Hugh Townsend, Author at The Pictou Advocate

Sports Illustrated takes another hit

January 22, 2020January 21, 2020Hugh Townsend

It was a sort of love affair from the very beginning — a love affair between a teenager just getting into a newspaper career and a new sports magazine filled with interesting stories and colour photographs. It was a summer day in New Glasgow in 1954. I had an appointment with my doctor — who...

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Ryan appointment should be popular

January 15, 2020January 14, 2020Hugh Townsend

There are some things that happen in the sports world that allow media people like me to make immediate assumptions. Without speaking to ticket sellers or event organizers, I’m confident Pictou County hockey fans have been anxiously awaiting the 2020 IIHF women’s world championship being held in Truro and Halifax later this season. It’s one...

Blayre Turnbull decade’s top story

January 8, 2020January 7, 2020Hugh Townsend

Well, the fuss is over, we’ve sung Auld Lang Syne to death, we’ve emptied the last carton of eggnog, and we’ve landed safely in the new decade. My younger son whispered that I’m now in my 10th decade, and that my newspaper career has extended into an eighth decade. Quite the flattering, eh? With that...

From East Pictou to years in NHL

January 1, 2020December 24, 2019Hugh Townsend

To test your hockey knowledge with a Pictou County angle, I’m beginning 2020 — the year, not anyone’s eyesight — with a trivia question. Be careful. It may seem easy, but perhaps it’s not. What graduate of East Pictou Rural High School has the record for most years spent with NHL teams? Got it already?...

The secret’s out: Leafs, then Habs

December 25, 2019December 20, 2019Hugh Townsend

All of us — or at least most of us — have had a favourite team in the National Hockey League. It’s pretty much an obligation in being a sports fan in this great country of ours. We may not have been born with such a prerequisite embedded in our hearts, but a choice usually...

Meeting Morrison for the first time

December 18, 2019December 17, 2019Hugh Townsend

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas as I drove into Pictou on a mid-December morning 15 years ago in search of a white bungalow on Dunromin Terrace in the Shiretown’s west end. I was coming to meet and chat with Allie Morrison for the first time. We had never met, though he...

It was a time of change in 1959

December 11, 2019December 10, 2019Hugh Townsend

Ever since my life and newspaper career went into extra innings, I’ve been uncovering reasons to be nostalgic. I’m sure you know the stuff I mean — anniversaries, milestones and long-lasting memories of journeys travelled. Well, I’ve got another. It was a cold December day 60 calendars ago, the time of year when Christmas trees...

In cold arenas with Gerry Regan

December 4, 2019December 3, 2019Hugh Townsend

The Gerald A. Regan who I knew best — and remember fondly — wasn’t the Member of Parliament for Halifax, the premier of Nova Scotia, or the man who faced court charges in later years. He was, instead, the radio sportscaster, the sports promoter and, above all, the “bird-dog” scout for the Boston Bruins. It...

Next question: Will Keefe last long?

November 27, 2019November 27, 2019Hugh Townsend

When you’ve written thousands of columns like I have through the years, there’s a scenario that’s bound to occur once in a while. Someone asks, innocently, if I ever run out of subjects to discuss. Yes, I do. I faced that situation in just the last few days. It was the evening before my deadline...

Cherry gave me just five seconds

November 20, 2019November 19, 2019Hugh Townsend

During my 65 years in the newspaper business, I talked face-to-face with Donald S. Cherry only once. That was more than enough. It was a November evening in 1972, about an hour before an American Hockey League game at the Halifax Forum between the Nova Scotia Voyageurs and Rochester Americans. I had been appointed sports...

Author: Hugh Townsend