Calgary Stampede announcer's career turns 40: 'Might as well do another 40'

It was August 1983 at the Hand Hills Lake Stampede and Les McIntyre had just fallen out of his chuckwagon.

As he remembers it, McIntyre had made a sharp turn, hit a competitor's wagon and tumbled to the ground at no less than 40 kilometres an hour. When he hit the ground, another wagon following behind hit him, knocking McIntyre out cold and resulting in a career-ending back injury before the age of 30. He spent the next week in a Calgary hospital bed.

"That was the end of that party," says McIntyre, now 71. He'd dreamt as a child to one day compete in the chucks at the Calgary Stampede.

Two years later, just as he was preparing to begin schooling to become an auctioneer, he was asked if he'd be able to call the upcoming chuckwagon races in Trochu, Alta.

"I lied through my teeth and said, 'Oh yeah, you bet.' I'd never called one in my life."

So began a career calling rodeos and chuckwagon races across Alberta, and eventually at the Calgary Stampede — a career that reaches the 40-year milestone this summer.

"I fell out of a wagon and fell into announcing," says McIntyre, reflecting on his career-ending injury.

"Looking back, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me."

McIntyre's voice will flood the speakers at GMC Stadium this year for every chuckwagon race at the Calgary Stampede, which begins Friday. It will be his 17th year calling the Stampede after taking up the mantle from legendary Stampede announcer Joe Carbury in 2008.

In doing so, the lifelong resident of Vulcan, Alta., and longtime auctioneer will continue a four-decade-long streak in which he's never missed a job, whether it's for the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth or an early spring race in northern Alberta. Early in his career, he would call