Don Wittman, synonymous with CBC Sports for nearly a half-century, died early Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 71.
Wittman passed away in a Winnipeg hospital surrounded by his family.
Don Wittman joined CBC Sports in 1961 and went on to call some of the most vicious, arresting and triumphant moments in Canadian sports history.
Don Wittman joined CBC Sports in 1961 and went on to call some of the most vicious, arresting and triumphant moments in Canadian sports history.
“On the Saturday mornings of every telecast I worked with Don, I recall him spending a couple of hours talking to players, coaches, writers and broadcasters, gathering as much information as possible, far more than he could ever use on the air,” Scott Oake of CBC Sports said. “But, in Don’s mind, better that than being unprepared.”
His voice appears on perhaps the most replayed sports clip in Canadian history, Ben Johnson’s apparent win in the 100-metre sprint at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, a result overturned days later after Johnson tested positive for a steroid. More recently, he expressed the shock so many viewers felt when favourite Perdita Felicien crashed into the first hurdle at the 2004 Athens Games.
Covering a calamity more sobering than any sporting event could ever be, Wittman was near the scene in Munich in 1972 after gunmen attacked and held hostage members of Israel’s Olympic team, with 11 eventually killed.
During the standoff, Wittman and producer Bob Moir crawled under a fence to get into the Olympic Village and the evacuated Canadian quarters. They were positioned directly across a courtyard from the Israeli dormitory.
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I remember so many sportscasts with his face and voice…
Thank you, Mr. Wittman. I’m sorry it took this long for me to say it.
Don Wittman was the "voice" of so many sports, as it was in the "old" days. He was a renaissance man of athletics. His passion was contagious. Thank you for so many exciting memories, Don.