Joe Bowen (born April 5, 1951 in Sudbury, Ontario), is a Canadian sportscaster. He is known as "The Voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs", having broadcast over 2,100 Leaf Games. He started calling games for the Leafs in 1982, after calling games for the Nova Scotia Voyageurs.
Bowen's catchphrase is "Holy Mackinaw!", typically used when an amazing goal is scored or a big save is made. It has been suggested that the phrase originated from a California Spirit Yell, but Bowen claims he got the phrase from his dad who said "Holy Mackinaw" instead of swearing. He is also known for his creative alliteration when announcing the starting goaltenders (e.g. technicians of the tangled twine, watchdogs of the webbed wickets, officers of the oblong onion bags, etc.). Greg Millen is currently his broadcasting partner, after his longtime partner Harry Neale accepted a position with the Buffalo Sabres. Bowen and Millen are the voices of Leaf games on television through Leafs TV or Rogers Sportsnet Ontario. Bowen also does the radio play-by-play on AM 640 with Jim Ralph for playoff games and games that are broadcast on TSN or CBC. Recently, he appeared in a TV commercial for Harvey's promoting the "bigger" Angus Burger and used his famous aforementioned catchphrase. Joe Bowen was the Radio Announcer in the 1986 film Youngblood. Also, he has called several lacrosse seasons for the NLL's Toronto Rock from their inception in Toronto 1999 after one season in Hamilton as the Ontario Raiders. This included the 1999-2002 NLL championship games and is believed to have stopped after the 2007 or 2007 seasons.
Read more about Joe Bowen: Early Life
Famous quotes containing the words joe and/or bowen:
“This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“... it appears to me that problems, inherent in any writing, loom unduly large when one looks ahead. Though nothing is easy, little is quite impossible.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (18991973)