Legendary Canadian sports broadcaster Rod Black highlights his career in new book

Rod Black stops by to talk about his new book 'Cut to Black: A Legendary Life in Sports (and Maybe a Few Beers)'.

For more than four decades, Rod Black has been one of the most recognizable faces in Canadian sports broadcasting capturing the stories of so many, and now he’s sharing those stories with the world.

Black has compiled some of the stories and inside-scoops from throughout his career for his new book Cut to Black: A Legendary Life in Sports (and Maybe a Few Beers).

“It’s not really about me, it’s not a memoir, it’s about the stories, and I think my family and my wife are getting tired of me always telling the stories all the time and the inside stories, and I think there’s some fun stuff in there,” said Black in an interview with CTV Atlantic’s Maria Panopalis on Friday.

“In my mind it’s a love affair, a love affair with sports, and I’ve had that my entire life.”

Career highlights

Reflecting on his career, Black points to some of the highlights he remembers the most, including covering the Olympics and working in news.

“Getting a chance to call Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir for some reason always gives me goosebumps whenever I think of them because I followed them when they were seven and nine in the Maritimes at a Canadian championship, and I said on the air when I saw them, I said, ‘You know, they could be world champions some day,’ so following their journey was really cool,” he said.

“For me it was also being a part of the news. I was on Canada AM for a couple of years, and my second day on the job I got a word from my producer in my ear and said, ‘Planes have flown into the World Trade Centre,’ on my second day. It was 9/11 and we were live, Lisa LaFlamme and I, and it still resonates with me, it’s still the story of our generation. I’m a sports guy, I do scores and stories, and I live in the toy department but suddenly it got really serious.”

From athlete to broadcaster

Growing up, Black didn’t dream of being a sports broadcaster, instead he wanted to be on the other side, participating in multiple different sports in his youth.

“I played them all and I always aspired to become a professional athlete and I got close, close, close, but maybe this was the next best thing,” he said.

“I think that’s how I took it to broadcasting. I played everything and played all day long, from morning until night, and we didn’t have phones and we didn’t have malls and we didn’t have video games, and that’s what kids did, we went outside and played.”

Inspiring the next generation

Black says he hopes his career can help inspire the next generation of broadcasters the way the generation before inspired him.

“When I was young, I was this 15-year-old kid who got the chance to interview Howard Cosell,” he said.

“I was really intimidated, and I remember how nice he was to me, and he was kind of this rough old guy and I remember how nice he was and the people who helped me out along the way and I always thought, ‘If I can do that for the young broadcasters who are out there, if they are going to ask me a question, ask me.’

“I’ll give you some hints to be yourself and to try everything and do everything because this is the greatest industry. I know we’re kind of getting into AI and we’re losing stations around the world, but especially here in Halifax, local is huge. People love that, and storytelling in the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada is number one on everybody’s list, and that’s what I loved, I loved telling the stories.”

Black’s book Cut to Black: A Legendary Life in Sports (and Maybe a Few Beers) is available online and in stores.

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