Now I’m Catching On: My Life on and off the Air

Hardcore hockey fans diving into Cole’s memoir will need patience. The longtime voice of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, now in his 80s, spins wonderful yarns, but his charmed life—“that turned out to be a pretty lucky road”—has been about far more than sticks and pucks. Besides his radio and television gigs, including hosting a long-running quiz show, and his family life, there’s much ink spent on Cole’s love of flying, his curling career, the fishery he ran, and his love of all things Newfoundland and Labrador. The target audience will want the hockey stories, and there the payoff is truly grand. There are fascinating tales from the 1972 Summit Series, where Cole almost didn’t do the radio play-by-play; details of the Soviet Red Army leaving the ice in Philadelphia in 1976; getting to know player/coach Toe Blake; and babysitting Wayne Gretzky’s daughter Paulina. Cole also shares the advice he got from broadcasting legends Foster Hewitt and Danny Gallivan. Cole’s career as a broadcaster continues, and it’s a pretty safe bet that he could have shared more hockey stories. Readers will hope he does so in a future volume. (Oct.)