Joe Bowen
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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 broadcasted over 1,600 Leaf Games.
Bowen's catchphrase is "Holy Mackinaw!", typically used when the Leafs score or a big save is made. Harry Neale is currently his broadcasting partner, and they are the voices of Leaf games on television on TSN, Leafs TV, or Rogers Sportsnet. Bowen also calls the radio play-by-plays on Saturday nights and in the playoffs for the Leafs when the television broadcasts are done by Hockey Night in Canada. When "Bonesy" has the time, and he is at home on a Friday night, he likes to kick back at the Stouffville Arms Hotel and hold what his friend Bill Watters likes to call a "freakshow".....that Bonesy loves his cocktails.
[edit] Early life
Father of four boys, Joe was born and raised in Sudbury. He attended Sudbury Secondary School, where he was part of the Copper Cliff Redmen Northern Ontario Championship Hockey Club of 1967. After graduating from the University of Windsor, Joe returned to Sudbury where he started his career in radio, covering the Ontario Hockey League's Sudbury Wolves.
On February 17, 2006, Joe married the love of his life, Jannine Ferguson, over looking Niagara Falls.
[edit] Catch phrases and great calls
- Holy Mackinaw!
- Ho ... brother!
- Yikes!
- And the puck "ric-o-chets" down the ice.
- "hornet's nest"
- From the Lefebvre vs. Brown fight "Down goes Brown, Down goes Brown and Lefebvre leaves him there"
- From the '93 Leafs vs. Wings game 7 "The Leafs win, the Leafs win" (When you hear it the second call is quieter than the first because Bowen leaned out of the press box and yelled it at the Detroit fans below.
- "And from the small part I've played in this team over the years I have never been prouder of these boys then I am right now" said with a lump in his throat after a Leafs come from behind overtime win.
- Right on the bu-gal!
