Spellman: Hawks' voice Foley gets place in Hall
For Murray Bannerman, it's still kind of amazing.
“It's an interesting concept because I can pretty much go anywhere and nobody from just looking at me would know that I played for the Blackhawks,” Bannerman said. “But when people hear the name, and they're an avid hockey fan … then they recognize it.”
And it comes as no surprise to the former Blackhawks goalie when the next thing out of their mouths, in some form or another, is “Bannnnnerman!” the signature call longtime play-by-play man Pat Foley made famous in the early 1980s when Bannerman was between the pipes for the Hawks.
“It made my name very recognizable in the city of Chicago,” Bannerman admitted with a laugh. “Because of Pat's longevity it keeps coming up all the time.”
Former Hawks player and color analyst Billy Gardner, who's currently an analyst with the Chicago Wolves, feels like he deserves a bit of the credit for the “Bannnnnerman!” phenomenon as well.
“I made him famous,” Gardner said of Foley. “I lost the puck at the blue line in Minnesota in the playoffs to Keith Acton and Acton went in on a breakaway and Pat did the “Bannnnnerman!”
“That's me. I lost the puck and made Pat famous.”
There are no guarantees that Foley won't go to the “Bannnnnerman” call Monday in Toronto when, after 31 years of calling Blackhawks games, he will receive the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for broadcasting and finally take his place alongside the greats of the game in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
But then again, you never know with the irascible native of Glenview.
One thing Foley's past and present partners in the broadcast booth do know, however, is that the honor is well deserved.
“He's had such an impact on generations of local hockey fans,” current partner Eddie Olczyk said. “For many years, people only saw Pat and Dale Tallon when they were on the road.
“They were the voice and the lifeline of the organization. That impact has been felt for many, many generations.”
“My first thought was that it's way overdue,” Gardner said of Foley's enshrinement. “He's the best in any league — not only hockey — any league. It's surprising that he was overlooked this long. I never understood why it took 30-something years. It's ridiculous.”
So is the fact that, even after all these years in the business, Foley's energy and fun-factor remain as high as they were when he was the new guy in the booth in 1981.
“There isn't any doubt,” Olczyk said. “The same energy, the same passion, the same fun-ness I remember as a kid growing up and listening to — it's still there.”
Tallon, the longest tenured of Foley's broadcast partners, said the pair's unreal chemistry all those years wasn't just there when the camera was on.
“We had fun in the booth because we got along,” said the former Hawks general manager and now executive vice president/GM of the Florida Panthers.
“We did a lot together. We played a lot of golf together, ate a lot of meals together, had a few cocktails together — back when I was drinking — we just hit off together.
“We were like a couple of brothers.”
For Tallon, one of his favorite things to do back in the day was to try to get Foley to crack up during broadcasts.
“It was easy to get him to spit the bit — that was always the fun part,” Tallon said with a laugh. “We were driving back from playing golf in Phoenix one time and traffic was worse than we thought and it was getting close to game time.
“We were listening to a sports guy on the radio and he was using a couple of really old clichés. So I just stored them in the bank and sometime during that game, when we finally got to the rink that is, I just threw them out there and sure enough Pat spit the bit.
“I loved doing that.”
And no one has seemed to enjoy it more over the years than Foley.
“The chemistry Pat has had with all his partners — from Gardsy to Troy (Murray) and obviously with Dale — for me, it's a challenge every night,” Olczyk said. “It's being able to play off one another; it's being able to know that the other guy has your back.
“We know people are tuning in to watch the game, but we try to add some humor to it because that's our personality.”
And it's a formula that has worked like a charm for Foley and Co. all these years because, as Billy Gardner says, “You never have a bad day with Pat Foley.”
• Follow Mike's Hawks reports on Twitter @dhspellman.
A voice for the ages
Ah, That voice. What makes Blackhawks broadcaster Pat Foley so good? Mike Spellman gathered these quotes from some Foley's broadcast partners over the years.
<b>Dale Tallon:</b>“His voice is wonderful — great inflection. He has a great understanding of when to turn it up, when to turn it down.”
<b>Billy Gardner:</b>“His voice is so rhythmic. The inflection he has is far superior I think to any other play-by-play guy in any other sport. It's unbelievable. A lot of people listen to Pat because they want to learn from him.”
<b>Eddie Olczyk:</b>“That passion for the game and that inert anticipation of when things are going to happen with his inflection, with his voice — it sets him apart from a lot of guys.”