And they’re off!
It was 1953, a bright and sunny July morning, and a young city-slicker stepped unaware into what would be the beginning of an amazing and thrilling career in the world famous Calgary Stampede.
The sign on the building door read, “CKXL Radio”. I stepped through a door that would transform this rookie, who didn’t know a thing about a horse, to a chuckwagon announcer for the greatest show on earth. I gulped! A sudden gust of wind whistled, “Hang on! You are in for the ride of your life!”
There was so much I needed to learn. My instructions were simple: be in the booth on top of the grandstands by 7 p.m. I knew enough about a horse to know it had a head and a tail and it pooped a lot.
At 8 p.m. a “klaxon horn” unleashed the flurry of frantic men and horses, drivers and outriders, as they whooped and hollered their way around 45 gallon steel drums and down a narrowing track.
By the eighth race, my knees were trembling and the adrenaline pumped through my veins at such fervour that my cohort, Stan Sparling, had to keep me from flying from the booth. With his firm handshake and straight face he said, “Well done, Joe! Well done!” And that my friends, is how it all started.
Fifty-five years later, like the inevitable quiet of the empty stands after the last race, I would say goodbye to a life that is now a part of who I have become. Surrounded by my wife, Rose; daughters, Coleen and Kathleen; grandchildren, Garratt and Amanda; Stampede officials and drivers; and 20,000 cheering fans, the tear that rolled from my cheek marked forever the impact that chuckwagon races would have on this once rookie announcer, and on my life.
To say I don’t miss it, I do. But, I tip my glass of scotch, once again to a great friend and boss, Keith Marrington, and to everyone involved in the Calgary Stampede chuckwagon races. And while there are no more “And they’re offs,” those words are undoubtedly branded on my heart for life.
