THE VOICE OF THE TIGERS


BOB RIDLEY


Medicine Hat Tigers fans will want to circle Saturday, March 14, 2020 on their calendars, and not because Game 65 of the teams’ WHL season against the Swift Current Broncos could have playoff implications.


That night, broadcaster Bob Ridley will call his 4,000th game for the team – a feat he certainly never dreamed of when he arrived in the Gas City in 1968.


“I never thought I’d get to 3,000, and certainly 4,000 is just way out of sight,” said Ridley, himself glad to know the date as he’s never added up all the games he’s done. “But there is a good chance I’ll be able to do that, unless I get run over by a little old lady driving a tank or something.


“That’s never been a goal. You do every game and enjoy every game, get up every morning and just be happy you’re able to do that.”


From the franchise’s first game in 1970, through the playoff and Memorial Cup drives, the 75-year-old has been there – save for one game in 1973 when he was on assignment at national curling championships. Ex-News journalist Darren Steinke meticulously kept track of Ridley’s total for years and the team made sure the milestone event is happening in a home game at the Canalta Centre.


8 | MEDICINE HAT TIGERS


Fittingly, Ridley will call the game from the booth named after him. He might never have laced up skates for Medicine Hat, but 2.8 million kilometres driving the team bus and lifelong friendships have ensured his name is synonymous not only with the team but the city as well.


“Bob’s one of the most caring people I’ve ever met,” said ex- captain Steve Marr back in 2015 when the team was celebrating its final


game at the Medicine Hat Arena. “And the city has welcomed this hockey team year after year


relationship the city has with him.”


Though he’s not the full-time driver anymore, few can boast Ridley’s longevity. Edmonton Oilers broadcaster Rod Phillips’ 3,542 games is impressive, but he retired in 2011. Don Cameron retired in


I really do feel blessed that


I’ve been able to do this for as long as I have.


and been the kindest city I’ve ever been in. Bob is the perfect representative of them.


“This city’s a very hard-working city, and everyone here works for what they’ve got and they come here and let it all out. If you get to see Bob behind the scenes, how hard he works with driving the bus, how hard he works on the radio and then he lets it out. It’s a symbiotic


2015 after 50 seasons as the play-by- play man for the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL, reportedly working more than 4,000 though the exact number isn’t known. Even Hockey Hall of Fame member


Foster Hewitt only ever did 40 years. You’ve got to


switch sports to baseball to find people with more years of play- by-play experience, notably Vin Scully’s 67.


Ridley hasn’t announced any retirement plans, but he does have a plan of what will keep him busy when he finally signs off.


“Number one, I’ve been asked by many people to write a book,”


he said, adding camping with his wife and his motorcycle will continue to fill the summer months. “So I think I just might find somebody that can point me in the right direction in doing something like that.”


With the number of players he’s known, it might as well be an encyclopedia.


“There’s lots of dressing room stories and bus stories that you can’t repeat,” he laughed in a 2015 interview. “But I’ve got a pretty good handle on the ones that meant the most to the players over the years.


“Every player is a story. It’s nice they put the refresh button on my mind.”


There are always new ones to be written. This year he drove the bus to and from an exhibition game in Regina. With head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins back with the team for a second stint, the two had a moment remembering another trip from long ago.


“It was kind of cool, we go way back,” said Ridley. “I was backing down a ramp with the bus (in the mid-2000’s) and it got hung up. They needed a farm tractor to pull me out of the situation.”


Sure enough, Bob had to navigate the same ramp again this fall.


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