Ernest George Calcutt (November 1, 1932January 10, 1984) was a Canadian
sports commentator
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 ...
and radio news director. He worked for
CFRA
CFRA is a news/talk formatted radio station in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by Bell Media. The station broadcasts on the assigned frequency of 580 kHz. CFRA's studios are located in the Bell Media Building on George Street in Downtown Ottawa ...
580-AM in Ottawa, and was the voice for the
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
radio broadcasts from 1964 to 1983. He served as a president of the Canadian Football Reporters, and was inducted into both the
Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...
and the
Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame.
Early life and education
Ernest George Calcutt was born on November 1, 1932, in
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,
[; ] the son of Allan and Doris Calcutt. He grew up in the
Centretown
Centretown is a neighbourhood in Somerset Ward, in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is defined by the city as "the area bounded on the north by Gloucester Street and Lisgar Street, on the east by the Rideau Canal, on the south by the Quee ...
neighbourhood of Ottawa, was an altar boy at
St Patrick's Basilica and frequented the
Ottawa Auditorium as a youth.
He played
Canadian football
Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...
and
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 ...
as a student at
St. Patrick's High School.
He later married Pauline LeBlanc and fathered five children.
Radio career and community work
Calcutt began working for
CFRA
CFRA is a news/talk formatted radio station in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by Bell Media. The station broadcasts on the assigned frequency of 580 kHz. CFRA's studios are located in the Bell Media Building on George Street in Downtown Ottawa ...
580-AM radio part-time in 1961. He also worked with
Metropolitan Life Insurance
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
for 12 years, until he joined CRFA full-time in 1964.
He became the station's sports director in 1965, and then its news director in 1968.
He broadcast sports news reports every 30 minutes, gave a daily morning commentary and hosted a public affairs talk show.
Calcutt was the English language radio
sports commentator
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 ...
for the
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
from 1964 to 1983.
The ''
Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...
'' described Calcutt as having an encyclopedic knowledge of Canadian football,
and that he was candid about the Ottawa Rough Riders and not intimidated to give criticism despite that the team and radio station had common ownership.
During his broadcast tenure, the team competed in six
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
games and won four
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
championships. He was credited for having a sense of on-air humour, and for coining the phrases "pulling an el foldo" and "being as wide open as a church door on a Sunday morning".
He also served as president of the Canadian Football Reporters,
and was a recurring host of the
Schenley Award The Most Outstanding Player Award is annually awarded to the best player in the Canadian Football League. The two nominees for the award are the Terry Evanshen Trophy winner from the East Division, and the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy winner from ...
for the league's most valuable player.
Calcutt served as a director with the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club, and was a founding member of both the
Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in 1968, and the
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
CHEO is a pediatric health-care and research centre located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CHEO is also a tertiary trauma centre for children in Eastern Ontario, Nunavut, Northern Ontario and the Outaouais region of Quebec and one of only seven Leve ...
in 1974.
He was a frequent master of ceremonies for the Ottawa Sports Awards annual dinner, and made contributions to the
Easter Seals telethon hosted in Ottawa.
He helped establish Operation Go Home, to return runaway children to their families. The
Ottawa Police Service
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS; French: ''Service de police d'Ottawa'') is a municipal police force in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OPS serves an area of 2,790 square kilometres and 1,017,449 (2021 census) people alongside several other police ...
credited his efforts for taking 15,000 children off the streets in 11 years.
Calcutt died on January 10, 1984, in Ottawa, Ontario,
due to a stroke.
His funeral at St Patrick's Basilica was reported to have been attended by at least one thousand people.
His remains were cremated and a memorial was erected at
Notre-Dame Cemetery in Ottawa.
He was succeeded by
John Badham
John MacDonald Badham (born August 25, 1939) is an English television and film director, best known for his films ''Saturday Night Fever'' (1977), ''Dracula'' (1979), ''Blue Thunder'' (1983), ''WarGames'' (1983), ''Short Circuit'' (1986), and ...
as the radio announcer for the Ottawa Rough Riders and the sports director of CFRA.
Posthumous honours
![TD Place South Stand, Ottawa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/TD_Place_South_Stand%2C_Ottawa.JPG)
The City of Ottawa made him the namesake of Ernie Calcutt Park in 1984.
The new
artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...
field at
Lansdowne Park Stadium was also named for Calcutt in 1984.
He was inducted into the builder category of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.
He was named to the honour roll of Sports Media Canada, and is a partial namesake of the Ernie Calcutt/
Eddie MacCabe
Edward William Joseph MacCabe (January 15, 1927May 22, 1998) was a Canadian sports journalist and writer. He began in journalism with the '' Ottawa Journal'' in 1946, briefly wrote for the ''Montreal Star'' from 1951 and 1952, then returned to ...
/
Brian Smith Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports Media in Ottawa.
On October 29, 2014, the
press box
The press box is a special section of a sports stadium or arena that is set up for the media to report about a given event. It is typically located in the section of the stadium holding the luxury box and can be either enclosed or open to the e ...
and media centre at the renovated
TD Place Stadium
TD Place Stadium (originally Lansdowne Park and formerly Frank Clair Stadium) is an outdoor stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located at Lansdowne Park, on the southern edge of The Glebe neighbourhood, where Bank Street (Ottawa), Bank S ...
were named for Calcutt.
He was inducted into the football reporters section of
Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...
on November 26, 2017, in a ceremony at the
105th Grey Cup
The 105th Grey Cup was played on November 26, 2017, between the Calgary Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa, Ontario.
In a re-match of the 100th Grey Cup, the Argonauts won the game 27–24, winning their 17th cham ...
game played in Ottawa.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calcutt, Ernie
1932 births
1984 deaths
Burials at Notre-Dame Cemetery (Ottawa)
Canadian colour commentators
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League announcers
Canadian radio sportscasters
Sportspeople from Ottawa