Brian McFarlane (born August 10, 1931) is a Canadian television
sportscaster and author. 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 cultivates ...
. He is the son of writer
Leslie McFarlane
Charles Leslie McFarlane (October 25, 1902 – September 6, 1977) was a Canadian journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and filmmaker, who is most famous for ghostwriting many of the early books in the very successful ''Hardy Boys'' series, using the ...
. He is best known as a broadcaster on
Hockey Night In Canada
CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
and as an author of hockey books.
Biography
Early life and career
Brian McFarlane was raised in
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...
and
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
Ontario. He attended
St. Lawrence University in
Canton, New York
Canton is an incorporated town in St. Lawrence County, New York. The population was 11,638 at the time of the 2020 census. The town contains two villages: one also named Canton, the other named Rensselaer Falls. The town is named after the gr ...
, on a hockey scholarship, graduating in 1955. In his four years he scored 101 goals for the
Skating Saints
The St. Lawrence Saints Men's Ice Hockey team, colloquially known as the "Skating Saints", is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents St. Lawrence University. The Saints are a membe ...
, 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.
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, also licensed to Sch ...
in
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
, before moving to
CFRB
CFRB (1010 kHz) is a commercial AM 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.
CFRB is a clea ...
Radio in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
and then
CFCF-TV
CFCF-DT (channel 12) is a 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). Both stations share studios at th ...
in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
(where he was sports director) and
CFTO
CFTO-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 outlet CKVR-DT, channel 3 ...
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
CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
,'' beginning in 1964. He made similar broadcasts on
NHL
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 ...
games for the major American networks
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
,
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 ...
, and
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 ...
. 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. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...
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 from 1970 until 1985 for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Detroit Red Wings. He was ...
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 Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was initially constructed in 1931 as an arena to host ice hockey games, though it has sinc ...
press box. For ''Hockey Night in Canada'', he was moved off Toronto games at this point, broadcasting the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets 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
Peter Puck is a hockey puck-shaped cartoon character. The puck, whose animated adventures appeared on both '' NBC's Hockey Game of the Week'' and CBC's ''Hockey Night in Canada'' during the 1970s, explained ice hockey rules, equipment and the spor ...
. The cartoon puck, which appeared on both ''
NBC's Hockey Game of the Week'' and CBC's ''
Hockey Night in Canada
CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
'' 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. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
. 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 comprised 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.UncreditedBook giant Stoddart files for creditor protection CBC News, May 1, 2002. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
History
General ...
, ) 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 much 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. McFarlane has since become an accomplished painter, exhibiting professionally. In 2022, he was named to Order of Canada for his contributions to the sport for "well over a half century."
McFarlane currently resides in the
Greater Toronto area.
Achievements
*1995 inducted into the media section of the
Hockey Hall of Fame
, logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg
, logo_upright = 0.5
, image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg
, caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992
, map_type =
, former_name =
, established = 1943
, location = 30 Y ...
.
*Admitted into the
Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
*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 (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
(CM).
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, 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: Volume 2'', with
Leslie McFarlane
Charles Leslie McFarlane (October 25, 1902 – September 6, 1977) was a Canadian journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and filmmaker, who is most famous for ghostwriting many of the early books in the very successful ''Hardy Boys'' series, using the ...
, 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
1931 births
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