Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Hughson shares memories of 42-year career

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Born in Dawson Creek and raised in Fort St. John, Jim Hughson’s Peace region roots run deep, and his passion for sports — mainly hockey — has added theatrics and clarity to sports broadcasts for the last 42 years.

Hughson announced his retirement from broadcasting in late September, and he appeared on Moose Talks to share some memories of Fort St. John and some of the highlights of his sports broadcasting career.

Hughson says his family was always playing hockey.

“We lived on the outdoor rink, no matter how cold it was. In those days, the streets would freeze over with snow, and they didn’t use a lot of sand. So we actually played hockey on the snow on the streets, and skated on the streets as well,” said Hughson.

While he enjoyed playing sports, especially hockey, Hughson knew from a young age he wasn’t destined to play in the NHL.

“I was always one of the fastest guys on our team, but there was a reason for that. Because I didn’t need shoulder pads, I could get out of the way of a hit, any time, any place. I didn’t want any part of that part of the game, but I loved playing it. I realized at a very early time that I wasn’t going to make a living on the ice.”

When Hughson was at North Peace Secondary School, his English teacher got him involved in radio plays, something that opened the door to a part-time gig at a local radio station.

“I kind of thought it was pretty cool because I read the news and the weather, I would do some sports, and like all radio stations, you did a little bit of everything.”

When the sports director left the station, Hughson got his chance.

“There were very few of us left in the radio station that knew a puck from a football, so I got a chance to broadcast some fastball games, I got a chance to broadcast some hockey games, but the real clincher for me was I got a chance to broadcast a Fort St. John Flyers, Dawson Creek Canucks hockey game, and I loved it.”

When Hughson’s career continued to the point where he was calling Toronto Blue Jays games, he had to make a difficult decision.

“Unfortunately, what happened in the industry is that the crossover season was just too much. There was just too much of a crossover between hockey and baseball. It became very apparent to me that I would have to make a decision between hockey and baseball, and I chose hockey. Not simply because of my roots, my Canadian roots, but I like the idea that they play in the winter, and took summer off, as opposed to baseball, where it’s a wonderful game, but they insist on playing it every day in the summer.”

Hughson became a true hockey icon when he was named the voice of EA Sports, but he says the job of doing play-by-play for a video game was one of the hardest gigs he ever had.

“The initial year that I was the voice of EA Sports, the voiceover consisted of ‘Welcome to Chicago Stadium and today’s game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings’, and that was about it. A year later, they came to me and said ‘we’ve expanded this, we have all of this room within the game to do play-by-play’ and I said I don’t know how we’re going to do it. So we worked together, the producers and me, and I was quite proud of it because we actually pioneered this. We actually put play-by-play into a video game for the first time.”

When asked what his favourite call was in a star-studded career, Hughson had an interesting answer that many great sports broadcasters share.

“Some of the best calls, some of the best games that I was part of, were when I had the good sense to shut up and say nothing. Because television allows you to do that, there was one game in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, Los Angeles was beating New Jersey and they were going to win the fifth game and they were going to win it at home and the fans were going crazy. We didn’t say a word for the last three minutes of the game, and I think it’s one of the finest pieces of work I’ve been a part of.”