Former CFAC radio sportscaster (and salesman?) Joe Carbury has died. His hearty "And they're off . . ." and "Nice even start" will not be forgotten by those who heard him call thoroughbred and chuckwagon races at Stampede Park in Calgary. Joe also called play by play for the Calgary Centennials of the WCHL along with curling -
The iconic voice of the Calgary Stampede has been stilled.
Joe Carbury, who for 45 years called chuckwagon races in his inimitable style and made the gravelly “And they’rrrre off …” his signature line, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 91.
“He’s a Stampede legend,” said Billy Melville, chuckwagon historian and colour commentator on CBC-TV and radio. “His voice defined chuckwagon racing and the Calgary Stampede.
“He was a great guy, a good friend. I’m glad I was able, a couple of years ago, to get an oral history on him so we’ve been able to get that in the Stampede archives. Calgary lost a legend. His voice was so unique.”
Those who knew him described him as a class act all the way.
“Totally outgoing, good-hearted guy,” said John Down, who for many years covered chuckwagon racing for Calgary newspapers. “I don’t know if you could find anybody that would have anything bad to say about him. He was just a real good person.
“Everyone knew him for his voice. I remember we were in a grocery store one day and all of a sudden I heard this voice and it had to be three or four rows over and I said to my wife ‘Joe Carbury’s in the store’.
“There will never be another voice like Joe’s. Million dollar pipes. And he was happiest when he was in the Eye in the Sky.”
Carbury was from Winnipeg originally. He was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
“He was a real gem of a man,” said Melville. “He took the time to get to know the drivers and the outriders as people. He was a chuckwagon guy; he just had a different role.”
One of those drivers was Kelly Sutherland, on whom Carbury bestowed the nickname ‘The King’.
“He started announcing the same year I started driving ironically,” recalled Sutherland. “We became very close. He got to know the competitors and their families. He used to come visit prior to the Stampede and would call to get an update on who was running tough. He kept a real pulse on the sport all the time.
“He really grew to become attached to chuckwagon racing. He was one of the first guys who started to throw monikers to drivers, to put some excitement in the sport. The first time I ever heard it I was coming down the home stretch and when I got closer to the finish line, I heard Joe say ‘here comes the King and all the king’s men’. Pretty soon everyone called me that. But he was the one that hung it on me.”
His career in sports began in Medicine Hat in the late 1940s.
“It’s actually quite the story,” Melville related. “He started as salesman for Monsanto and they gave him a car and that was a big deal at the time. Monsanto was running some radio spots at a local station and he started talking sports with the station manager. The station manager out of the blue said to him ‘you have a pretty good idea about sports and we’re looking for a sports reporter’. He laid a few vocal tracks down and made an offer to hire him and it was a real tough decision for him because if he left Monsanto, he had to give the car back!”
That fateful decision changed Carbury’s life. He met his wife Rose, who was a nurse in Medicine Hat, later moved to Calgary and eventually began the long run into Calgary Stampede history.
He began his on-air career as play-by-play announcer for the Medicine Hat Tigers. He would also call CFL games, both in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as boxing matches. When he switched over to the horses, he started at the track as thoroughbreds announcer.
He called the chucks for 45 years, retiring in July of 2008.
“I knew of Joe Carbury for years and years,” said Les McIntyre, the man who would step into Carbury’s place. “When I first started announcing in 1985, I got into it unexpectedly and I went to Calgary to listen to Joe call horse races. Then I got to know him a few years later when I was doing more rodeo stuff. He was a very humble man. I had lots of people say ‘oh, you’ll replace Joe Carbury’. Well, you’ll never replace the voice. The position, yes, but the voice and the man you couldn’t replace.
“There’s only so many ways you can describe a chuck wagon race and he pretty much set the bar and set the ball rolling in that area,” McIntyre added. “Anybody who does it now … we all have Joe in the back of our minds when we’re doing it.”
http://calgaryherald.com/sports/rodeo-c ... acing-dies