Broadcaster Wittman fighting cancer CanWest News Service Friday, December 14, 2007 Don Wittman, the CBC's voice of curling for decades, is suffering from cancer, the longtime broadcaster told the Winnipeg Free Press on Friday.
Wittman, 71, had said recently he was taking a break from his broadcasting duties due to ill health, but didn't specify what was ailing him.
"I've got cancer and it metastasized," Wittman, a Hebert, Sask., native and a resident of Winnipeg since 1961, told the Free Press. "This could be the end of the line. They've told me the prognosis is not good."
During a 40-plus year career, Wittman has covered just about every sport, appearing on CBC's golf, football, baseball and Olympic broadcasts.
Wittman, a member of the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame, the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame and Manitoba's provincial Hall of Fame, called some of the most famous and infamous moments in Canadian sports history.
He was in the Czechoslovakia in 1987 and called the Canada-USSR brawl during the world junior hockey championship, while in 1988, he called Ben Johnson's steroid-tainted 100-metre run at the Seoul Olympics.
In 1996, there were positive moments. At the Atlanta Olympics, Wittman called Donovan Bailey's sprint to the 100-metre gold medal and the men's relay team's gold-medal upset of the U.S.
Wittman has been lauded for his work, twice winning ACTRA awards and being named Broadcaster of the Year by Sports Media Canada in 2002.
Next month, his CBC colleagues are planning to honour him at an invitation-only lunch in Winnipeg.
Wittman got his start in broadcasting in 1955 as a news reporter at CFCQ, a radio station in Saskatoon.
Wittman, who was treated for melanoma on an ear in 2001, began suffering a sore back in August.
"I thought it was a kidney stone," Wittman told the Free Press.
Around the time of last month's Grey Cup, doctors gave Wittman the diagnosis.
Classy guy...my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
Seconded, the very worst of news. Cancer took my dad and his, everyone knows someone, most everyone can relate, it seems (sadly). One's heart really does go out to all concerned. You know, if it were myself, I'd be getting in touch with this guy to see if he needed a guinea pig.: "John Kanzius, sorely weakened by leukemia treatments, drew on his lifetime of working with radio waves to devise a machine that targets cancer cells. The miracle: It works. By Erika Hayasaki, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 2, 2007 ERIE, PA. ...Four years after he came up with his idea, researchers continued experiments and killed human cancer cells in petri dishes using nanoparticles and his machine. They recently killed 100% of cancer cells grown in the livers of rabbits, using Kanzius' method. ...
Kanzius did not have a medical background, not even a bachelor's degree, but he knew radios. He had built and fixed them since he was a child, collecting transmitters, transceivers, antennas and amplifiers, earning an amateur radio operator license. Kanzius knew how to send radio wave signals around the world. If he could transmit them into cancer cells, he wondered, could he then direct the radio waves to destroy tumors, while leaving healthy cells intact?...
(Dr. Steven A. Curley, an oncologist at M.D. Anderson) said the treatment is the most promising he has ever seen because it has the potential to kill cancer -- without invasive treatment or surgery -- that doctors currently have no way of detecting. The next step for scientists is to perfect a method of binding nanoparticles with antibodies that, when introduced into the bloodstream, will attach only to cancer cells while avoiding normal cells. He said the treatment could work on any kind of cancer, and he estimates clinical trials are three to four years away. ... Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Smalley, who specialized in nanoscience -'Nothing has the potential to help people, to help patients, more than this.' ..."
A rare bit of good news on the cancer front for a change it seems.
I dread the "C" word and would never wish it upon anyone. You'd think with the advancements in medicine they would find a cure. My thoughts are with the Wittmans.
DW called probably my favourite moment in Canucks history....for the life of me i can't find the individual clip...so you have to go to #2 on this list!
Hockey Night in Canada’s Kelly Hrudey takes a look at hockey from beyond the crease. courtesy CBC website.
Honouring one of the best in Canadian broadcasting Friday, January 11, 2008 | 12:37 PM ET
This past Tuesday in Winnipeg, Don Wittman was inducted into the CBC Sports Hall of Fame.
Close to 150 of Don’s family and friends were on hand to help Don and his wife Judy celebrate his illustrious 47-year career at the CBC.
No doubt many more would have attended but various commitments forced them to miss out on something special.
Along with their children (David, Karen and Kristen and their families), we all listened to stories and watched clips of Don’s brilliance in front of the camera - clips taking us back to the beginning of Don’s career and featuring some of the best sports calls ever in television.
We all vividly remember Wittman’s brightest Olympic moments in which we all sat glued in front of our TVs hoping and wondering how well our fellow Canadian athletes would fare.
Brian Williams (now at CTV) reminded us that “Witt” had broadcast 18 different Olympic Games. Staggering to imagine!
Don made curling an important sport on the network along with his analyst Don Duguid, who was one of a handful of broadcasters to share some memories of Don.
I had the good fortune of travelling occasionally with Don and even though he hasn’t called a CFL Grey Cup game in over 10 years, it’s amazing how many people come up to Don asking about the CFL because he’s still the voice they connect with in that sport.
Blue Bomber general manager, Lyle Bauer affirmed Wittman’s CFL popularity and hometown celebrity status in his toast to Don.
Mentor of many
His influence on HNIC in Canada remains strong today. He may have called his last NHL game, but all the rookie broadcasters he slowly broke in as the colour analysts is vast, so his presence remains.
Don worked with the likes of Gary Dornhoffer, Scotty Bowman, John Davidson, John Garrett, Brian Hayward, Glenn Healy and many, many more, including myself.
I know I can speak for all of us when I say we all greatly appreciate how Don helped and handled us and thank Don for his graciousness behind the microphone.
Our good friend John Shannon, now the NHL’s senior vice-president of broadcasting, perhaps summed up the induction best when he said we’ve been listening to stories of Don throughout the ceremony and not surprisingly, that’s what Don did the best on air, “tell stories.”
Finally, Peter Mansbridge recounted his first encounter with Wittman 37 years ago, in the very city of the induction ceremony. In only a way Don could get away with, in about 20 minutes after meeting the very excited Mansbridge, Wittman a gambling enthusiast, had taken Peter for all his money in his pockets.
In speaking about Don, Peter put into proper context Don’s ability as a broadcaster. Most of us have a very narrow field (hockey, for example), not Don. There may not have ever been a more versatile broadcaster in our generation.
There was never an out of control ego that got in the way of a great game or broadcast. He just called the game itself for the viewer to enjoy.
How simple!
Tuesday, I just added a very special memory to my life.
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