Breadcrumb Trail Links
Having known Robson for 60 years, Douglas shares a few stories about the legend. Read more.
Author of the article:
Greg Douglas, Special to Postmedia , Staff Reporter
Published Feb 13, 2026 • 5 minute read
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Greg Douglas, left, and the late Jim Robson, right. Tom Locke photo. Photo by Tom LockeArticle content
The disheartening news came just three days after he had hosted a modest luncheon for what he proudly referred to as the “Fairly Old Boys Olympic Men’s Hockey Pool.”
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There are literally hundreds of wonderful stories and events that have been documented and discussed since his passing on Monday evening at the age of 91.
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Having known the man for 60 years, allow me to share a few that he related to me recently.
Although he wasn’t aware of it at the time, Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Robson made his first ‘road trip’ in 1935 from Glen Bush, Saskatchewan to the thriving metropolis of Prince Albert on the banks of the Northern Saskatchewan River. The Robson family doctor, after having safely delivered his three siblings in the small roadside wooden shack they called home in Glen Bush, recommended the move to Prince Albert when his mother was expecting Jim.
His dad worked cutting railway ties and at various jobs in the bush, reserving time each winter to create a backyard rink using a garden hose to build layers of ice in 60-below temperatures.
Saturday nights were ‘bath nights’ in the Robson household and the mandatory routine took place while listening to Foster Hewitt with his legendary radio play-by-play hockey broadcasts that unified the country from coast-to-coast. Who knew that some 30 years later Jim Robson would be the voice of the Vancouver Canucks calling a game from the famous gondola at Maple Leaf Gardens a few yards away from where Foster Hewitt began each broadcast with: “Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland.”
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Robson called more than 2,000 NHL games on radio and television between 1970 and April 14, 1999, the night of his final broadcast that only he and his wife Bea knew would be his farewell. It’s been duly noted that in each and every game Robson would give a salute to his listeners that went: “A special hello to hospital patients and shut-ins, the pensioners, the blind and all the people who can’t get out to games but enjoy the hockey broadcasts”.
It became his trademark and while some pretentious Hockey Night in Canada television executives tried to get him to refrain from saying it because they thought it was ‘amateurish’ for a national telecast, Robson stood his ground.
One day he realized there was another segment of the audience he was acknowledging when he received a scribbled thank-you note from an prisoner at the B.C. Penitentiary.
“Thanks for remembering us,” it said. “We wait for your hello and bang our tin cups on the bars.”
Jim Robson in the broadcast booth in 1989. Photo by Ken Oakes /PNG
The note was signed by Tom Scallen, the original Canucks owner who had been sentenced in 1973 on charges of securities fraud and filing a false stock prospectus.
Scallen also owned Ice Follies in the early 1970s and whenever that show played Madison Square Garden the skaters and crew would stay at the old New Yorker Hotel. As part of a package deal, the Canucks booked the same lodging for their first visit to the Big Apple on Dec. 8, 1970. The first and last as it turned out.
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The Canucks lost 4-1 and to add insult to injury, upon returning to the New Yorker the players discovered the rings and watches they had left behind had been stolen when a hotel staffer with a master key had ransacked their rooms. Robson was initially relieved that he’d thought to hide his valuables but then discovered his per diem travel money was part of the heist.
There was another visit to Madison Square in those early days that also haunted Robson. He was working solo without a colour commentator and nearly missed the entire CKNW broadcast when he got trapped in a narrow, tunnel-like hallway an hour before game time. Rangers’ farm director Dennis Ball shared with Jim a “short cut” up to ice level on the fifth level of the building after he had finished his pre-game interview with New York head coach Emile Francis in the team offices on the fourth floor.
Following instructions, Robson went through a heavy metal door that slammed shut behind him, not realizing it locked from the outside. When he approached the door at the other end of the spooky corridor, he discovered that, too, locked from the outside.
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There was no way out. After 15 minutes of frantic knocking, kicking and hollering, a Madison Square Garden janitor finally heard the commotion and opened the door. “I could have been trapped in there for hours,” Robson said. “Heck, I could have died in there and not a soul would have known where to find me. The broadcast that night got off to a rocky start.”
Only in his mind, of course.
During my travels with the man — and there were many — a day would not go by without Jim Robson being recognized by an adoring public. For me, that would span from those early years covering baseball’s Mounties at Capilano Stadium to last week at Thunderbird Stadium on the UBC campus.
Jim had just completed a mid-morning medical appointment and we agreed the timing would be ideal to enjoy the sunshine with a drive through the University grounds. We found an unlocked gate and stood looking down at the football field where there was one young man wrapping up a workout on his own.
He was walking off the turf and a few minutes later surfaced at the top of the stands heading to what appeared to be a players’ dressing room. He stopped and stared at Jim who wasn’t within ear shot and said in a soft voice: “Is that who I think it is?”
So typical in the life of Jim Robson … a life that touched so many.
Greg Douglas has been a broadcaster and journalist in Vancouver media for over 60 years. He’s served as the Vancouver Canucks Public Relations Director as well as a sports radio host and a longtime columnist for The Vancouver Sun and is a member of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
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