Howie Meeker

Howard William "Howie" Meeker (born November 4, 1923 in Kitchener, Ontario) is a former right winger in the National Hockey League and television announcer.

Playing, Coaching and General Managing Career
Meeker missed the 1943 and 1944 seasons while serving in the Canadian military during the Second World War, but returned to join the Toronto Maple Leafs where he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as outstanding rookie player for the 1946–47 season. During that remarkable first season he tied the league record of five goals in a game as a rookie against the Chicago Black Hawks on January 8, 1947. He played in three NHL All-Star Games during his career of 346 games, and won 4 Stanley Cup 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951 all with the Toronto. He also coached the Maple Leafs, replacing King Clancy on April 11, 1956, leading the Leafs to a 21–34–15 record. He was promoted to general manager in 1957, but was fired before the start of the 1957–58 season.



Hockey Camps
He later ran hockey schools as summer camps in Canada and USA. His weekly telecasts based on these camps, Howie Meeker's Hockey School, ran from 1973 to 1977 on CBC Television. The series was produced in St. John's, Newfoundland. It featured young boys learning the basic skills about the game: skating, puck control and passing. Meeker's encouragement and delivery was all based on his premise that the game was suffering from poor instruction at the junior levels. He felt the game wasn't being taught properly so his message was directed at coaches across Canada. The TV series had 107 fifteen minute episodes. It was produced and directed by Ron Harrison and/or John Spaulding and aired weekly during the hockey season.

Broadcasting Career
In the 1970s and 1980s, Meeker became known to a new generation of hockey fans as the squeaky-voiced analyst on Hockey Night in Canada. He began analyzing plays in greater depth than previous colour commentators, using the telestrator to demonstrate his points. He also worked on Vancouver Canucks telecasts on BCTV. When The Sports Network gained NHL cable rights in 1987, Howie joined their broadcast team, where he stayed until retiring in 1998.

Howie won the Foster Hewitt Award in 1998 for "Excellence in Hockey Broadcasting" and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Meeker passed away on November 8, 2020 in Nanaimo, British Columbia at the age of 97. He was the last surviving member of the 1947, 1949, and 1951 Maple Leafs championship teams as well as being the last surviving player from the first NHL All-Star game. He was also the second oldest living former NHL player at the time of his death. He was about 10 and a half months younger than Steve Wojciechowski who was born December 25, 1922.