Bill Hewitt (sportscaster)

Foster William Alfred "Bill" Hewitt (1928 – December 25, 1996) was a Canadian radio and television sportscaster]. He was the son of Canadian hockey broadcasting pioneer Foster Hewitt and grandson of Toronto Star sports journalist, W. A. Hewitt. Both his father and grandfather have been inducted as builders in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

From the age of eight, Hewitt announced part of a hockey game to a radio audience each year for Young Canada Night. A talented athlete himself, Hewitt excelled at football, track & field and hockey, while he studied at Upper Canada College.

After graduation, he took a broadcasting job at CJRL in Kenora, Ontario. Hewitt was then hired as sports director of CFOS in Owen Sound, and later held the same title at CKBB in Barrie. In 1951, his father launched CKFH in Toronto and Hewitt became sports director. By 1958, he and his father were covering hockey together on television. Foster eventually returned to radio and for the next 20 years, Bill Hewitt was Hockey Night In Canada's TV voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In 1982, a rare blood disorder forced the 53 year-old Hewitt out of the broadcasting booth. He retired quietly to farm life near Sunderland, Ontario and died of a heart attack on Christmas Day at the age of 68. He is buried in Stone Church Cemetery, just east of the town of Beaverton, Ontario.

The Hockey Hall of Fame announced on May 29, 2007 that it would honour the late Bill Hewitt by awarding him with the 2007 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award during the Hockey Hall of Fame induction weekend in November 2007.

External links

• CBC Sports biography
• His voice can be heard describing an NHL brawl in 1959
• His voice can be heard describing the last moments of the 1967 Stanley Cup finals