Joe Bowen signs off legendary Maple Leafs broadcasting career
He did this for a really long time.
Joe Bowen signs off legendary Maple Leafs broadcasting career originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . Joe Bowen was the voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs for a couple generations of hockey fans.
And now, for the final time, he has signed off. When the Leafs' season ended this week short of the playoffs, so too did Bowen's radio broadcasting career. He worked for 44 years calling Maple Leafs games, a total of 3,834 games.
If someone in Canada ever listened to the Leafs play on the radio in the last four-and-a-half decades, they were hearing Bowen's beloved voice. Bowen had an emotional sign-off of his final broadcast. "It has been and always will be my dream job as voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs," Bowen said.
This is how The Hockey Writers described Bowen's legacy: "That connection runs deeper than just nostalgia. Fans still talk about long drives across Ontario, radios tuned in, hanging on every word as Bowen painted the picture shift by shift. There was something about the way he delivered a game that made it feel close, even when you were miles away.