On The Record with Jeffrey Reed
August 22, 2026
The Sportswriters And Broadcasters Who Helped Shape My Career
Photo (above): Jeffrey Reed interviews golf coach/instructor Hank Haney
It has been oft said that the sports department of any newsroom is the toy department, void of any meaningful matter. I’ve had news directors and editors feed me that shit for more than 47 years. As legendary broadcaster Bob Costas once said, “They say that sports don’t matter much. And if they’re talking about what’s on the scoreboard, then in the end, they’re right. But the people matter. And the memories they let us share matter.”
In fact, when I look back at my tenure as a print and broadcast journalist, I point to Bob Costas as one of the biggest influences on my career. There are many others, too – and that’s what this week’s On The Record with Jeffrey Reed is all about: the people who helped shape me into the writer and broadcaster I am today.
One of the newsies who told me sports sat below news in importance was Bob Collins, the long-time program director at The School of Broadcast Journalism at Fanshawe College – and overseer of CIXX-FM, or 6X-FM, Fanshawe’s college radio station. It’s where I studied journalism and made my bones as both a news and sports reporter from 1981-83. Yet Collins can be considered one of my influencers. He pushed me harder than any editor has over the past 47 years, and he demanded your best effort, 100 per cent of the time. To be honest, every project I’ve tackled since those two years have been a cakewalk compared to working in the 6X-FM newsroom.
Jeffrey Reed interviewing former Kitchener Panthers slugger Sean Reilly at Labatt Park in 2016. Photo: RJ Rose.
Fact is, sports – including everything from tots running around aimlessly on a soccer pitch to heavyweight boxing, and everything in between – is a multi-billion-dollar industry. And that’s not even counting all of the legal – and illegal – gambling. Kind of sad, isn’t it, that Pete Rose died before he had a chance to see himself perhaps one day elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame? It will happen one day. With all of the gambling attached to professional sports, it still doesn’t cleanse Rose’s gambling on baseball. I’ll write another column on how past and present sports stars are being paid to promote legal gambling. Today, we’ll focus on the influencers.
The great sportswriter O.B. Keeler once quipped, “Money, it’s gonna’ ruin sports.” It was probably true well before the Chicago Black Sox scandal of 1919. It’s certainly true today. But you can’t get around the fact, sports is one of the largest economic drivers of society, especially here in North America. Even the most casual of sports fans helps drive that economic engine – think of all of the Toronto Blue Jays fans who jumped on the bandwagon last fall and purchased $250 jerseys.
From the sidelines to centre ice, sports greatly defines modern times. From the time I could speak – my mother, Marlene, told me my first word was, ball – sports has certainly played the biggest part in defining who I am. I’ve been an elite runner, baseball player and golfer. And since 1980, I’ve written and talked about sports at all levels for a local and national audience. It’s in my blood, and I can thank scores of people for instilling in me a true love of sports. As Costas said, it’s the people and the memories they let us share that matter the most.
Here, then, are the biggest influencers on my career as a sports journalist. I’ve divided my list into categories: print; broadcast; recent influencers; plus family and friends. Enjoy.
Grade 8 Teacher Mrs. Hurley
Remember in grade school when, once a month, we could purchase books from a catalogue? One day, you would arrive in the classroom and see those books sitting on your desk. In Grade 8 – when I first announced to anyone within earshot that I would someday be a writer – my desktop, one day each month, was nearly invisible thanks to the mountain of books piled high. Every other classmate’s desk had two or three books. My stack was as tall as the CN Tower. That year, my teacher, Mrs. Hurley, pinned a dozen stories from The London Free Press on the class bulletin board each morning. Before our lessons, Mrs. Hurley would hold up each clipping and ask a pupil to tell the class what it was all about. I raised my hand for every story. The tally at the end of the year was about as close as a Mike Tyson fight during his prime: I had 400-plus points. My nearest competitor had less than 40. Perhaps it helped that I had been up since 5 a.m. when I delivered that same newspaper to more than 150 residents – it was the largest suburban paper route in London during the mid-1970s. So, I thank Mrs. Hurley for helping me launch a well-read life. FYI about a decade ago, she emailed me with a note about how proud she was of me. I’ll always cherish that note.
The London Free Press
Since I could read, the sports section of The London Free Press was must-read material for me. Why? Because during its salad days – before the Internet and prior to a dreadful economy decimating newsrooms – that section was a visible example of men and women who were passionate about local sports. During the 1970s, Ernie Miller was my favourite local scribe – I still have his story about my Pittsburgh Pirates winning the 1979 World Series framed and on my sports cave wall. Ernie wrote about local sports, too – and that has always been my passion: telling stories about people who make local sports tick. Not just fluff, but the meat and potatoes. Later, a number of talented, dedicated journalists including Jim Cressman, Jim Kernaghan and John Herbert, as well as Jeff Hale, Steve Coad and Steve Green, offered an almost daily dose of local sports news. Herbert, in my estimation, was Canada’s best golf writer, but was never recognized as such. I was always impressed by how connected Coad and Cressman were to the local sports community, and I learned a lot because of that. Oh, we butted heads occasionally, since I have always freelanced and, for many years, was the Freeps’ only print competition – the same time freelancing for a number of Free Press weekly and specialty publications. I believe I was often underestimated, too, because I freelanced. Some of my contemporaries didn’t understand I freelanced by choice, not by default. But in the end, we always walked away in a professional manner, as fellow members of the media should. Sadly, and for many years, I have been the only local sportswriter digging deeply into stories, minus the outstanding hockey writing of Ryan Pyette. The rest might as well be PR material – and that is sad, because a lot of those folks are talented writers who, in my mind, are wasting their talents. Don’t get me wrong: there is a need for those types of stories, and no news is worse than fluff. But investigative sports journalism – at the local level – has been dying a slow death for decades. So, I thank folks like Cressman for showing me how it’s done correctly. His writing was always entertaining, conversational yet informative, and I miss reading his columns in the Free Press. All of the aforementioned writers influenced my career. Note: from 1989 until recently, I was the most published freelancer with The London Free Press. A handful of editors, mostly Clare Dear – a great automotive writer – were great mentors, and I appreciate that immensely.
Steve Simmons, The Toronto Sun
Like Sun sportswriter Steve Simmons, I have never been one to shy away from tough topics, nor shy to share my opinions. And like Simmons – one of my favourite writers – I am always fare. Factual, with no sugar coating, but fare. The Sun website lists Simmons as “Canada’s longest-serving sports columnist.” In fact, he has me by an inch – although he is much more well-known than yours truly. I wrote for my high school newspaper, The Montcalm Tribune, in 1979 and in 1980 worked part-time at 1410 CKSL Radio in London. Simmons was sports editor of The Gazette at Western University in 1978-79 and was sports editor of his high school yearbook at York Mills Collegiate in Toronto before that. Obviously, he has had a higher-profile platform on a much larger scale than yours truly since then. Years ago, I chose to not leave London and instead focus on a career in local sports journalism. There were a few reasons for that, mostly my long list of physical disabilities which make travel a tough task. In any event, Simmons is a Canadian treasure and one of the best sportswriters we have ever had. He is brutally blunt and sometimes shockingly witty, but most of the time I agree with his point of view. Yet whether you do agree with him or not, he is a must-read sportswriter with a crystal-clear vision of what is really going in sports today, and as entertaining as they come. And really, no mater how much money is attached to sports, shouldn’t it always be entertaining? You can read Simmons’ bio at The Toronto Sun website. Here’s a quote from Simmons when asked why he loves journalism: “Journalism isn’t so much a profession as it is an obsession. For me, it’s about passion and always has been.” Amen. For the record, at times during my own career, when the haters piled on, I have always found inspiration in Simmons’ columns. As they say, if you don’t tell the whole story, then you aren’t telling the truth. I’ve never met Steve, but hope to someday to share stories, and to thank him for inspiring me.
Jim Bouton, Major League Baseball Pitcher & Author
Jim Bouton’s book, Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues (1970) should be mandatory reading for every sports fan. In fact, it should be mandatory reading for anyone wishing to learn about the advent of modern sportswriting. Before Bouton’s book, which blew the cover off of Major League Baseball’s goody-goody, all-American apple pie image, sportswriting at any level – for the most part, minus writers like George Plimpton (who I will profile next) – had an awe-shucks angle. But when Bouton wrote truthfully about his time with the American League’s expansion club, the Seattle Pilots, the Houston Astros and his earlier days as a New York Yankees hurler, it exposed baseball fans to the real lives of professional baseball players. They were, after all, real people with real flaws, just like the rest of us. And, as MLB players, they had a lot of time on their hands, which often led to their quirks and mistakes being exposed to the world – at least, to Bouton’s eyes. Ball Four – largely a diary of Bouton’s 1969 season, spent with the Pilots and then Astros following a late-season trade, was controversial for divulging many unflattering facts about the sport and its players. In fact, MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn attempted to discredit it and label it as detrimental to the sport. Yet it is considered a landmark in American sports literature, and included on Time’s list of the 100 greatest non-fiction books published since the magazine’s founding in 1923. Ball Four is a mild recounting of one’s MLB experience, compared to today’s literature where anything goes. It takes a hell of a lot to shock any of us anymore. Ball Four was ahead of its time, and it inspired me to take a chance, be different and offer insight others don’t – or won’t. One of my favourite memories of baseball banter stems from my lengthy chat with Bouton during his stop at the London Sports Celebrity Dinner and Auction in 1981. And yes, I have an autographed copy of Ball Four in my own library.
George Plimpton
George Plimpton was known for participatory journalism, including accounts of his active involvement in professional sports, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It was his sportswriting, though, that captured my eye and influenced my career. Author of three dozen books, Plimpton penned classics including, Paper Lion (1966), his most famous book, detailing his time trying out as a backup quarterback for the Detroit Lions; and Shadow Box (1977), Plimpton’s exploration into the world of professional boxing, including sparring with Archie Moore. These were no stunts: he fully emersed himself into those sports and had the bruises to prove it. There’s no substitute for the real thing, and Plimpton delivered literature that jumped off the pages, thanks to his offering of a front-row seat to everything from PGA Tour golf to NHL hockey with the Boston Bruins. In 2011, I borrowed a page from Plimpton with my own column, Out Of My League, published by The Londoner. It saw me offer participatory journalism as I practiced with the London Lighting basketball team, played tackle football with the CCH Crusaders senior boys football team and even cheered as a member of the national-champion Western Mustangs cheerleaders – on national TV during the Yates Cup, of all things. Plimpton’s writing style was impeccable and inspired me to write with a combination of the facts with just the write amount of flowery prose.
BROADCAST
Jeffrey Reed
My first on-air job was with 1410 CKSL Radio in 1980 when I worked as a night editor, and wrote and voiced occasional sports news – mostly, though, for the CKSL Sports Line (listeners would phone into the station for a recorded summary of local and professional sports – I later borrowed that format when I produced the Intercounty Baseball Line for that semi-pro baseball league from 1995-97). Mentors there included Chris Mayberry and Mike Gligour. But even as a pre-teen, I carried a cassette recorder the size of a bread box into Labatt Park and did play-by-play of the London Majors for an audience of one. As a teen, I was a regular caller to local sports talk shows on CFPL Radio 98, and 1290 CJBK. After on-air and reporting duties with 1570 CHLO Radio in St. Thomas, I worked for decades calling sports play-by-play, first for MacLean-Hunter TV and later Rogers TV. I’m proud to say both of my talk shows over the years were groundbreaking: Sports Rap was a half-hour radio show airing on 6X-FM in 1982-83; and a TV interview show by the same name aired on MacLean-Hunter during the early- to mid-1990s. For decades, I have been a guest on numerous Southwestern Ontario radio and TV shows. And in 2011, I wrote, hosted and co-produced Forest City Fairways, a very popular half-hour golf show. Sports broadcasting was my first love, before I gave into sportswriting – my passion. Here, then, are the biggest influencers from the world of radio and TV:
Bob Costas
Costas is the gold standard for sports broadcasting – well-informed, does his homework, likeable, great storyteller, credible, big-game experience and not afraid to poke fun at himself. He’s a baseball guy, through and through, and has a deep respect for the game and its history. His career began in 1973 at WSYR-TV and Radio in Syracuse, New York, while still a student at Syracuse University. Shortly after graduating in 1974, he moved to KMOX Radio in St. Louis, where he gained national attention calling games for the ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis. The rest, as they say, is history. I’ve learned a lot from Costas over the years – how to respect others, ask meaningful questions and when to back off and let the interviewee speak.
Bob Prince, Pittsburgh Pirates Play-by-Play Broadcaster
Growing up a Pirates fan, Bob Prince was The Man for me when it came to baseball play-by-play. His endless phrases behind the mic – “Chicken on the Hill with Will,” and “You can kiss it goodbye,” are just a few. I first heard Bob on Pirates broadcasts on WSEE Channel 35 Erie, Pa., and late-evening on KDKA Radio when I was able to pull it in on my transistor radio. For 28 years 1948 to 1975, Prince was the Voice of the Pirates. I even have a few records and cassette tapes of Pirates’ World Series and season-long highlights, narrated by Prince, and I listened to them endlessly as teen.
Tom Cheek, Toronto Blue Jays Broadcaster
Tom Cheek
No one called a better Blue Jays game than Tom Cheek. He was the Voice of the Blue Jays from their first game in 1977 to June 2004. I met Tom at a London Sports Celebrity Dinner and Auction and we enjoyed a very long chat over drinks before the dinner began. In fact, he invited me to watch a Jays game from the broadcast booth at Exhibition Stadium with him and colour commentator Jerry Howarth – and even let me call a half inning versus the Kansas City Royals. My relatives in London went nuts over that one, and I am forever grateful for Tom being a mentor and a friend.
Howard Cosell
What sports broadcaster wasn’t influenced by Cosell from 1953 to 1985? Behind the show business and joking, Cosell was a natural and brilliant at getting interviewees to speak their minds. Take his clown act with Muhammad Ali: on the surface, it was Martin and Lewis, but if you listen carefully, there was a lot of great journalism and social commentary behind the act. He spoke his mind, too – that’s an understatement – and he taught me, as a young broadcaster, to be myself: be authentic.
Dick Beddoes
Dick Beddoes was well-known in these parts as the lead sports anchor and reporter for CHCH TV in Hamilton, and like Cosell he was all about entertaining the audience. His partner in crime was Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard. But Beddoes was relentless in his investigative reporting – another lesson for a young broadcaster in London, Ont. – and knew that despite the seriousness of some sports stories, sports broadcasting had to be fun and entertaining. He was passionate about his job, as I am, and I was a regular viewer during his time at CHCH TV.
Pete Franklin
If Howard Stern had a sports broadcasting brother, it was shock jock Pete Franklin of 1100 WWWE Cleveland. Once the sun went down, I would tune into Franklin’s radio phone-in show almost every weekday evening, just to listen to what he would say next. Nothing was sacred. And like Stern, he had a cast of characters join him each week – who can forget the Great Swami and his original song, It’s Baseball? Stern was one of the most knowledgeable sports broadcasters I’ve ever listened to, and it was great hearing another type of voice that was in great contrast to the ultra-conservative broadcasters in my hometown.
Gary Alan Price
Gary Alan Price MC’s Fergie Jenkins Night with the London Majors, June 5, 1992. Photo by Jeffrey Reed/LondonOntarioSports.com.
One of my biggest mentors, Gary Alan Price – known affectionally as “The Gapper” – was a huge influence on my career as a sports reporter. Listening to him call play-by-play of the London high school hockey finals on 980 CFPL Radio in the late-1970s inspired me even more to launch my own career in broadcasting. Price’s sports call-in show, Sports Call, was the last of its kind in London – a true meeting place in real time for the entire local sports community, long before the Internet would bridge that gap. In 2017, I sat down with Price for this feature interview – click here.
Brian Decker
1290 CBJK’s Brian Decker was the anti-Gary Alan Price. While The Gapper was conservative in his approach, Decker was London’s original shock jock. When every local radio station had its own large team of on-air personalities and reporters, Decker provided shocking banter on the half hour – you tuned in because you never knew what he would say. But his language today would be considered more conservative than Price’s. Times have changed. But no one has replaced Decker’s status as a local radio shock jock. He, too, was a mentor – he encouraged me to be myself, be honest, don’t shy away from tough stories and always be entertaining. It is, after all, sports.
Bob McCowan, Jim Tatti, & Mark Hebscher
The trio of Bob McCowan, Jim Tatti and Mark Hebscher provided Global TV viewers with ground-breaking TV sports journalism, long before we had hundreds of channels at our fingertips. McCowan is a legend – in 1981, he launched Sportsline, a nightly sports highlight show. It was a first for Canadian viewers. When he resigned in 1984, the tandem of Tatti and Hebscher took over – they co-hosted the show until Hebscher’s departure in 1995. Their show was fast-paced, informative, entertaining and anything but conservative Canadian broadcasting. Every sports fan I knew at the time never missed an episode of Sportsline.
RECENT INFLUENCERS
Jeff Pearlman
You can never stop learning, nor should you not be open to new ideas, no matter how thick your skin is thanks to decades of working as a hardened, cynical sports journalist. Recently, I’ve become a fan of long-time sports broadcaster Dan Patrick, formerly of ESPN and one of the most entertaining, well-informed professional broadcasters I’ve ever known. I watch his podcast, The Dan Patrick Show, on a regular basis. It’s one of the best. So is Jeff Pearlman’s online show, Press Box Chronicles, which was actually the catalyst for this column. Formerly of Sports Illustrated, Pearlman tells it like it is: honest storytelling, offering never-told or little-known stories behind the stories in real language. Nothing is sacred. Nothing. He’s brutally honest, but always truthful. Catch him on YouTube for stories you won’t want to miss.
FAMILY & FRIENDS
How did my love of sports begin, and how did my journey continue throughout my younger days? I was blessed to come from a sports family. My father, Ken, was a talented baseball and hockey player, a low handicap-index golfer, a champion 5-pin bowler and even a boxer. Most of all, he loved baseball and his beloved New York Yankees. He coached some of my Little League teams, played catch with me and was my constant golf partner at Fanshawe Golf Club. We took many trips together to Tiger Stadium and Exhibition Stadium. He even brought me to Toronto during the Maple Leafs’ last Stanley Cup parade in 1967. I am forever grateful for my father introducing me to sports, encouraging me, and reminding me of life’s lessons learned through sports: never give up; outwork everyone else; be a great teammate; and don’t let obstacles get in your way of achieving your goals. As a disabled person, I took that last lesson to heart.
The author’s father, Ken Reed.
Through public and high school, I was lucky to have three best friends – all of them as crazy about sports as I was. Hendrick Schuurmans, Peter Costello and Chris Kubinski offered unwavering friendship during a time when I was bullied relentlessly because of my disabilities. Hendrick and I played pickup hockey together, and spent endless hours playing tabletop hockey and trading bubblegum cards. Peter was a mentor – he taught me how to skate at age 16 on frozen Fanshawe Lake, despite the fact I have club feet and other muscular skeletal deformities. Chris and I went to public school and high school together, and he followed me to Fanshawe College where we studied in the two-year Broadcast Journalism program. We played beer league baseball and pickup hockey together, and got in the occasional game of golf before disabilities prematurely ended my golf career after the 2019 season. We remain friends today – I’ve forgiven him for being a Cubs fan!
Throughout life, everyone we have contact with – family, friends, colleagues and even strangers – has an influence on us. It’s inevitable. What we do with the lessons we learn from others is what makes us who we are. When I look back at those who touched my life – good or bad – I’m grateful for the knowledge I digested, and forever grateful for my career as a sports journalist. Because really, despite the incredibly long hours of hard work, I’ve never worked a day in my life since this career began.
In his book, Ball Four, Jim Bouton coined the phrase, “Cool of the evening.” It was a state of almost euphoria – total relaxation after a job well done. You see it on the face of an MLB pitcher, relaxing in the dugout after an exceptional effort on the mound. For me, the cool of the evening doesn’t arrive every evening – I’m writing, and not published every day, nor am I building widgets that carry a sense of accomplishment after each shift.
But I do know that when my career ends one day, I’ll experience the cool of the evening, thanks in part to all of the aforementioned people who helped shape my life.
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Jeffrey Reed is Southwestern Ontario’s senior sports journalist, with roots dating back to 1980 when he launched a career in broadcast journalism at 1410 CKSL Radio. In fact, one year prior in 1979 – the year his beloved Pittsburgh Pirates captured their last World Series victory – he wrote a column for his high school newspaper, The Montcalm Tribune. Since then, Reed has captured nine awards in Canada and the U.S. for excellence in sportswriting. He’s the only journalist to have captured back-to-back Best Online Feature Column awards from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. His story on the 1950s-1960s rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs published by Forever Young captured a Mature Media Award for sportswriting excellence. He interviewed his boyhood hockey idol, Ron Ellis, for that piece. A three-time author, Reed’s 2018 book, The Canadian Seniors’ Golf Association, Celebrating 100 Years of Seniors Golf 1918-2018, is now housed in the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum library. Reach Jeffrey at jeff@londonontariosports.com.
FLOWERS & BRICKS
Flowers
Dear Jeffrey,
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your On The Record piece from this weekend. The first paragraph alone! Maybe once every five years the opening lines of an article or a book completely engross immediate attention. The Costas quote you used reminded me of the 1980s. My Dad worked in White Oaks Mall at the time. The mall would close at 10pm. By the time he finished paper work and got home it was past 11pm. Often times I would still be up. I vividly recall him still in his suit, sitting down on the couch and opening a bottle of Blue as the two of us watched Sportsline together. Thank you. Actually, I am big fan of your work and I appreciate what you do for junior golf in particular. – Jarrett Hasson, London
Thanks for writing, Jarrett. Sportsline was a groundbreaking show, and very well done. Glad you were able to recount some great memories. – JR
