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 sports announcer as well as a former Conservative Member of Parliament.

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 against the Chicago Black Hawks on January 8 1947. He played in three NHL All-Star games during his career of 346 games. 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.

Meeker spent three years as a Progressive Conservative MP while playing for the Leafs. In June 1951, Meeker won the federal by election in the Ontario riding of Waterloo South. He did not seek re-election in the 1953 election.

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.

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 TSN 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.

He currently lives in Parksville, British Columbia.

ee also

* List of players with 5 or more goals in an NHL game

External links

* [http://www.howiemeeker.com Howie Meeker official website]
* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?Language=E&query=5261&s=M Parliament of Canada - Biography of Howie Meeker]
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* [http://archives.cbc.ca/programs/1564/ CBC Digital Archives – Howie Meeker Hockey School]