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Published Apr 13, 2026 • Last updated 4 minutes ago • 4 minute read
The reception line outside the broadcast booth started to build late on this historic Monday afternoon.
Those waiting to shake Joe Bowen’s hand one last time, to take a picture, to give him one more gift — he received many on Monday — or just those to say “thank you” one last time, for all these years, and all those memories.
We all think we know Joe Bowen after all this time calling Maple Leafs games. He’s our friend. He’s like part of the family. He was in the car with us all those years when we drove to hockey or drove to dance. We know “Holy mackinaw” like it’s something we heard daily. We know “Bless you, boys.” We’ve heard all his calls in the only two volumes they’re available — loud and very loud.
He has been a voice of the city, of this beloved and misguided hockey team, of sports in and around Toronto for the past 44 years. A sporting soundtrack of your time and mine. The way Tom Cheek was with the Blue Jays. The way Vin Scully was the voice of the Dodgers or Harry Caray the voice of the Cubs.
A relationship develops between voice and sound and radio and sports and those of us listening from afar. And Monday night was Bowen’s last game in Toronto, his second last Leafs game, and no one wanted to let it pass without one final present or one last visit to greet the godfather of play-by-play hockey.
The handshakes came from former players and general managers and fellow broadcasters and some of us regular media types; it came from the pseudo-owners of the Leafs, Edward Rogers and his confrere Tony Staffieri: It came from just about everyone who was anyone and they all seemed to drop by the broadcast booth for one last handshake.
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This was no ordinary broadcast day for Bowen. He was invited to come to Scotiabank Arena early in the morning, invited for his first time ever to be part of the year-end team photos. He sat beside John Tavares in the front row, a spot normally reserved for the general manager, but the Leafs are without a general manager, so, instead there was a spot for Bowen.
He normally doesn’t drive to the rink — he takes the GO Train — but there wasn’t much normal about his Monday Leafs game.
He was staying downtown at a hotel, able to have dinner with his family at the Hot Stove Lounge before the game, able to shake hands and share a glass of champagne and a laugh with the great Leaf Doug Gilmour and then head back to the hotel after the game, in case he wanted just a beverage of two.
The multitude of going-away gifts have meant something to him all season long, but not as much as the stops in the grocery store or the local mall. It was there people he didn’t know would recognize him, acknowledge him, tell him how much he has meant to their lives.
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“When people you don’t know come up to you and tell them where they were when they were listening to you call this game, that really means something” said the 75-year-old Bowen. “When you hear I took my kid to hockey practice and you were with us, and you were such a big part of family and you don’t know them, that’s powerful. It means so much to you.”
He talked to Tavares after the team photo and also to Max Domi and it was no coincidence both scored against the Dallas Stars. Both of them grew up as Leafs fans and Leafs listeners.
“I get it from Leafs players who are from here, but also from player on other teams who grew up here. You’re one of the reasons for our love of the sport. You were in the car with us. You were a part of our youth.”
Bowen grew up listening to hockey on the radio, watching it on TV, wanting to be part of the action. His goaltending was just good enough for him to take up broadcasting. “I grew up with Foster Hewitt and Bill Hewitt, with Danny Gallavan and I hated Danny’s guts,” said Bowen. “Then I met him. What a wonderful man. Guys come up to me say, you’re the best. And I tell them, no, Danny Gallivan was the best, is the best. The absolute best and he will always be that.”
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The best, though, in Bowen’s mind are Maple Leafs fans. He hates the term Leaf Nation. He prefers calling the fan base Leafs Legion.
“There’s nothing like Leafs fans,” said Bowen. “They’re such a wonderful group. It’s like a family, being a Leaf fan. It’s a lot like a family. You can get upset with each other, you can argue, you can fight but you don’t stop loving each other. Real families are like that. And for whatever reason, you’re aways there for each other. People used to ask me, ‘What are you going to say when the Leafs win the Cup?’ I tell them I’m not going to plan that. I’m just going to say whatever comes out at the time.”
He knows now the call won’t be his.
“It may take 84 years like the Red Sox or 104 years like it took the Cubs. But when it does, it’s going to be so magical, it’s going to be ridiculous.”
It’s going to happen without the booming voice of Bowen, the hockey voice of our lifetime.
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