but there was really no contest when both teams were playing on one night, not because we liked the Oilers more, but because Rod Phillips was always calling Edmonton’s game.

During Rod’s induction speech he said that he’s never felt like his job was work, that he’s been lucky enough to do something he loves for thirty years. It’s that love of the game and the home team that makes Rod so great to listen to. He makes everything sound exciting, almost shouting into his microphone when either team puts the puck on goal. He may try to be mostly impartial, but if you listen to his voice when the Oilers score versus when the opposition scores, you can tell who he’s rooting for. And does he ever love fights. Almost every time two guys square off, the Oiler player will fire off “a THUNDEROUS right hand” until “down he goes”. Sometimes Rod sounds like he has a thesaurus in the broadcast booth with him, as he comes up with the weirdest adjectives for a great save or a big shot.

But his voice is always clear, he’s always incredibly excited no matter what’s going on, and for me turning on Rod is like some wonderful link to my younger days; I’ve listened to Rod call more than 1,000 games and I never get tired of tuning him in. To myself and Rod’s other fans his recognition by the Hall of Fame this year was a special event. As I listen to Rod call the Oilers-Canadiens game tonight (the Oilers are up 4-1) and realize that Rod’s got a lot more games behind him than ahead of him, every game he calls is just as special.


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