James Donald Matheson (born April 7, 1949) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

sports journalist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

who has covered the

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 ...

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

since their inception into the WHA in 1973 and the NHL in 1979. In 2000, he received 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 ...

Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award The Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award is an accolade presented annually to a print newspaper columnist or reporter in recognition of their achievements covering the game of ice hockey. The award is "to recognize distinguished members of the newspaper ...

Career

Manitoba and Saskatchewan

Matheson was born on April 7, 1949, in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

and Peggy Matheson. Matheson had an intention to follow the footsteps of his father, Jack, a long-time sports editor for the ''

Winnipeg Tribune ''The Winnipeg Tribune'' was a metropolitan daily newspaper serving Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from January 28, 1890 to August 27, 1980. The paper was founded by R.L. Richardson and D.L. McIntyre who acquired the press and premises of the old '' ...

''. He graduated from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, and while in school, worked a part-time night shift with the Tribune.

Alberta

He got his first job upon completing school with the ''

Regina Leader-Post The ''Regina Leader-Post'' is the daily newspaper of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and a member of the Postmedia Network. Founding The newspaper was first published as ''The Leader'' in 1883 by Nicholas Flood Davin, soon after Edgar Dewdney, Li ...

'', but moved west to

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

six months later. Upon moving to Edmonton, Matheson got a job with the ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

'' in 1970. He initially covered local curling and university sports, but quickly switched to

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

, when, in 1973, Edmonton was granted a WHA franchise, the

. Matheson became the beat writer for the Oilers then, and continued when the Oilers joined the NHL in 1979. He spent countless hours covering the team and its five

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

s, and completed more than 300 stories per winter. In addition to writing, Matheson also was a part of the CFRN radio broadcasting team that covered the Oilers. After 24 years, he completed his tenure as beat writer for the Oilers in 1997. He now continues to write for the ''

'' covering the NHL and the Oilers.

Later career

In January 2022, Matheson became a subject of international sports news after a heated exchange with Oilers player

Leon Draisaitl Leon Tim Draisaitl (; born 27 October 1995) is a German professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Draisaitl grew up playing hockey in Germany until he was selected second ove ...

after the team's sixth straight loss, calling Draisaitl "pissy" and accusing him of not providing the kind of answers he wanted for his column. A video of the exchange went viral on the Internet.

Personal life

Matheson resides in

with his wife, Marni. They have one son, Scott. He received the

from the

in 2000.

References

1949 births Edmonton Oilers announcers Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award recipients Journalists from Manitoba Living people Journalists from Winnipeg {{Canada-journalist-stub