Pierre Houde will have a great time on Monday in Toronto. The describer of the Canadiens’ games at the Réseau des sports (RDS) will receive the Foster-Hewitt Prize awarded by the Association of Broadcasters of the National Hockey League. This distinction honors a member of the radio and television industry for their contribution to their profession and to hockey in general. Portrait of a great local communicator.
Surprisingly, Houde was not headed toward a career in communications while in college and university. At university, he mainly studied accounting at the advanced commercial level.
“In my head, I was going to do radio management,” he says.
“But it’s hard to interrupt your destiny.”
Effectively.
You don’t get anywhere by accident.
From college radio to -
Houde already had experience on the microphone. He started out on radio at Bois-de-Boulogne college. Then, during his student life, he made his traditional radio debut on CKOI. One thing led to another and he came to television in a role as a freelancer for National Football League matches on -.
Houde felt at ease.
“I liked it more and more,” he continues.
“In my fourth year of university, I left accounting to major in marketing.”
Not made for medicine
Pierre also cherished another dream, this one more secret.
“Deep down, I would have liked to be a doctor,” he confides. My daughter became one.
“Looking back, I would have been too emotional to pursue medicine. I am very sensitive. I might not have had the courage to go through the academic demands that it requires either.
“It’s completely crazy! My daughter just graduated [en santé publique] and she will be 30 in January.”
Michelle Houde herself works in the media in her own way since she uses social networks to reach people looking for medical information who are not consumers of traditional media.
Recommended by a former Journal
Between the end of his studies and his entry into the Réseau des sports in 1989, Houde worked two years (1985 and 1986) for the Canadian Grand Prix. Those not so young will remember that he was also a sports news reader at - during this period.
His hiring by RDS demonstrates, once again, that life is made up of unforeseen events.
Photo provided by Sylvain Simard
“Three weeks or a month after its opening, RDS still had not found a descriptor for the hockey matches,” relates Houde. It’s Mario Brisebois [qui était journaliste à la section sportive du Journal de Montréal] who started circulating my name.”
In no time, Houde was entrusted with describing hockey matches, which did not then include those of the Canadian. It came in 2002.
The Vancouver Games: a great moment
You can imagine that Houde has no shortage of good memories considering the wide range that covering the Canadian, F1 and the Olympic Games gives him. But since we’re talking specifically about hockey in this report, a very special moment comes to the top of the list.
“This is Sidney Crosby’s goal at the Vancouver Olympic Games in 2010,” emphasizes Houde.
We will remember that the Penguins’ star player scored the goal in overtime that gave Canada victory against the United States in the gold medal game.
“Again, there was a particular context around this event,” continues Houde.
“In Vancouver as in London in 2012, the Sports Network was the exclusive manager of the French-language broadcast of the Games in those two years. It was a huge challenge for our channel and we took it on with pride.
“As for other good times, there are so many. You don’t forget your first game, the countless Stanley Cup finals, the Halak spring, the famous comeback of the Canadian against the Rangers.
Roy’s last match… on English radio
Houde also described two Habs matches in English. The first was on the radio station CJAD on December 2, 1995…
“It was Patrick Roy’s last match with the Canadian,” recalls Houde.
“We worked without television monitors in front of us. At one point, Jim Corsi, who was doing the analysis, said to me: «Pierre, something is going on behind the Canadiens bench!»
Roy had just told Ronald Corey that he had played his last match with the Canadian. It didn’t end there.
“You heard me right,” Roy had added to the face of Mario Tremblay, who was looking at him with a defiant look.
Three weeks later, Houde was called in to describe a Canadian game in Washington on TSN television. The network lacked descriptors due to the presentation of World Junior Championship matches on its airwaves.
A modern-day René Lecavalier
I don’t know Pierre Houde intimately. But I think I know him well enough to guess that he will blush when he reads that he is the equivalent of a modern-day René Lecavalier.
Like the former great - announcer who entered our living rooms on cold winter Saturday evenings, Houde has a rich vocabulary and is very rigorous.
He does everything well.
Whether describing hockey matches, Formula 1 races, Olympic events or hosting post-match shows and documentaries. The man embodies professionalism.
Houde will experience a lot of emotions on Monday. He will surely have a thought for his late brother Paul, who personified René Lecavalier and many other radio and television presenters at the family residence, in his youth.
How many more years?
One word sums up Pierre Houde’s thoughts when he takes stock of his 36-year career and some 3,500 games when describing NHL hockey and those of the Canadian for more than 20 years. This word is: recognition.
“I thank little Jesus for giving me the love of life and the faculty of wonder. I am grateful to be made the way I am. I am grateful to have been educated by parents who were of exemplary complementarity. My father was the artist, my mother, the rigorous one.
“I am grateful to God for giving me a daughter like Michelle. I am grateful to everyone who has been along my journey and who has unknowingly dictated how much I enjoy doing my job.”
Houde recites all this without restraint and with sincerity. A way of saying that you can’t achieve anything in life alone. We all have people who have helped us on our journey.
Pierre Houde and Marc Denis
Photo provided by Sylvain Simard
How much longer does he see himself in his profession?
“We’re not in the most predictable industry,” he begins by saying.
“There are two years left on the hockey broadcast contract and one year on the Formula 1 contract. I would like to do another cycle after that. Let’s put a round number: I would like to get to 40.
“But I would like to continue as long as I have the taste and the health to do so.”
