CJOB’s Bob Irving won’t provide Bombers play-by-play for the first time in a decade

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This article was published 18/07/2017 (2996 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHEN the Winnipeg Blue Bombers take the field Friday in Vancouver to face the B.C. Lions, they’ll do so without a familiar voice alongside them.

For the first time in close to a decade, CJOB broadcaster Bob “Knuckles” Irving, the legendary voice of the Bombers, won’t be providing play-by-play coverage for the Blue and Gold.

Irving, 67, is scheduled to undergo a heart-related procedure today in Winnipeg and won’t be recovered in time to have the call.

The last time Irving missed a game was during the 2008 season, also for a heart-related procedure. He missed another stretch of time in 2000 to recover from open-heart surgery.

Irving said he doesn’t expect to be out for too long and could return as early as next Thursday when the Bombers host the Montreal Alouettes at Investors Group Field.

“I expect and hope to be up and running within a matter of days. That’s my hope and if everything goes well I’ve been led to believe that can happen,” said Irving.

“I can’t wait to get back doing the games.”

Kelly Moore, the former voice of the Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose and current sports director at CJOB, will stand in for Irving. Regular colour commentator and CFL Hall of Famer, Doug Brown, will join Moore in the broadcast booth.

“The Bomber broadcast is identified through Bob Irving, so as hard as Kelly Moore and myself may try it won’t be the same,” said Brown.

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“He’s as smooth as you can be in that business and I wish him the best in his recovery and look forward to getting him back in the booth.”

Irving has been synonymous with Bombers coverage over the past four decades, ever since he first started calling Bombers games in 1974.

When IGF was built in 2013, the team named the media wing in his honour. Last year, Irving was inducted into the team’s hall of fame.

A native of Regina, Sask., Irving was inducted into the Football Reporters of Canada section of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Museum in 1997.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.