Joseph Carbury (né Carrabre; April 4, 1926 – October 17, 2017) was a rodeo announcer in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

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 ...

, and one of the most familiar voices of the Calgary area. Carbury was born 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 ...

in 1926, with his surname having originally been spelt "Carrabre". He began with radio sports announcing in 1948. After announcing for

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

games, the junior hockey team

Medicine Hat Tigers The Medicine Hat Tigers are a junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League (WHL) who play in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Established in 1970, the team has won two national Memorial Cups, five WHL League Championships and seven Divis ...

, the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

and Calgary Stampeders of the

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 ...

, and for

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

matches, he became most famous through the Calgary Stampede. Joe Carbury announced the chuckwagon races of the Calgary Stampede from the 1960s until his retirement in 2008. His tagline "And they're OFF..." to start each race is well known in the Calgary area. He also announced the horse races at Stampede Park from 1953 until horse racing moved out of the park in June 2007. Thus, at 54 years on the job, Carbury had announced for almost half of horse racing's 117-year history at Stampede Park. He has announced over 1,000 hockey games and over 25,000 horse races. He was inducted into the Alberta Sport Hall Of Fame in 2003. Carbury died at a Calgary hospital after a stroke, on October 17, 2017. He was 91.

Sources

*http://www.albertasportshalloffame.com/default.aspx?p=member&mid=358 *http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/neighbours/story.html?id=f064b30a-334b-4261-a21a-325a44a86aeb&p=2 *http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Rodeo/2003/04/01/55715.html 1926 births 2017 deaths Canadian Football League announcers Canadian horse racing announcers Canadian radio sportscasters Curling broadcasters People from Winnipeg {{Canada-sport-bio-stub