Jack Todd was born in Nebraska and grew up in Nebraska and Wyoming. He is the son of a former boxer, rodeo cowboy and horse trainer and after spending his younger years working with horses, he began competing in basketball and track and set a state high-school record in Nebraska in the high jump.
Todd turned down a basketball scholarship to the Air Force Academy to accept a track scholarship at the University of Nebraska, where he was a three-year letterman as a high jumper and triple jumper. Todd has a B.A. from Nebraska in English literature and did course work on a master’s degree in English at Concordia but his first work experience was as a journalist for the Akron Beacon-Journal, the Detroit Free Press and the Miami Herald.
Todd was working as a reporter at the Herald when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in late 1969. When he discovered that he could no longer reconcile his strong opposition to the Vietnam War with army service, he left the U.S. in early 1970 and fled to Vancouver, an experienced chronicled in his first book, The Taste of Metal.
After working for the Vancouver Sun and the CBC, Todd was a magazine editor in New York from 1981 to 1986. In 1986 he returned to Montreal to work as a copy editor in the sports department of the Montreal Gazette. After a year as a feature writer and a stint covering the Calgary Olympics, he became city columnist for the Gazette and 1989 and succeeded Michael Farber as the paper’s lead sports columnist in 1994.
After covering the soccer World Cup in 1994 and 1998, the Summer Olympics in 1996, 2000 and 2004 and the Winter Olympics in 1998, 2002 and 2006, Todd retired in January of 2008 to become a full-time novelist, although he still writes two columns a week for the Gazette during hockey season. His first novel, Sun Going Down, was published by Simon & Schuster in the U.S. and Penguin Books in Canada. Sun Going Down is a sweeping chronicle of the American west based on Todd’s own family. It is the first of an American trilogy: the second novel, Come Again No More, will be published in the fall of 2010 and the third, Paradise Rodeo, is tentatively scheduled for late 2011 or early 2012. Todd is also at work on a novel called Thy Father’s Name, based on the October crisis in Quebec in 1970.
Dave Van Horne, Florida Marlins
Dave has just completed his 41st year broadcasting Major League Baseball, 32 of those years as the English radio and television voice of the Montreal Expos, partnering with Russ Taylor and later Dodger hall-of-famer Duke Snider. Dave has also worked in the broadcast booth with Ken Singleton, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson and Gary Carter. Dave has been the lead radio voice for the Florida Marlins for the past nine years. Dave began his career in Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia, broadcasting football and basketball games at the high school and collegiate levels. His first baseball broadcasts were of the Richmond Braves in the International League. Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, Dave lived with his family in Kirkland from 1969 until 1983. He married West Islander Josee Coursol in 1996 and they have a 9-year-old daughter, Madison Michelle. Josee attended Concordia University and completed her degree at Florida Atlantic University, graduating in 1995 with honours in elementary education.
Host of the morning show on radio TEAM 990, Elliott spent 15 years on the Montreal Expos broadcasts, including 13 years in a play-by-play role. The native Montrealer has been on radio in his hometown since 1982, following three years in New Brunswick and three days in Saskatchewan. He started his radio career at John Abbott College before moving to Newcastle, N.B. for his first job in 1979. His play-by-play experience includes hockey, world championship boxing, Alouettes football, basketball and the world swimming championships. Elliott is married to Julie and has two daughters, Rachel, 16, and Sophie Rose, 7, and a son Myles, who just turned 4 in April. Elliott is a avid golfer.
Rob has done it all for Sportsnet. Program anchor, play-by-play, sports reporter. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Rob studied at the University of Western Ontario and got his first job at CFPL radio in London, followed by stops in Sudbury, Winnipeg, and Montreal, before joining CTV Sports in 1995. He has broadcast NHL hockey, junior hockey, major-league baseball, the NBA, the CFL and figure skating, among other sports. He covered the Olympic Games in 1992 and 1994. His career highlights include his first NHL play-by-play broadcast in 1985 and calling Mark Tewkesbury's gold-medal race in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Patrick Grier has been the managing editor of Sportsnet.ca since October 2007. Prior to that he was the sports editor of the Toronto Sun for five years, co-ordinating coverage not only for the Toronto market but also nationally for such major events as the Olympic Games and the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was also the on-site co-ordinator for Sun Media at both the Athens and Turin Olympics. He is a past chairman of the Canadian Region of Associated Press Sports Editors and serves on the organizing committee of the Conn Smythe Celebrities' Dinner for Easter Seals. He lives in Mississauga, Ontario with his wife and two daughters.
Evanka Osmak, Rogers Sportsnet
Born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Evanka Osmak initially studied and worked in civil engineering before joining Rogers Sportsnet as a sportscaster. "I'm living the classic story of what happens when you follow your dream. Five years ago, if someone had told me that I would be working at Sportsnet, I probably would have laughed at them. Unless of course they told me I needed to help plan and build a new station for them. But here I am, working my absolute dream job. I couldn't have planned it more perfectly.” Looking for a career change, Evanka studied radio and television broadcasting and started her career as a news announcer at JACK-FM in Orillia, Ontario. She spent two years at an NBC station in Yuma, Arizona before joining Sportsnet. “Sports have always been a big part of my life,” she says, “on and off the field. Growing up I tried my hand in everything from soccer, synchronized swimming to field hockey and ultimate frisbee. As much as I love playing sports, though, I think it's my talent of watching games that is really my calling. Over the years I've attended some great events, from both Jays' World Series wins, several NBA All-Star games to the Atlanta Olympics.”
Serge Touchette, ruefrontenac.com
Serge has one of the most impressive bios of any Montreal journalist, covering the Expos daily from 1976 up until the team’s departure in 2004. Along the way, he’s also covered The Masters twice, the Olympic Games in Turin and Beijing, three Super Bowls, twenty some-odd World Series and several Stanley Cup Finals. Serge has always been a big fan of baseball, going back to the first time he saw Willie Mays playing on TV in the 1960s. That day, says Serge, “I was convinced that God wore a Giants cap!” Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente were all Serge’s childhood heroes, up there with Jean Béliveau and Bobby Hull. While Serge loves virtually every sport, he’s got a special spot in his heart for baseball.
Michael Barrett, Montreal Expos
When it comes to former Expos, it’s hard to forget about Michael Barrett. Michael was a first-round draft pick of the team in 1995. After being called up by the big-league club in September of 1998, he would play five full seasons in an Expos uniform from 1999 to 2003. He is one of the few to have played in Montreal under three different ownership groups - witnessing first-hand the Brochu, Loria, and MLB ownership eras. Thanks to his willingness to talk and friendly disposition, Michael quickly became a fan and media favourite. He played a vital role on the great Expos teams of 2002-03. His 11 RBI over two consecutive games (April 8-10, 2002 vs. Florida) is an Expos franchise record. Traded by the Expos in December of 2003, Michael has also played for the Chicago Cubs, the San Diego Padres, and most recently with Canada’s other baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays. He won the National League Silver Slugger Award for catchers in 2005 with the Cubs. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Michael now lives in the nearby city of Alpharetta with his wife Stephanie and children Grace and Andrew.
Page Title: Speakers - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Page URL:http://journalism.concordia.ca/conferences/sjw09/speakers/index.php ...index.php
Date Printed: Thu March 18, 2010
