by Cleve Dheensaw, Sports Writer for the Victoria Times Colonist
DECEMBER 21, 2019
Don Brown, who helped bring TV sports broadcasts from around the world into countless Canadian homes, died Wednesday at Victoria General Hospital at age 84.
Brown produced or directed, mostly for CBC, seven Summer Olympics, five Winter Olympics, seven Commonwealth Games and two Pan Am Games, along with 17 seasons of Hockey Night in Canada and seven seasons of Montreal Expos baseball.
When veteran broadcaster Ron Devion was coaxed out of retirement to head CBC’s host-broadcaster coverage of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games, he did it with the stipulation that Brown would be the main producer under him in the line of command.
“It’s no exaggeration to suggest Don Brown’s career is one of the most unique in Canadian sports television history,” said Devion.
“As producer and executive producer, he played a key role in every major sports television production, involving professional and amateur Canadian athletes, from the 1960s to the late 1990s — from the Summer and Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Canada Games, hockey, football and baseball. If it involved people, a stick, a ball and a field of dreams, Don did it all.”
Brown earned a reputation in the business as a true gentleman with an unflappable nature.
Read more HERE including quotes/tributes from Lloyd Robertson and Steve Armitage.
