I hated Danny Gallivan

He was the TV hockey caller 
for the Montreal Canadiens

for 32 years.

I hated him because he was so Montreal
and I was so Toronto Maple Leaf. 

I hated the sound of his voice. 

There was something strange about it - something foreign. 

To me, it seemed to say ... 
"we are the Habs and it doesn't matter what the score is, we are going to win". We have "little Charlie Hodge" 

and "big Robinson" and
"the speedy Cournoyer". 
He was such a Hab, he even had his own
Montreal Canadien hockey card

He enunciated with an unusual flare.
He seemed to create new words while describing the game.  It was distracting. 

He wasn't like Foster or Bill Hewitt. 
He said stuff that didn't sit well with me and my Leaf buddies. You know,  the "Savardian Spinerama" 
"the dearth of whistles" ... "6 and a half ounces of vulcanized rubber finds its way into the seats".
And, oh yea, the "cannonading drive".

The stuff he said made you say to yourself ... what did he say?

He was a homer and I had to turn the sound off the TV 

when he got to be too much for me.

One day in 1984 following his retirement I was flipping channels on my car radio and came across an interview 

with him.  Two minutes in I almost drove off the road.

Apparently, he was from Nova Scotia, not Montreal.

It seems he had a degree in English and Latin and was a high school teacher. 

He admitted to the interviewer that "his team while growing up in the Maritimes was the New York Rangers", 
not the Habs

When asked to name his all-time starting line-up he named the Leafs former captain, Ted Kennedy, as "his" starting centreman, not Jean Beliveau.  He said, "nobody could match Kennedy for securing the puck at the face-off". 

He said, "there was something very unique with Kennedy's face-off stance". He "couldn't quite describe it".

In 1983 I was with the premier sports magazine publishing company in North America, International Sports Properties.  We were about to launch Canada's first sports magazine, MVP Magazine.  

When the USA publication, Sports Illustrated started in the '50's they invited a representative from every major sport to attend their 1st edition party and the Leafs' Ted Kennedy was the NHL's representative.

During the '80s, SI had become terrifically successful and I wanted to invite Ted to our launch to sprinkle a little 

good-luck dust on us like he did for the American sports publication.

At the time Ted was a Steward at Woodbine Race Track
in Toronto and I'd done a little homework before the meeting.  The word was that Mr. Kennedy really didn't like to talk hockey.

So I had to figure out a way to talk hockey.  

He was #9. During his era, 9 was assigned to each NHL team's best player.

He was my idol as a kid. 
I "was" Ted Kennedy when
I got together with my pals 
to play ball hockey on the street. 

We had to talk about his appearance for the magazine but 
I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity to talk hockey.

I was having a few problems coaching my son's pee wee team. I knew he could help.

After lunch and the business stuff, I asked if he would mind a few hockey questions. Surprisingly he said “sure".

I explained I was having trouble teaching my 10-year-old centre men how to face-off. Could he offer some tips?  "Sure", he said.  "The most important thing is where you have your top hand”.

Then, he corrected himself. "No, the most important thing is where you position your feet". 

Then, he corrected himself again."No, the most important thing is to watch the linesman's hand with the puck". 

(this would be a good spot to insert a photo of "Teeder" Kennedy winning a face-off. I went through 100's of pictures of Ted Kennedy in action. Not one of them is a picture of him in his face-off stance. Not one.)

It was clear. He had no idea how to tell me how to teach someone else the fine art of face-offs. He could do it better than anyone else, according to Gallivan ... he just couldn't teach it. 

Ted shared the same birthdate as Frank Sinatra. Each year on that date I would put some Frank on the stereo, turn up the sound and give him a call at his home in Port Colborne.  He always got a kick out of Sinatra's voice in the background.

He started as an 18-year old, only played for the Leafs for 
14 years, was only one of two Leaf players to earn the Hart Trophy in the past 100 years and he was the first player in the NHL to earn 5 Stanley Cups.  He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966. 

Sadly, he passed away in 2009 at the age of 83.

"Teeder"

In 2016, the Maple Leaf Hockey Club
honoured Ted Kennedy with a 
bronze statue in front of the 

Scotiabank Centre.

His likeness is in uniform in an upright, 
standing position. 

They could have put him in his famous face-off stance ... but the sculptor couldn't figure out how to do it.