Veteran Vancouver Canucks announcer Jim Robson dies at 91

Jim Robson, whom many people know as the voice of the Vancouver Canucks, has died at the age of 91.

Robson's daughter, Jennifer Butler, confirmed to CBC News on Tuesday that her father died after a short illness.

Robson called more than 2,000 NHL games over his 47-year career in broadcasting, but is best remembered for announcing Canucks games for more than 30 years — starting with their very first major league game, as an expansion team, on Oct. 9, 1970.

According to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, Robson "never missed a broadcast due to illness" right up until his retirement in April 1999.

Current Canucks play-by-play announcer Brendan Batchelor wrote in a post on X that "the word legend isn't enough" to describe Robson.

"He is the standard to which all BC based play-by-play broadcasters have aspired to, and will never reach," his tribute reads.

Robson, speaking with CBC Radio's On The Coast to mark his 90th birthday on Jan. 17, 2025, said he was always thinking about doing the best job possible calling the games.

"Every time I hear those clips, I think how I could make them a little better," he told guest host Amy Bell.

He said he wanted to be a hockey announcer ever since he was a young boy growing up in Prince Albert, Sask., listening to hockey games on the radio every Saturday night.

He recounted how he thought that dream was dashed when he and his family left the frigid winters in Saskatchewan for the milder weather of British Columbia's Lower Mainland in 1943.

But that wasn't the case.

He started his sportscasting career in 1952, when he was just 17, at a radio station in Port Alberni, B.C., before moving on to Vancouver radio stations CKNW and CKWX, covering baseball, football and hockey.

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