The most surefire way to generate debate among those who love sport is to ask any question that begins with “Who is the best…?”

The best quarterback ever? Some will say Montana, others will argue Unitas. The best hockey player ever? Those who like offence will say Gretzky, those who like all-round might say Orr. The best hockey team ever? The Oilers of the 1980’s were very good, but so were the Canadiens of the late 1950’s.

But consider the following. Who is the single, most influential sportscaster in the history of Nova Scotia? Realistically, there can only be one answer. Patrick Joseph Connolly of Sydney has had a career like no other. A career that has stood the tests of time, fairness, and productivity.

“Sport in my life was always the biggest thing,” says Connolly. “It superseded everything else, including school. It always seemed to be the top priority in my life and my mother kept telling me if I didn’t get away from all those pucks, I wouldn’t amount to anything. She was quite right,” he says with a grin. “If I’d only listened to her.”

Connolly says he inherited his love of sport from his father, Patrick and his uncle, Gene. He played baseball and hockey growing up, but, after careful self-assessment, realized that he “wasn’t very damn good. I learned very early that I’d have to get my fix in other ways.”

His broadcasting career started with a bang in 1949. As a rosy-cheeked 21-year old, with just three weeks experience at Sydney radio station CJCB, Connolly found himself in Maple Leaf Gardens, doing play-by-play of the Allan Cup final between the Sydney Millionaires and Toronto Marlboros. “I grew up listening to Hockey Night in Canada, and then there I was, sitting in Foster Hewitt’s seat in the gondola. How the hell do you top that?”

In 1952 Connolly left CJCB to “explore this great country”. While in Flin Flon, Manitoba, he received a call from Danny Gallivan, who had just been named play-by-play man for the Montreal Canadiens. He wondered if Connolly might replace him at CJCH in Halifax. He came back to become sports director. From there, the rest is Nova Scotia broadcasting history. Connolly soon moved to CBC Halifax, and when TV debuted three years later, became the first television sportscaster in Atlantic Canada.

A few years later Connolly moved to Dartmouth for 15 years at CFDR as the voice of the NS Voyageurs during their glory years. “There were years when the Voyageurs would have beaten at least half of the teams in the NHL. Ken Dryden, Bob Gainey, Larry Robinson… we had some great players come through these parts.”

Today, Connolly remains in the sport spotlight as public address announcer with the Halifax Mooseheads and twice-weekly columnist with the Daily News. Retirement is a word he refuses to acknowledge. “I love what I do, and I’ve never lost my enthusiasm for sports or broadcasting. If I could go back, I wouldn’t do it differently. There are certainly no regrets. How many people get the opportunity to make a living at what they like to do best? It’s the people I’ve met over the years that have made it all so enjoyable. You meet so many it reaches a point where you can go all over the world, pick up the phone and call somebody you know. It’s been a wonderful life.”

A personal story further illustrates the character of this 1999 Hall of Famer:

In the early 1970’s, I was a young sports-crazed boy growing up on Chappell Street in Dartmouth. It’s tough to describe the thrill I felt knowing that The Pat Connolly lived just five doors down. Being precocious, every noon hour I would strategically time my walk to school to coincide with Pat Connolly’s return from his morning stint at CFDR Radio. Then the full frontal assault would begin. I would bombard Mr. Connolly with every sports question imaginable… “How did the Vees look on defence last night? … “Does Al MacNeil swear a lot?” etc., etc. Never once, no matter what his level of fatigue or the triviality of my queries, did he brush me aside or fail to answer a question with his typical enthusiasm and flourish.

In a nutshell, that’s Pat Connolly. Never there to see through you, always there to see you through.

Bio Courtesy of Bruce Rainnie