Foster Hewitt

Foster William Hewitt
Foster Hewitt, 1945
Born	(1902-11-21)November 21, 1902 Toronto, Ontario
Died	April 21, 1985(1985-04-21) (aged 82) Scarborough, Ontario
Cause of death	Throat cancer
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Kathleen How (1903-1969, m. 1925)
Children	Elizabeth Ann Somerville (1926-1977) Bill Hewitt (1928-1996)
Awards	Order of Canada Foster Hewitt Memorial Award

Foster William Hewitt, OC (November 21, 1902 – April 21, 1985) was a Canadian radio broadcaster most famous for his play-by-play calls for Hockey Night in Canada. He was the son of W. A. Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Hewitt attended Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto where he was a member of the Toronto chapter of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. He was a champion boxer in his student years, winning the intercollegiate title at 112 pounds. Hewitt developed an early interest in the radio and as a teenager accompanied his father, W. A. Hewitt, on a trip to Detroit, Michigan to see a demonstration of radio technology sponsored by General Electric.

He took a job with Independent Telephone Company, which manufactured radios, and left that job and university when his father—the sports editor of the Toronto Daily Star—told him that the Star was going to start its own radio station. Hewitt became a reporter at the paper, and was ready to go on the air when CFCA was launched. CFCA's first hockey broadcast was on February 8, 1923, although it was colleague Norman Albert who performed the play-by-play. Hewitt's first broadcast likely was February 16, of a game between the Toronto Argonaut Rowing Club and the Kitchener Greenshirts. Hewitt recalls the date as March 22 in his own book, but there was no game that night at the Arena Gardens. Hewitt's book mentions his first broadcast as being of a game between Parkdale and Kitchener, and the Argonaut Club is based in Parkdale, a neighbourhood of Toronto. He also mentions the game as going into overtime which the Argonaut-Kitchener game did.