‘Was always on the end of the bench doing play-by-play’

Is there a better job than getting to talk sports all day?

“I’ve been blessed, privileged, however you want to describe it to have been able to do something I love,” Kelly Moore remarked.

Moore — the sports radio legend on 680 CJOB — has been the longtime sports fans’ eyes and ears in this province, either through play-by-play or talk radio.

And, from a very young age, Moore knew where he wanted to be in life: a play-by-play commentator for the Vancouver Canucks. His path was never to be a player on the ice himself but rather up in the booth watching the game unfold.

“I was a terrible athlete. When I did play a little bit of hockey, I was always on the end of the bench doing play-by-play commentary of the game that was going on,” Moore said.

How did he perfect this craft, one may ask? He did so with his siblings playing road hockey on the streets of Mission, B.C.

“The cul-de-sac where we lived with my brother and sister, we played a lot of road hockey. I was Gary Smith of the Vancouver Canucks, they were Tracy Pratt and Mike Robitaille,” Moore explained.

From there, a lifelong passion began.

There were no daily newspapers, no radio and no TVs growing up in Mission for Moore. Every three days, a Greyhound bus would roll in with a newspaper.

“If I could get my hands on the Vancouver Sun and read the sports section, that’s all I ever did,” he said.

When Moore graduated high school his goal was simple: to attend the broadcasting program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). The snag: “There was somewhere around 50 openings and there were 650 applications.”

Unfortunately, he was not one of the lucky 50. BCIT offered him a spot in the tourism and hospitality program to specialize in hotel/motel management instead but Moore knew that was not his calling, telling them, “No, that’s all right. I’ll just try to accomplish my dream another way.”

Which is exactly what he did, turning himself around quickly by doing what most are only able to do post-university — skipping the degree and going straight into his desired field.

“I started when I was 18 at a station down in Abbotsford (B.C.) doing the six to midnight shift, but I got a chance to read sportscast at 10 o’clock,” Moore said. “When Abbotsford offered the shift — it was nonpaying — but to me it was like going to school for free.”

Moore stayed in that position until 1976 when his calling led him to Kamloops, B.C., as a sports reporter. Eight years later, he became the play-by-play commentator for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.

His best memories of his run with the Blazers came in 1992, the year the team won the Memorial Cup.

“The team had been very successful and had gone to a couple of Memorial Cups that had just flamed out. In ’92, they go to Seattle and finally win the thing,” Moore said. “The winning goal was scored on a breakaway with about 14.6 seconds left in the game.”

“We got back to Kamloops and at the rally a lady comes up to me and says, ‘I want you to know that during the final I was painting our summer cabin, and when Zac Boyer scored that goal — I just lifted my arms up and flung paint everywhere. (I) had to start all over again,’” he chuckled.

Fast forward a few years, Moore was with his dream team — the Vancouver Canucks — where he met his mentor and friend, Jim Robson.

“Our station did the play-by-play of the Canucks intrasquad game and Jim did colour for me. Imagine you get to do play-by-play broadcast with your all-time hero,” Moore emphasized, with a note of awe in his voice.

Moore continued to learn the industry through Robson, taking his advice while studying how Robson worked a game.

“What I loved about Jim was that he did not involve himself any more than he had to in the game. He was there to simply tell the story. He had respect for the game and the players in it,” Moore said.

Robson taught Moore life lessons about their career path and how important it is to have certain standards for calling a game. For example, to always remember “that these are athletes who’ve made it to the very apex of their sport.” If the player had a tough game, it was easy to criticize as an outsider, but that player had earned their respect and needed to be treated as such.

Robson also ingrained in Moore the importance of preparation.

“You could prepare for a game and use 10 per cent of your notes. If it was an 82 game schedule, that would probably happen on 75-80 of the games, but it was the two games where something (unexpected) happened — you needed all of that background information,” Moore said.

Moore gave an example of how this strategy helped him in a game in Portland where the Zamboni broke down, pausing the play for 45 minutes. He went up and down his lineup card, brought in interviewees and spent the hour entertaining the listeners.

“That was the part I loved the most about play-by-play, was the ability to be able to tell a story that some of your listeners had not heard yet,” he said.

Moore learned quickly that play-by-play was a brisk walk rather than a sprint.

“Didn’t take me long to slow down the horse race and make it more of a trot than a gallop,” he said, realizing it became easier for his listeners to understand what was happening when he slowed it down, spotlighting the desired moments.

“The best advice I ever received is (to) paint a picture — (for) people who are blind or are not watching — so that they can actually see the game,” Moore explained.

He went on to add that his style was not always everyone’s cup of tea, especially since he would focus on the positive.

“I have often been accused of being too optimistic and painting a rosier picture than needs to be,” Moore said. “But that is just always my belief — sports needs to be fun and enjoyable.”

Moore emphasized that no matter what side a fan is cheering for, it should be exciting when either side scores, because that’s the beauty of sports.

“Sports should be fun,” he added. “It should be a diversion from life’s real problems.”

Once Moore left beautiful B.C. behind and travelled across the provinces to friendly Manitoba, it was clear the next step in his career belonged with the Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose. He made a temporary move back to Kamloops in 2006 to launch a new radio station, but once the Jets were set to return in 2011, Moore made Winnipeg his permanent home.

“It’s a sport I love in a province I’ve grown to love,” he said.

In 2024, Moore was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, a nomination that started within his own household by his daughter.

“She said, ‘Dad, the best part of this project was every time I called someone and asked for their support, it was an enthusiastic, ‘Yes,’” he recalled.

When he got the call, he first thought they were asking him to volunteer for the dinner — something he had been doing for many years before — but was pleasantly surprised to hear the opposite.

“Initially I thought, ‘Why do I deserve this?’ Then I finally said, ‘Why not me?’” Moore explained. “Just the verification and belief that people have in you — that you deserve to be there.”

And, come September, Moore will be officially inducted into the Manitoba Sportswriters and  Sportscasters Association Media Roll of Honour.

The legend continues.

sports@freepress.mb.ca